Canal+ Acquisitions Have Strengthened the Group, Anna Marsh Says

Anna Marsh, chief executive of Studiocanal and deputy chief executive of Canal+, says the French media group's run of takeovers has strengthened its position. She made the point in conversation with Gaia Tridente, head of Rome's MIA Market, Variety reported on 21 October 2026.

Marsh said that buying new companies and moving into new territories is enriching. She also said that nobody has all the answers in a fast-moving industry.

The deals she was talking about are wide-ranging. Canal+ took a majority stake, meaning more than half the shares, in Lucky Red, a distribution and production company based in Rome. Earlier in 2026 it also bought a 34 percent stake in UGC, the Paris film studio that runs one of France's leading cinema chains.

The largest move was South African pay-TV group MultiChoice. Canal+ completed a $2 billion takeover of the company, which sells subscription television packages across Africa. Reuters reported in January 2026 that Canal+ expected to save more than 150 million euros a year in 2026, rising to as much as 400 million euros from the deal. Following the takeover, Canal+ said its subscriber base had risen to more than 40 million, with more than half of those subscribers English-speaking.

Marsh's remarks came with a slate of projects that show where those businesses meet. Gucci: Game Over is a six-episode miniseries based on Allegra Gucci's memoir. It was co-produced by Sky Studios and Lucky Red, and Studiocanal distributes it internationally. A miniseries is a show told in a short, complete run of episodes rather than an open-ended series.

Studiocanal's specialty label, Studiocanal Stories, was launched in 2024 to make adaptations of books. Two other productions have recently moved through South Africa. The Road Home, an apartheid-era drama starring Cynthia Erivo, Thabo Rametsi and Guy Pearce, has wrapped shooting there. The third season of Canal+'s original action series Shadow Has Fallen has also wrapped in Cape Town.

Marsh has worked in the entertainment industry for more than 20 years. She has led Studiocanal since December 2019, according to the Canal+ Group biography. In March 2025, Canal+ added the role of chief content officer to her duties as deputy chief executive.

For a viewer, the practical effect of all this is a single group that makes films, owns cinemas, and sells television to millions of homes. For the people working on those projects, it means one company with more places to sell and more places to shoot. Marsh's own description of the strategy was simpler: keep buying, keep moving, and accept that nobody has every answer yet.