C More Entertainment AB is a

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

company that previously operated as

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow unde ...

. It targets Nordic countries and has a separate channel in Sweden (C More Film). The main competitors of C More Entertainment are Viasat Film and Viasat Sport, which are part of

Nordic Entertainment Group Viaplay Group AB, formerly known as Nordic Entertainment Group AB (NENT Group), is a Swedish media and entertainment company headquartered in Stockholm. The company operates the namesake video streaming services Viaplay and Viafree, advertisi ...

(NENT) since 2018. Since 30 October 2012, the C More channels in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

are bundled with MTV Oy's premium channels. The combined package was initially named MTV3 Total (later MTV Total) but was changed back to C More in 2017.

Ownership history

South African company MultiChoice launched the Nordic version of FilmNet in 1985, and SuperSport followed in 1995. The channels were renamed Canal+ in 1997 after MultiChoice sold most of its European operations to French company Groupe Canal+. In 2003, two

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a typ ...

firms, Baker Capital and Nordic Capital, acquired 100% of Canal+ Television from the international

media conglomerate A media conglomerate, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet. According to t ...

Vivendi Universal. At the same time, the company changed its legal name to C More Entertainment, but it retained the right to use the “Canal+” trademark. On February 9, 2005,

SBS Broadcasting Group SBS Broadcasting Group (SBS), formerly Scandinavian Broadcasting Systems, was a European multinational media group, operating commercial television, premium pay channels, radio stations and related print businesses in Northern, Western and Cen ...

announced the acquisition of C More Entertainment. Belgian SBS channels

VT4 The VT-4 (), also known as the MBT-3000, is a Chinese third generation main battle tank built by Norinco for overseas export. Development During the development of Type 90-II/Al-Khalid (also known as MBT-2000) in the 1980s, the gearbox and e ...

and VIJFtv launched their VOD offering under the C-More brand in October 2006. On June 16, 2008, Swedish

TV4 Gruppen TV4 AB (formerly Nordisk Television AB; previously traded as ) is a Swedish media company owned by Telia Company through TV4 Media (formerly known as Bonnier Broadcasting). The company owns the largest commercial television channel in Sweden ...

announced it had acquired C More Entertainment from German ProSiebenSat.1 Media (which acquired SBS) for €320 million. In May 2010

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norway, Norwegian majority State-owned enterprise, state-owned multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the List of mobile network ...

bought 35% of shares in C More Entertainment from

for SEK787 million, but sold them back in 2014.

Programming

C More Entertainment operated over 20 SD channels in the Nordic region and eleven HD channels in September 2012.

1990s

C More Entertainment was originated from the Filmnet channel created in 1985. In the early 1990s, Filmnet became two channels: Filmnet Plus and The Complete Movie Channel: Filmnet. They were later rebranded as Filmnet 1 and Filmnet 2. Canal+ bought Filmnet in 1996 and the two channels were renamed on September 1, 1997. Filmnet 1 became "Canal+" with localized versions for the different Nordic countries and Filmnet 2 became the pan-Nordic " Canal+ Gul/Canal+ Kulta" ( "Canal+ Yellow/Canal+ Gold," following the colour naming pattern used by Canal+ in France and other countries). A third channel " Canal+ Blå/Canal+ Sininen" (Blue) was created on September 3, 1999.

2000s

" Canal+ Zap/ Rød/Punainen" (Red) was launched on September 22, 2001, allowing cable and satellite viewers to choose an alternative match to watch during fixtures of the

FA Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

and

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...

. The channels were redesigned on May 1, 2004. The three colour-coded mixed channels were replaced with four themed channels. The Canal+ line-up consisted of the main Canal+ channel, Canal+ Film 1 and Canal+ Film 2 showing new movies, the all-sports channel Canal+ Sport, and C More Film, a channel showing older films. C More Film was the first channel to use the C More name. The line-up was extended on September 1, 2005, when Canal+ Film 3, C More Film 2, and C More HD were launched. C More HD was the first HD channel for the Nordic region. Canal+ Film 1 was renamed "Canal+ Film". Canal+ Sport was split into country-specific channels. Canal+, which had been country-specific, became pan-Nordic. At the same time, IPTV operators in association with satellite operator

