A report in French daily Le Figaro described the negotiations as “well advanced” and could be concluded within weeks.

Netflix would be offered as an additional option for Canal’s existing subscribers. In recent months Netflix has become more creative in how it allows pay-TV companies to present its service. For example Sky subscribers can receive a special discount when they also take Sky’s wider on demand package.

Netflix made its debut in the French market in 2014 and has built up a subscriber base of some 5 million. It’s also thought to have impacted on Canal’s own ability to hold onto its customers.

Now with the arrival of Disney+ and Apple TV+ it’s time to make friends.

Canal Plus Group president Maxime Saada told the Senate Committee on Culture that the group’s streaming service had been greatly penalized by the strict regulations imposed by France’s broadcasting authorities and the anti-trust board that banned CanalPlay from having exclusive rights to content it developed and produced.

“Right when Netflix launched, the anti-trust board banned CanalPlay from having exclusive rights to content. Back then we had 800,000 subscribers, now we have 200,000 of them,” Saada said.

“This ban has just been lifted, but it’s too late. In two years, we’ve been crossed off a market, which is gradually replacing linear TV,” Saada said, adding that if French lawmakers didn’t improve the conditions for Canal Plus Group, “French fiction will also disappear.”

“Again, the anti-trust board is putting us in a a grotesque situation whereby we lose international rights to our own shows after three and a half years. We have to buy them back in order to exploit internationally,” Saada said. “Only in France do we see that. It’s not that way in the U.K., Spain, or Italy.”

Canal Plus recently struck a deal with DirectTV to launch a Canal Plus International channel in the U.S., but its slate doesn’t include some of the group’s hit original shows — “The Bureau,” “Versailles,” and “Baron Noir” — because Canal Plus doesn’t own global rights to those series.

However, Saada did not blame the country’s strict windowing schedule, which forbids streaming services from accessing films for 36 months after their theatrical releases. Indeed, Canal Plus has not been pushing for a drastic change in the windowing schedule because it’s primarily lobbying for reforms that will preserve the interests of its pay-TV channel Canal Plus.

The Canal Plus chief said the company was also greatly penalized by France’s fiscal regime, which neither Netflix and Amazon are subjected to because they’re not headquartered in France.

“The reality is that we’re walking with a ball and chain while being faced with rival players who have way more resources than we do,” Saada said.

Saada said Canal Plus invests more than $3.2 billion (€3.7 billion) annually in content, including series, films, and sports. “By comparison, Netflix invests $8 billion per year in content. That’s two times more than Canal Plus, but Netflix is present in 190 countries while Canal Plus is in 30 countries.”

He said the group didn’t intend on cutting its investment in films going forward, especially now that it’s lost broadcast rights to French Premier League soccer to Mediapro, because movies are driving subscriptions.

Canal Plus has to inject 12.5% of its annual turnover in pre-acquisitions of French and European films. Due to the decline in its annual revenue, the company’s investment has inevitably dropped, but Canal Plus is still considered to be a pillar of the French film industry.

The CanalPlay Infinity service includes films from French and international studios, television series including leading American dramas, and kids programmes. It is available without a long-term contract for €9.99 a month for unlimited use on television, as well as on computers and tablets.

Canal+ Group said the new agreement demonstrates its commitment to open its unlimited VOD offering to all connect television platforms. In less than two years, CanalPlay Infinity has been deployed across the television boxes of all the major internet service providers in France, as well as on the iPad, Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac computers and Xbox 360, with Android to follow.

The CanalPlay Infinity service can be accessed through an icon on the Apple TV home screen, with a free one-month trial available using an iTunes login. Once activated, users can also access the service on an iPad or personal computer.

In June, HBO GO and WatchESPN became available on Apple TV, together with other services like Sky News.

There is also talk that Time Warner Cable is in discussion with Apple about bringing pay-television channels to the Apple TV.

Time Warner Cable already has a deal with Roku, which provides a box that competes with Apple TV. The free TWC TV app for the Roku box provides access to around three hundred channels, including most major broadcast and cable networks, available to Time Warner Cable subscribers, within their home.

Apple is steadily extending the range of premium programming, including live channels, available through its television device.

Slowly, it seems, Apple TV is becoming less of a hobby, although it is not clear whether these moves presage a much-anticipated move by Apple into the television market.

Apple is evidently in discussions with pay-television providers like Canal+ and Sky, and both parties are experimenting with the model of making premium programming available through Apple TV.

More than 13 million Apple TV boxes have been sold since the first generation device was released in 2007. Although a substantial number, it is small compared to around 350 million iPhones and nearly 150 million iPads the company has sold.

Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple has often said that television is an area of “intense interest” and the company will continue to “pull the string and see where it leads” although he repeatedly refuses to be drawn on where that might be.

The current approach appears to be to embrace existing television subscription services and extend their television everywhere model to Apple TV.