French direct-to-home operator Canalsat ended 2006, its final year of competition with rival TPS, with nearly 3.5 million subscribers, a net increase of 272,000 compared with 2005, parent company Vivendi announced.
The two companies combined their operations Jan. 4 and now report nearly 5 million subscribers, making the new Canalsat the second largest satellite pay-TV operator in Europe behind BSkyB.
Vivendi also reported that overall revenues of the Canal+ Group for 2006 rose nearly 8 percent to 3.6 billion euros ($4.7 billion).
