Canal+ adopts Veo 3 tools

Canal+ is giving its production teams Google’s Veo 3 video generator to mock up scenes before cameras roll. (canalplusgroup.com) The French pay television group announced the move on March 11, 2026, in a multi-year artificial intelligence partnership with Google Cloud, with deployment set to start in June 2026 across European and African markets where the Canal+ app operates. (googlecloudpresscorner.com) Canal+ said creators will use Veo 3 for “previsualising a scene before shooting it” and for recreating historical moments from a single archival photo. Reuters reported the same day that Canal+ is also pairing that Google deal with a separate OpenAI agreement for search and recommendation inside its streaming service. (canalplusgroup.com) (kelo.com) Previsualization is the planning stage where directors and crews test camera angles, pacing, and blocking before a shoot, usually with storyboards, animatics, or rough digital scenes. Canal+ is using generative video at that planning step, not as a stated replacement for principal photography. (tvbeurope.com) (canalplusgroup.com) That puts the tool in a part of filmmaking where speed often matters more than final-image perfection. Google said Veo 3 entered public preview on Vertex AI in 2025 as a model aimed at narrative video creation for cloud customers and partners. (cloud.google.com) Canal+ tied the production use to a broader data project: Google Cloud will help index its content library into a multimodal database that combines video, sound, and text. The company said that database will feed more tailored recommendations in the Canal+ app. (canalplusgroup.com) (broadbandtvnews.com) Chief executive Maxime Saada told Reuters the Google and OpenAI deals are “very complementary,” with Google focused on data extraction and OpenAI on search and recommendation. Reuters said Canal+ is pursuing a target of 100 million subscribers by 2030 as it tries to sharpen its streaming product against larger rivals. (cnbcafrica.com) (economictimes.indiatimes.com) Canal+ said intellectual property protections are built into the arrangement and that its rights and asset ownership will remain protected inside Google Cloud’s secure environment. That addresses one of the main objections from film and television companies that have been cautious about sending valuable footage and archives into outside artificial intelligence systems. (kelo.com) (prnewswire.com) The immediate test is not whether viewers can spot artificial intelligence on screen. It is whether Canal+ crews save time and money by using generated scene drafts before the real shoot begins. (canalplusgroup.com) (tvbeurope.com)