M7 Group has decided to buy the remaining shares of SPI INTERNATIONAL

Luxembourg, 13 April 2023 – CANAL+ Group and M7 Group have decided to exercise their call option on the 30% remaining shares of SPI International and therefore to acquire full ownership of the company. Effective as of 12th of April, Mr. Berk Uziyel and Mr. Loni Farhi will step down from their roles in SPI International. Mr. Erwan Luherne and Mr. Jeroen Bergman have taken over their respective responsibilities and roles.

Mr. Luherne, Director of Business integration for Canal+ International, and Mr. Bergman, Board Member of M7 Group responsible for Content and Business Development, will keep working closely with CANAL+ Group and M7 Group to continue to deliver top-quality content to audiences across the globe, while also driving innovation, growth, and strategic synergies within CANAL+ Group.

Mr. Luherne, Director of Business integration for Canal+ International, appointed Managing Director of SPI INTERNATIONAL, has spent more than 18 years within the CANAL+ Group in numerous positions related to the development of the group's activities internationally (Africa and Asia in particular). Mr. Luherne has been previously CEO of Canal+ Myanmar, Director of Marketing and Commercial development for Canal+ International, Director of Commercial Development Canal+ entity in Vietnam.

Mr Bergman, now Board Member of M7 Group responsible for Content and Business Development, looks back at a long-standing career in the media and telco industry, including 20 years at Liberty Global, where he was responsible for all programming and content acquisition. Before Liberty he was Commercial Director for Dutch cable company Casema (currently Ziggo). Since 2019 Jeroen was managing the Film1 and Filmbox business in the Netherlands for SPI International.

Since its inception, SPI INTERNATIONAL has become a leading provider in the Media and Broadcast Industry, thanks in large part to the dedication, creativity, and leadership of its team and founders Loni Farhi and Berk Uziyel.

"SPI International has a long history of providing top-quality content to audiences around the world, and we are eager to take the company to a new stage of its development. Both Erwan and Jeroen have strong track records in the business so I have great confidence they will continue to bring great success to SPI" said Mr. Hans Troelstra, CEO of M7 Group.

"We are committed to build on the company's strong foundations and leverage the CANAL+ Group collective expertise to continue providing engaging and relevant content to viewers." Said Mr. Erwan Luherne and Mr. Jeroen Bergman.


M7 Group, a CANAL+ Group company, one of Europe’s largest operators of satellite and IP-based TV platforms based in Luxembourg. M7 Group uses different brands in different countries: Skylink and freeSAT in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Canal Digitaal and online.nl in the Netherlands, TV Vlaanderen and TeleSat in Belgium, HD Austria in Austria, Direct One in Hungary and Focus Sat in Romania. All brands offer tailor-made packages for clients adapted to the local culture and language in these countries. Today, M7 Group provides more than 3 million subscribers with hundreds of satellite and IP-based radio and television services in digital and HD quality. M7 Platform Services provides broadcasters with end-to-end distribution solutions for DTH, cable and IPTV reception. Furthermore, M7 provides a growing range of premium content platforms and channels: CANAL+ Austria and CANAL+ First in Austria; CANAL+ Sports and CANAL+ Action for the Czech and Slovak markets. www.m7group.eu.

SPI International, a CANAL+ Group company, is a global media company operating 42 TV channels, multiple digital products across six continents, and a major player in content distribution and broadcasting worldwide. Founded more than 28 years ago, has extensive experience in the TV and broadcasting industry. The company operates multiple free-to-air and pay-TV channels in CEE, Western Europe, CIS and Ex-Yugo regions including key European markets such as Poland, Czechia, Romania, Serbia, the Netherlands and Russia. SPI is one of the premier movie service providers in the countries where it operates, with FilmBox being its flagship movie service. SPI Group owns a suite of legacy brands that have become household names such as FilmBox, Film1, Kino Polska, Stopklatka, Dizi along with different thematic channels and streaming services. Working with over 700 operators worldwide, SPI uses cutting-edge technology providing its subscribers with access to SPI’s linear and on-demand content and FilmBox+ service.