Canal Digital Canal Digital was a Nordic pay TV and internet service provider in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland that was founded in March 1997 as a joint venture between the French pay TV company Canal+ and the Norwegian telecommunications operator ...

launched an interactive VOD service called "Canal+ Play", accessed from the customer's set-top box, letting the viewers watch any seasons from any show ebroadcast on Canal+ and any movie that was showing on the channels. On satellite it has since been merged to the Canal Digital Go service, covering every channel on the platform and also available without a box online (much like its British equivalent

Sky Go Sky Go is a streaming television service from Sky Group provided free for Sky TV subscribers in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, it complements Sky TV by allowing subscribers to watch live and on demand Sky TV via an internet conn ...

). On November 1, 2006, the

C More Film C More Film is a defunct Scandinavian television channel that showed movies from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The sister channel, C More Film 2, started in 2005. References External linksCanal+ blir 8 kanaler {{Swedish television channe ...

and C More Film 2 channels were merged with Canal+ Film 2 and the main Canal+ channel was replaced by a bonus channel Canal+ Mix, showing series, entertainment, music, sports, children’s programmings, documentaries and movies. C More also introduced a new sports channel called Canal+ Sport 2. Three channels were renamed: Canal+ Film was renamed back to "Canal+ Film 1", Canal+ Sport became Canal+ Sport 1", and C More HD became "Canal+ HD". Customers previously could only subscribe to all channels, but customers were now able to only subscribe to the sports or movie channels. The "Canal+ Film" package consisted of Canal+ Film 1, 2 and 3 and "Canal+ Sport" consisted of Canal+ Sport 1 and 2. The full package was called "Canal+ Total" and contains Canal+ Mix and Canal+ HD as a bonus. On February 1, 2007, Canal+ HD was split to 2 channels in HD: Canal+ Film HD airs movies in HD and Canal+ Sport HD airs sports events in HD. In September 2007 a pay-per-view sports service called C Sports was launched in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. It was never launched in Finland or available in Finnish but could also be viewed there. The service initially showed single matches from Canal+ channels on a PPV basis, but soon after launch customers could also subscribe to a season ticket. This allowed them to view all matches from a chosen league during its season. In 2009 it was expanded to cover an archive of all shown matches and the ability to watch live streams of all Canal+ Sport's channels. The service is still available in all countries except for Finland, where the content of the service is now available through parent company

MTV3 MTV3 ( fi, MTV Kolme, sv, MTV Tre) is a Finnish commercial television station. It had the biggest audience share of all Finnish TV channels until Yle TV1 (from Yle) took the lead. The letters MTV stand for Mainos-TV (literally "Advertiseme ...

's VOD service Katsomo. The channel were again redesigned on November 1, 2007. The movies and series channels were all renamed and recategorised. Canal+ Film 1 became "Canal+ First", specialized in new movies, as well as series and Canal+ Film 2 was replaced by "Canal+ Hits", specialized in classic and old movies. Canal+ Film 3 and Canal+ Mix were renamed "Canal+ Action", specialized in action movies and series and "Canal+ Drama", specialized in TV shows and movies related to drama and romantic and were joined by Canal+ Comedy which broadcasts movies in different genres. Canal+ Sport 1 and 2 kept their names but were joined by Canal+ Sport Extra which time-shared overnights with Canal 69, specialized in pornographic movies. In July 2009, C More Entertainment launched Canal 9, a new sports channel, and another program for men. Canal 9 was free for Canal+ Sport and Canal+ Total customers on cable, satellite and IPTV and shared many sports rights with Canal+ channels, along with its independently purchased rights commissioned by TV4 Gruppen. The station was modeled on the Finnish MTV3 Max. There have been discussions to rename MTV3 Max as ''Canal 9 Suomi.'' In November 2011 Canal 9 also launched in Norway. On October 1, 2009, Canal+ launched the SF-kanalen, a channel which broadcasts Swedish movies and miniseries from the libraries of Svensk Filmindustri. After TV4's purchase of the company, Canal+ and Svensk Filmindustri became part of the same corporation. SF-kanalen replaced Canal 69, which ceased operations the day before.

