Canal Plus and Canal Satellite to be carried by Free

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Canal Plus and Free, “the leading French alternative ADLS operator” have signed a carriage deal. Free uses ADSL technology to provide access to some hundred channels as well as fast Internet and VoIP telephony, through it's single terminal “Freebox”. Free estimates that around 200,000 of its ADSL subscribers (which total almost 800,000) use the Freebox to watch television.

The operator has been hampered by a number of channels refusing to be carried by the service, even though it offered to carry them free of charge. The company has filed suit against terrestrial channels TF1 and M6, which have refused to be carried, claming that Free would be in competition to their own TPS-L service. Free claims its an ISP not a channel supplier.

The new deal will mean that all of the channels in the Canal Satellite platform and also Canal Plus premium channels will be available on the Free ADSL platform, from November 24.

Free subscribers (who have been dubbed ‘freenauts') will be able to subscribe to the channels via the Free web site, but the invoicing and payment will all be handled directly by Canal Plus/Satellite. Canal started its own ADSL service earlier this year. It is used to provide access to the channels and is seen as an alternative to installing a dish, but does not include Internet access. However, take-up has been very poor, believed to be just a few thousand.