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Canal Digital was a Nordic countries pay TV and internet service provider in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland that was founded in March 1997 as a joint venture between the France pay TV company Canal+ and the Norwegian telecommunications operator Telenor.
The number of customers in 2017 was 838,000.
From 2003 to 2020, Canal Digital was fully owned by Telenor. In 2004, Telenor Avidi was merged into Canal Digital and changed its name to Canal Digital cable television. In 2020, Canal Digital formed a joint venture with Viasat to form the company Allente. The merger was completed on April 13, 2021.
Canal Digital started as a direct broadcast satellite television service to Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, but later expanded into cable television in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, digital terrestrial television in Finland and IPTV in Sweden and Denmark. More than 2.9 million Nordic households and activities were subscribed to their services.
FTTH services have slowly started in selected areas in Norway.
Internet access through the cable network is based on the EuroDOCSIS standard.
Canal Digital's cable system in the newer network areas which included most of Canal Digital's cable networks in Norway was based on hybrid fibre-coaxial technology. Some other network areas are copper only, but are subjected to upgrading in order to support new TV set-top box's.
Unlike its contemporary DTH rival, Viasat, Canal Digital did not own a TV-network, although during Canal+'s ownership of the company from 1997 to 2003 they had control over the Canal+ channels available in the Nordics at the time, but these were later sold to other companies and were eventually rebranded as C More in 2012.
Canal Digital instead opted to secure several multi-year exclusive deals with different TV broadcasters. As of 2011, Canal Digital had exclusive satellite rights with C More Entertainment, ProSiebenSat.1 in Denmark, Eurosport, BBC Worldwide and Discovery Communications. Satellite exclusivity was more common in the past, but many channels that were once exclusive to Canal Digital have eventually signed agreements with Viasat. Broadcasters that were once exclusive to Canal Digital later joined Viasat include Sveriges Television (joined Viasat in 2003), TV4 AB (2005–2006), National Geographic Channel, ProSiebenSat.1 in Norway and Sweden, TV 2 (Denmark) and TV 2 (Norway).
Their satellite broadcasts can be received from the Thor 5 and Thor 6 satellites at 1°W with any DVB-S Receiver Equipped with a Conax Descrambling Module.
The major launch of HDTV occurred in Sweden in November 2006 when a special high-definition package with Discovery HD and Voom HD launched and C More HD was rebranded as Canal+ HD. The high-definition package were to be released in the other Nordic countries during 2007. High-definition channels launching in 2007, include Canal+ Sport HD in February, National Geographic Channel HD in April, TV4 HD (Sweden only) in May, Silver HD in September and History HD in December.
2008 brought Kanal 5 HD in January, Eurosport HD in May, Nelonen HD, TVNorge HD in October and BBC HD in December. Channels launched in 2009, include TV 2 Film HD in January and Animal Planet HD in February.
The HD channels were initially offered for as a separate package, but starting on 1 April 2008, this package was dropped in Sweden and the HD channels were included in the "Family" package.
This fusing separated Canal Digital Cable TV and Canal Digital Satellite TV customers further to avoid confusion between the two companies for their customers, which after the change had to either contact Telenor T-We or Canal Digital Satellite.
The Terrestrial TV Package now consists of:
Canal Digital have expressed interest in selling Smart cards for the digital terrestrial television network in Sweden. The Norwegian terrestrial operator RiksTV is partly owned by Canal Digital's owner Telenor.
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