WBD Locks In Canal+ Deal, Pushing HBO Max Further Into Europe

Warner Bros. Discovery and French media powerhouse Canal+ have inked a new multi-year, multi-territory agreement that expands HBO Max into Austria and Belgium and renews key channel deals in Europe and Africa, as reported by Deadline. The pact reinforces Canal+'s role as a 'super-aggregator' for top-tier streaming content ahead of Netflix’s pending acquisition of WBD.

• Mapping the deal: The agreement brings HBO Max to Austria and Belgium for the first time, renews its distribution in several Central and Eastern European countries, and keeps a dozen WBD channels on Africa's MultiChoice platform—a company Canal+ acquired in 2025. For French subscribers, the deal also renews the exclusive pay-TV window for Warner Bros. films, a move both companies hailed as a “major milestone” for their collaboration.

• The aggregator advantage: The renewal provides stability for WBD and further cements Canal+'s position as an indispensable distribution partner for global content giants. That power was not lost on Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who recently reassured partners about the company's post-acquisition plans. "Our intentions when we buy Warner Bros. will be to continue to release Warner Bros. studio movies in theaters with the traditional windows," Sarandos said, adding, "[t]hen those movies would flow through the Canal+ output deal," according to TheWrap.

In a consolidating media landscape, this deal shows that powerful, centralized distribution platforms are becoming critical arteries for content, giving them significant leverage over even the largest producers. The agreement comes as WBD is reportedly fending off a $108.4 billion hostile takeover bid from Paramount. Meanwhile, HBO Max is preparing for a significant European rollout on January 13th, part of a broader strategy to reach at least 150 million global subscribers by the end of 2026.