Canal+ was a Spanish commercial television channel operated by Sogecable, before its eventual sale to Telefónica. It was available on the digital satellite television and IPTV platform Movistar+.
History
Canal+ began its trial transmissions on June 8, 1990, and it launched as a regular channel on September 14 of the same year as a terrestrial channel in Spain.[1] Similar to its French counterpart, the channel broadcast most of its content encrypted, forcing the usage of a decoder to view all programming on the channel properly. The Spanish version was already using the Nagravision encryption system at launch, while the French version would not implement it until two years later.
In 1997, new channels using the Canal+ brand were launched in Spain, following the launch of Canal Satélite Digital. Just as on the other markets where Canal+ was present, the channels were named after colours: Canal+ Rojo (Canal+ Red) and Canal+ Azul (Canal+ Blue).[2] A special channel broadcasting content in 16:9 aspect ratio was launched later, but it was replaced by a time-shift channel in 2001, Canal+ 30. In 2003, due to the relaunch of Canal Satélite Digital as