Vivendi plans to open multiple CanalOlympia cinema venues throughout the African continent this year. These cinema and entertainment venues are part of a network of several dozen such venues to be deployed progressively in Central and Western Africa.
On January 11, 2017, CanalOlympia opened its doors in Conakry (Guinea), quickly followed by the opening of the venues in Douala (Cameroon) on January 18, Niamey (Niger) on February 1 and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) on February 25, starting day of Fespaco, the pan-African cinema and television festival of which Vivendi subsidiary Canal+ Group is one of the main sponsors.
Additional venues are due to be opened in other African countries over the course of 2017.
The CanalOlympia venues aim to facilitate access to culture and entertainment in countries that are often lacking such facilities and to stimulate talent development across the African continent. They have a unique architectural design which permits them to accommodate 300 people indoors and several thousand outdoors. The premises are outfitted with state-of-the-art digital projection and sound equipment. They use solar panels and storage batteries, allowing each location to be energy self-sufficient.
Each CanalOlympia venue offer includes 18 movie showings per week, 6 days a week, with a movie line-up usually coinciding with the French premieres. Every week, three screening sessions are reserved for movies intended for a young audience and each month a day is dedicated to African cinema and Nollywood. Concerts by African and international artists will be organized at a later stage.
Studiocanal, Europe’s leading studio in the production and distribution of films and TV series, is a major contributor to CanalOlympia’s programming. Canal+ Overseas participates in the programming of African films, in particular Nigerian movies branded as Nollywood TV. Its advertising arm, Canal+ Advertising, handles the sale of commercial spots during the screenings. Digitick, a leading player in ticketing in France, has designed a simple system suited for the African market. Universal Music Group will bring its expertise to concert organization in the future.
Vivendi is an integrated media and content group. The company operates businesses throughout the media value chain, from talent discovery to the creation, production and distribution of content. The main subsidiaries of Vivendi comprise Canal+ Group and Universal Music Group. Canal+ Group is the leading pay-TV operator in France, and also serves markets in Africa, and other parts of Europe and Asia. Canal+ Group operations also include Studiocanal, a leading European player in production, sales and distribution of film and TV series.
