{"id":809586,"date":"2026-10-21T20:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T20:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/809586\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T20:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T20:14:11","slug":"canals-anna-marsh-on-french-media-giants-growing-global-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/809586\/","title":{"rendered":"Canal+’s Anna Marsh on French Media Giant’s Growing Global Reach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfter a busy year that\u2019s seen the Canal+ Group<\/a> complete a wave of acquisitions across two continents, Anna Marsh<\/a>, the CEO of Studiocanal and the deputy CEO and chief content officer for Canal+, insisted such moves have been instrumental in strengthening the position of the French media giant at a time of unprecedented industry disruption.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s really important to have a fresh perspective. People that are going to challenge the status quo. Because the business is moving so fast,\u201d said the New Zealand-born exec, who appeared in conversation at Rome\u2019s MIA Market on Wednesday with MIA head Gaia Tridente.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe audience is so tough that we constantly need to be looking at ourselves in the mirror. AI is emerging right now. We\u2019ve got enormous consolidation in the U.S. Looking at the different ways that the borders between pay TV and free TV are colliding,\u201d Marsh continued. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere are so many questions to ask. Nobody has all the answers. When we\u2019re able to expand, when we\u2019re able to acquire new companies and enter into new territories, it\u2019s truly enriching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMarsh was speaking in Rome on the heels of GREENLit, MIA\u2019s flagship drama showcase, which offered an exclusive first look at four upcoming international series, among them \u201cGucci: Game Over,\u201d a six-episode miniseries based on Allegra Gucci\u2019s memoir that\u2019s co-produced by Sky Studios and Lucky Red and distributed internationally by Studiocanal.<\/p>\n

\n\tMarsh praised the series as a testament to \u201cthe culture, the courage, the history that Europe\u2019s been blessed with,\u201d while insisting to the assembled industry professionals in the room, \u201cI think Europe has a great future when it comes to storytelling. And the depth of the stories that we can tell here is absolutely endless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Canal+ Group acquired a majority stake in Lucky Red, the Rome-based distribution and production company, in February. It was the latest in a series of moves made by the French media conglomerate to expand its growing footprint. Earlier this year, the group acquired a 34-percent stake in UGC, the Paris-headquartered film studio that operates one of France\u2019s leading cinema chains, and also completed a $2 billion takeover of South African pay-TV company MultiChoice.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat move helped to boost the Canal+ subscriber base to north of 40 million, more than half of whom are English-speaking, thanks to MultiChoice\u2019s reach across the African continent. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat just opens a wealth of opportunity,\u201d said Marsh, who touted recent Canal+ and Studiocanal projects like \u201cThe Road Home,\u201d an apartheid-era drama starring Cynthia Erivo, Thabo Rametsi and Guy Pearce which recently wrapped shooting in South Africa, and \u201cShadow Has Fallen,\u201d a Canal+ original action series, whose third season wrapped in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s a really strategic part of the group\u2019s focus right now,\u201d she said, of the company\u2019s Africa expansion. \u201cAnd you can really see how Studiocanal is at the heart of that strategy. If we, as Canal+, enter a new market with so much potential as South Africa, we have to have a strong content strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother pillar in that strategy is Studiocanal Stories, a specialty label launched in 2024 that\u2019s dedicated to book adaptations. Pointing to the blockbuster \u201cPaddington<\/a>\u201d franchise as the company\u2019s \u201cbiggest, most successful IP\u201d to date \u2014 and one that \u201cstarted as a book,\u201d as she noted \u2014 Marsh stressed how optioning existing IP \u201callows us to relax a little bit\u201d because it comes with a built-in audience. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt does give confidence,\u201d she said, \u201cand it does allow us to put more money and more data behind the decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, when it comes to decision-making, some of the old metrics still apply \u2014 chief among them talent. That was certainly the case with \u201cWhat Happens at Night,\u201d an upcoming psychological horror adapted from Peter Cameron\u2019s 2020 novel that\u2019s produced by Apple Studios in partnership with Studiocanal. <\/p>\n

\n\tDirected by Martin Scorsese \u2014 \u201cone of the greatest cineastes of all time,\u201d according to Marsh \u2014 and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, Marsh said the film is as close as one can get in these uncertain times to what she described as \u201ca bit of a slam dunk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, nothing is guaranteed, with Marsh admitting, \u201cIt is harder and harder to hit the bull\u2019s eye.\u201d \u201cAudiences are becoming more and more difficult and their standards are constantly raising,\u201d she said. Especially with Gen Z audiences, \u201cthere\u2019s just no room for error.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 12th edition of Rome\u2019s MIA Market runs Oct. 19 \u2013 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a busy year that\u2019s seen the Canal+ Group complete a wave of acquisitions across two continents, Anna…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[119627,70416,96,67435,265637,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-809586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-anna-marsh","tag-canal-group","tag-entertainment","tag-paddington","tag-rome-mia-market","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}