Vivendi eyes US Studio+ launch this year

Vivendi aims to take its mobile content platform Studio+ to the US this year and is in talks with three telecom operators about launching it, according to Vivendi Content chairman Dominique Delport.

“We would love to be in the key markets in the US this year, and we are in discussions with three of the four main operators,” Delport said in an exclusive interview with TBI sister title Digital TV Europe.

Delport, who has championed Studio+ as a concept since its inception, said that further launches are in the pipeline, including in the UK, where the company is in talks with telecom operators.

However, Vivendi’s main ambition this year is to get the service launched in the US, he said.

In a wide-ranging interview, Delport also said that he remained convinced that Vivendi has a major role to play in building a digital home for European content – a project that was derailed by the company’s high-profile falling out with Italian media group Mediaset.

Delport said that the project for a European alternative to Netflix still makes “a lot of sense” not only for the existing parties, but for other European players. He says that a specifically European platform would complement Netflix’s proposition.

“Local contenders have a very different footprint and different assets,” he said. “We have phenomenal stories and fantastic talent and creativity, and great engineers and big advertisers and the largest, wealthiest market in the world.”

Vivendi, which owns Canal+ and has a stake in Banijay Group, launched Studio+ after buying French prodco La Parisienne d’Images, which makes entertainment and drama programming and rebranding it. The mobile service was announced at MIPTV last year.

Read Dominique Delport’s full interview with Digital TV Europe here