2010s

On April 1, 2010, Canal+ Comedy was replaced by Canal+ Series. It was similar to Canal+ Hits, but it showed series from 8pm to midnight instead of movies, while from midnight to 8pm it showed movies. On May 14, 2010, C More Entertainment launched three sports channels named Canal+ Sport 3, Canal+ Football and Canal+ Hockey. Canal+ Sport 3 was only available in Norway. At the same time, many new sports rights were announced. Later that year Canal+ announced it would launch a second Finnish-language sports channel called Canal+ Aitio ( Canal+ Skybox) in December, since it retained the Finnish rights to

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

and

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

matches. The new channel allowed broadcasting a second simultaneous match from the Premier League, previously only possible on FTA channels. Canal+ also launched a new channel for Finnish viewers called "Canal+ Urheilu". HD versions of the channels have since appeared on all platforms. On June 1, 2011, Canal+ launched two movies and series channels named Canal+ Family and Canal+ Emotion. Canal+ Family consists of family-oriented movies and children’s programmings. At the same time, Canal+ Drama was renamed as Canal+ Emotion. In May 2012, C More Entertainment announced it would rebrand itself as C More. While most channels kept their previous names (apart from replacing the Canal+ suffix with C More), some sports channels were renamed. Canal+ Sport 1 was changed to C More Sport, Canal+ Sport 2 was changed to C More Tennis, Canal+ Sport Extra to C More Extreme, and Canal+ Extra channels were renamed to C More Live. The only channels unchanged during the rebrand are Canal 9 and the Danish Canal 8 Sport, which was launched in August 2012 as the successor of Canal+ Sport 1 Denmark. C More Entertainment also announced that it would add documentaries as a new type of programming to complement their film programming. On 30 October 2012, C More channels in Finland were merged with

Kanavapaketti to form MTV3 Total. C More Urheilu (Sport), C More Aitio and C More Premier HD were renamed MTV3 MAX Sport 1, MTV3 MAX Sport 2 and MTV3 MAX Premier HD, respectively. The package was renamed MTV Total in the corporate-wide rebrand at MTV Oy in 2013, and then changed back to C More in 2017. As a result of the 2017 rebrand, MTV Oy's MTV Junior and MTV Max were renamed C More Juniori and C More Max, respectively. In October 2012, C More launched Filmnet in Sweden, an online streaming service to compete with

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

and HBO Nordic. Filmnet was available in Norway and Finland in early 2013. In Denmark, C More worked with YouSee on a similar service called YouBio. The Filmnet-branded services were moved to the main C More website on 30 June 2015.

Television channels

Movies and Entertainment Group * C More First (formerly Canal+ Film 1, Canal+ Film and Canal+ First. Replaced Canal+ Gul.) * C More Hits (formerly Canal+ Film 2 and Canal+ Hits. Replaced Canal+ Blå.) * C More Juniori (Finland only. Formerly Subtv Juniori, Sub Juniori, MTV3 Juniori and MTV Juniori.) * C More Series (formerly Canal+ Series. Replaced Canal+ Comedy.) *C More Stars * SF-kanalen Discontinued: *C More Action (formerly Canal+ Film 3 and Canal+ Action) *

C More Emotion C More Emotion was a Scandinavian premium television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, u ...

(formerly Canal+ Emotion. Replaced

Canal+ Drama Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

.) *C More Film *C More Film 2 * C More Kids (formerly Canal+ Family) *Canal+ Blå (replaced by Canal+ Film 2) * Canal+ Comedy (replaced by Canal+ Series) *

(replaced by

Canal+ Emotion Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface fl ...

) *

Canal+ Film HD C More First HD is a high-definition television channel owned by C More Entertainment showing movies and television series in the Nordic countries. The channel was launched as ''C More HD'' on 1 September 2005. It was then the first HDTV channe ...

(formerly C More HD and Canal+ HD) *Canal+ Gul (replaced by

Canal+ Film 1 Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow und ...

) Sports Group *C More Fotboll (Sweden only. Formerly Canal+ Football.) *C More Golf (Denmark and Sweden) *

C More Hockey TV4 Hockey is an ice hockey channel broadcasting in Sweden and Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of ...

