CANAL+ Inks AI Deals with OpenAI & Google Cloud

CANAL+ has partnered with OpenAI and Google Cloud in two separate deals that will incorporate AI technologies into the CANAL+ app.

Beginning in June, CANAL+ will roll out an evolution of the CANAL+ app using technology from OpenAI to power content search and discovery. Subscribers will be able to express what they want to watch in their own words and receive tailored content suggestions via OpenAI frontier models.

“We are delighted to collaborate with OpenAI, one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies, to enhance the entertainment experience of our 40 million subscribers,” said Maxime Saada, CEO of CANAL+. “This collaboration is part of CANAL+’s long-standing tradition of innovation and its commitment to continuously reinventing entertainment. Today, our subscribers already access the very best international and local content on the CANAL+ app. With this technological collaboration, we are proud to take a major leap forward, redefining how audiences discover content.”

Ashley Kramer, VP of enterprise at OpenAI, commented, “People increasingly expect technology to understand them the way they naturally express themselves. By bringing OpenAI into the CANAL+ App, subscribers can describe exactly what they feel like watching. It’s a great example of how advanced AI can make everyday entertainment experiences simpler, more intuitive and more personal.”

CANAL+ also entered a multiyear partnership with Google Cloud and will begin deploying Google Cloud’s latest generative AI technologies across European and African markets where the CANAL+ app is available starting in June.

Using Google Cloud’s technologies, CANAL+ will accelerate the content video indexing of its extensive content library. The new content classification will provide an in-depth multimodal database combining sound, video and text data, which will enable smarter, more personalized content recommendations on the homepage of the CANAL+ app, matching each subscriber’s preferences according to their viewing habits.

CANAL+ will also leverage Veo3, Google’s new generative AI video technology, to provide its production partners and creative teams with tools that will unlock the creative ambitions of their talent. For instance, it can help previsualize a scene before shooting it or re-creating historical moments from a single archival photo.

“We are pleased to leverage Google Cloud’s most advanced AI technologies to drive CANAL+’s technical innovation,” said Stéphane Baumier, chief technology officer at CANAL+. “Building on a long-standing collaboration with Google, this strategic partnership paves the way for limitless possibilities. Content video indexing for CANAL+ at scale gives the group a significant edge, notably by enabling us to deliver sharper discovery and truly enhanced personalized journeys on the CANAL+ app across all our markets. Creativity is the cornerstone of CANAL+’s content production. We are excited to push creative boundaries by providing creators with tools that enable AI-generated video scenes, impossible to produce using traditional methods.”

Matt Renner, president and chief revenue officer of Google Cloud, added, “The entertainment industry is at a pivotal inflection point where the intersection of creativity and compute power defines market leadership. Our deepened collaboration with CANAL+ is a testament to a shared culture of relentless innovation. By leveraging Google Cloud’s generative AI technologies, CANAL+ is not just adopting tools; they are architecting the future of media and fundamentally transforming the entertainment landscape on a global scale.”