Orange entered into exclusive talks with fellow French company Vivendi to sell its OCS operation, the second-largest pay-TV business in the country by subscribers, Reuters reported.
The news outlet’s sources stated informal talks between the pair began a few months ago and have now progressed into something more concrete.
Vivendi is looking to merge Orange’s OCS play, which has around 3 million subscribers, with its Canal+ offering and mount a bigger challenge to US streaming giants including Netflix.
Canal Plus is reportedly France’s largest pay-TV platform with around 9.6 million subscribers. However, Netflix alone boasts around 13 million subscribers in the country.
For Orange, a sale would see it take a step back from a wider strategy launched five years ago to strengthen its presence in the field of content.
The company outlined plans in 2017 to create a new unit bringing together large portions of its content divisions, including Orange Studio, OCS and Orange Prestations TV.
At the time, it also committed to investing €100 million in TV series over five years.
Any sale would require approval from the French competition authority. A value for the the unit was not disclosed.
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