(Norway and Sweden. Formerly Canal+ Hockey.) *C More Live (Norway and Sweden. Formerly Canal+ Extra.) *C More Live 2 (Norway and Sweden. Formerly Canal+ Extra 2.) *C More Live 3 (Norway and Sweden. Formerly Canal+ Extra 3.) *C More Live 4 (Norway and Sweden. Formerly Canal+ Extra 4.) * C More Max (Finland only. Formerly MTV3 MAX and MTV Max.) * C More Sport (Sweden only. Formerly Canal+ Sport and Canal+ Sport 1. Replaced Canal+ Zap.) *C More Sport 1 (Finland only. Formerly Canal+ Sport 1, Canal+ Urheilu, MTV3 MAX Sport 1 and MTV Sport 1.) *C More Sport 2 (Finland only. Formerly Canal+ Sport 2, Canal+ Aitio, MTV3 MAX Sport 2 and MTV Sport 2.) *Sportkanalen (Sweden only) Discontinued: *C More Extreme (formerly Canal+ Sport Extra) *C More Live 5 (Norway and Sweden. Replaced C More Tennis.) *C More Premier HD (Finland only. Formerly Canal+ Premier HD. Renamed MTV MAX Premier HD.) * C More Tennis (replaced Canal+ Sport 2) * Canal 8 Sport (Denmark only. Sold to

Discovery Communications Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Channe ...

. Replaced Canal+ Sport 1.) * Canal 9 (Denmark only. Sold to

.) *Canal+ Sport 2 (replaced by C More Tennis) *

Canal+ Sport HD Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow u ...

OnDemand Services *C More Play *Filmnet (Sweden only) *C Sports (Sweden, Denmark and Norway)

Rights

The premium pay-TV concept used by C More Entertainment is based on exclusive broadcasting rights. These broadcasting rights include sports, movies and TV series.

Sports rights

*Football **

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Copp ...

(Sweden only) **

Real Madrid TV Real Madrid TV is a free digital television channel, operated by Real Madrid specialising in the Spanish football club. The channel is available in Spanish and English. It is located at Ciudad Real Madrid in Valdebebas (Madrid), Real Madrid's trai ...

** Arsenal TV **

Barça TV Barça TV () is a Spanish television channel operated by FC Barcelona. The channel is available in Catalan, Spanish and English. It is located at the Camp Nou Camp Nou (, meaning ''new field'', often referred to in English as the Nou Cam ...

** Milan TV ** Liga BBVA (Finland and Sweden only) **

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

(excluding Finland) **

(only in Finland) **

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

(only in Finland) **

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

(Denmark and Norway only) *Motorsports (excluding Finland) **Swedish Speedway Championship **Swedish Touring Car Championship **

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices o ...

Formula 3 Formula Three, also called Formula 3, abbreviated as F3, is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One dr ...

** BTCC *Tennis ** Wimbledon **

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and v ...

ATP ATP may refer to: Companies and organizations * Association of Tennis Professionals, men's professional tennis governing body * American Technical Publishers, employee-owned publishing company * ', a Danish pension * Armenia Tree Project, non ...

** WTA *Ice Hockey ** Elitserien ** IIHF World Championship *Other sports ** NBA ** UFC **

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

(only in Finland)

Film and TV rights

In 2011, C More Entertainment had exclusive first-run deals for feature films and TV series with

Fox Entertainment Group Fox Entertainment Group was an American entertainment company specialised in filmed entertainment owned by 21st Century Fox. Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, the group's assets were folded into various Disney units. Th ...

, DreamWorks,

Home Box Office Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television, premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office busi ...

, MGM, Nonstop Entertainment,

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

Sandrew Metronome Sandrew Metronome is a Scandinavian film distribution company formed in the 1990s. It was one of the biggest distributor companies in the Nordic countries. Sandrew Metronome was established by the Swedish company Sandrews and the Danish Metronom ...

, Svensk Filmindustri, Warner Bros. Pictures and Zentropa.

References

External links

C More SwedenC More DenmarkC More NorwayC More Finland
{{Swedish television channels Mass media companies of Sweden Pan-Nordic television channels Television channels and stations established in 1997 Television networks in Sweden TV4 AB