It may be across an ocean, but the advertising challenges faced by main broadcasters in France are little different from those in the United States.

In other words, operators are striving to upgrade their TV services with more digital targeting and reporting capabilities in order to satisfy ad buyers that have rapidly been turned on by online campaign outcomes.

That is why Vivendi-owned subscription TV outfit Canal+ is going to combine data on subscribers’ actual viewing behaviour with ad pool data, to better offer buyers what they want.

“If we want to attract new companies into television, we do need data,” says Canal+ DDG marketing and strategy Fabrice Mollier in this video interview with Beet.TV.

“And we also need that data for the classic advertisers – they are moving money from TV to digital because digital provides them with a lot of impact data which we are not getting so not enough (of).

“I truly believe that we can implement some data from the subscribers since this is what we are planning to do at Canal+, to merge some data from the subscribers and the set top boxes into advertisers data to target better the campaigns and also to prove that the ROI of TV is excellent.”

TV is still the biggest beneficiary of ad spend in France, but share has flattened off and broadcasters are looking for answers.

For viewers, Canal+ has its myCanal multi-platform service for subscribers and Canalplay service for others.

In early 2018, Canal+ Group released a new satellite and internet set-top box
with eight tuners for ultra-high-speed browsing, 4K Ultra HD and Dolby Atmos sound technology.

This interview was conducted at the EGTA New York meetings hosted by Viacom.   EGTA, the Brussels-based trade association of international television companies, is the sponsor of this Beet.TV series. For more videos, please visit this page