France-based global telco Orange has unveiled its new Orange Content business, as originally announced in March of this year by the company’s chairman and CEO Stéphane Richard.
The new entity, Orange Content, is intended to strengthen the presence and investment of Orange in the field of content, with a mission to drive the group’s strategy in content and to support its development across the countries where Orange has a presence. The new division will combine the bulk of the current Content Division and subsidiaries comprising Orange Studio, OCS and OPTV (Orange Prestations TV).
This new entity will report directly to Orange CEO Stéphane Richard and will operate under a two-person senior management team, namely David Kessler, director, and Serge Laroye, deputy director. Effective September 1st, Orange Content will have five key functions:
1. Strategic intelligence, interpreting of trends and the movements of industry players in order to identify opportunities for the group and its countries.
2. Acquisition of rights both through the negotiation of distribution agreements and agreements on premium rights or with studios, plus provide support to all countries in these areas.
3. Management and development of a production/publishing unit integrating Orange Studio and OCS, or other upcoming entities responsible for editing and production.
4. The creation, evaluation and implementation of proposals on new formats, new usages and new solutions in the field of content with the group’s internal stakeholders and external partners.
5. Monitoring the development of each country’s content turnover through strategic planning, collaboration with the countries and the implementation of joint action plans, as well as the development of profitable operations, with commercial and operational activities for distribution and content aggregation located within national entities, including for Orange France.
In addition, Orange and CANAL+ have strengthened the distribution of CANAL offers for Orange TV customers and will propose a new offer of CANAL+ ESSENTIEL for Orange fibre customers, while OCS, Orange Studio and UGC IMAGES have entered into an exclusive agreement in France. Orange has also announced plans to invest Euro 100 million over five years in crating series and cinema content.
