March 11 - French media group Canal+ on Wednesday said it had struck a multi-year partnership with Alphabet's Google Cloud to deploy generative artificial intelligence across its production operations
Canal+ taps Google and OpenAI for AI-driven video production, content recommendation
Canal+ Partners with Tech Giants to Enhance Streaming Experience
By Leo Marchandon
March 11 - French media group Canal+ on Wednesday unveiled multi-year agreements with Alphabet's Google Cloud and OpenAI to integrate generative artificial intelligence into its production workflows and streaming service.
Strategic Goals and Competitive Positioning
The company is seeking to rival Netflix's recommendation algorithms and pursue a goal of reaching 100 million subscribers by 2030.
Complementary Partnerships
The partnerships are "very complementary", CEO Maxime Sadda told Reuters, with Google focused on data extraction and OpenAI powering search recommendation to improve subscriber experience.
Personalized Content Recommendations
The combined technologies will index Canal+'s entire content library to improve personalized recommendations on Canal+.
Innovative Production Tools and AI Integration
Canal+ will also provide Google's video generative AI Veo 3 to production teams, allowing creators to pre-visualize scenes before shooting or recreate historical moments from archival photographs.
Enhanced Search and Recommendation Systems
Canal+ will roll out an updated system that goes beyond traditional keyword searches starting June 2026. Subscribers make natural-language requests and receive tailored propositions suggested by the AI.
Data-Driven Scene Analysis
"We're going to work on data," Saada said, describing how the models provided by Google help identify all elements and describe scenes in a movie or a show, which can then be used with OpenAI to enhance both search and recommendation engines.
Deployment, Security, and Market Reach
The deployment will cover European and African markets where the Canal+ App is available, beginning in June 2026. Canal+ said intellectual property protections are built into the partnerships, with its rights and asset ownership "deeply protected" within Google Cloud's secure environment.
(Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk; Editing by Matt Scuffham)
