Societe D'Edition De Canal Plus SA
A French pay-television company that launched in 1984 as the country's first subscription TV channel, offering movies and sports beyond the three state-run stations of the era. Its name, Canal+ ("Channel Plus"), signals the "extra" programming it promised, and it later founded the film studio StudioCanal. Early viewers remember its scrambled, encrypted picture — a wavy, distorted image that only cleared up once a decoder box was installed.