• CANAL+ USES SGT (HEXAGLOBE GROUP) TO STRENGTHEN ITS OTT OFFERS WITH NEW DIGITAL SPORT CHANNELS

  • Press release

    Paris

CANAL+'s OTT service, myCanal, wanted to expand its offer by adding
four new sports channels. Historic longtime customer of SGT (Hexaglobe Group), CANAL+
is already equipped with a SGT VEDA 16.4 automation system to broadcast of all its linear
channels (fourteen channels). To meet the need expressed by the customer for sharing and
optimizing resources, SGT has deployed four channel-in-a-box systems connected to the
VEDA solution already in place. As part of Hexaglobe Group's core strategy, this project,
which began in mid-October, was completed in record time, as two live channels were
already in production by the end of 2019

The CANAL+ Group, a leading player in the publishing of premium TV channels on the French media
landscape, and particularly active in the ultra-competitive sports broadcasting sector, wishes to enrich
the offer of its streaming platform myCanal. For the 2019 holiday season, CANAL+ wanted to offer to its
audience an extended access to two championships: The English Premier League and the French Rugby
TOP 14, thus demonstrating its ability to offer a global approach to content distribution, both linear and
digital.
Provider of automation solutions for CANAL+ for more than fifteen years, SGT already supplies the fourteen linear playout channels of the Canal+ group with its VEDA suite (Automation and Media Asset Management).
For its OTT myCanal platform, the choice was made to deploy four channel-in-a-boxes, connected to the VEDA system in production.
The implementation of these new channels had to answer to an operational and technical optimization
imperative. To meet this challenge, the system includes an algorithm allowing to manage automatically these new playout channels from any existing ones.
This project was an opportunity for the SGT teams to demonstrate their agility, flexibility and know-how.
Initiated in mid-October, the first two playout channels were deployed in a very short time and have been
in production since the end of December (i.e. in just over two months):

  • Canal+ Premier League, on air on 26 December for the traditional Boxing Day match between Leicester and Liverpool..
  • Canal+ TOP14, on air two days later for French Rugby Boxing Day.

The next two channels will be deployed in March 2020.

The success of this project reinforces Hexaglobe Group's vision and strategy: Bringing Broadcast and OTT
together. It’s by listening the market request that the two entities of the group, Hexaglobe and SGT, together develop innovative solutions adapted to new uses, perfectly suited to the needs of CANAL+.

Technical specifications
All-in-one SGT solution:

  • Video Servers
  • Graphics server
  • Audio Limiter
  • Subtitling (option)
  • 1+1 redundant broadcast automation

  • About Canal+

    The CANAL+ Group is a leader in the publishing of premium channels - the CANAL+ channels - and thematic channels as well as in the distribution of pay TV offers. It is also a reference player in free television with three national channels, C8, CSTAR and CNEWS, and its advertising department. Internationally, the CANAL+ Group is experiencing strong growth with a presence in Europe, Africa and Asia. In total, CANAL+ Group has more than 16.2 million subscribers worldwide, including 7.8 million in metropolitan France. With STUDIOCANAL, CANAL+ Group is also a European leader in the production, acquisition and distribution of cinema films and TV series. The CANAL+ Group is 100% owned by Vivendi, an international content production and creation group.

  • About SGT

    SGT (Hexaglobe Group) is the leading provider of software solutions for TV broadcasting and media content management, developing scalable and innovative products and platforms: VEDA for premium TV broadcast automation, and ELIA for ultra-functional agile broadcast channel-in-a-box. A long-standing player, SGT already equips more than three hundred channels and brings all its expertise to prestigious international clients, equipping the largest television channels, media groups, institutions, telecom operators and key accounts (Canal+, France Télévisions, Disney Channel, TV5 Monde, RTL Group, Numericable, etc.). www.sgt.eu

  • About Hexaglobe Group

    Hexaglobe Group is the result of the combination of Hexaglobe and SGT and is a leader in the field of electronic media and digital entertainment. This close collaboration is an opportunity to create strong synergies between the worlds of Broadcast and OTT, combining products and know-how to build a true transmedia strategy covering the entire value chain.