Movistar Plus+ (formerly Movistar+) is the trade name of the subscription platform for digital television owned by , which operates in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. The service is distributed via

optical fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

and

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over Copper wire, copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem ...

as well as with satellites such as Astra. The platform, which was officially launched on July 8, 2015, stems from the merger of Canal+, previously responsible for the satellite TV operations, and Telefónica's Movistar TV. It is the largest subscription television provider in Spain with 3.7 million customers and 45% of market share.

History

Since 2013, various news regarding the possible purchase of Canal+'s Spanish assets by Telefónica were published. According to media reports, there were also many companies that expressed interest in buing the Pay-TV platform, as Al Jazeera,

Vivendi Vivendi SE (stylized in all lowercase) is a French investment company headquartered in Paris. It currently wholly-owns Gameloft as well as a number of investments in several companies, primarily involved in content, entertainment, media, and t ...

, which owned Canal+ France, and Rupert Murdoch. This was critical for PRISA, owners of Canal+ Spain, as they had been looking for ways to resolve the debt the company had been accumulating since 2008, due the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

, with rumors of an acquisition by Telefónica beginning to take place as early as that year. On May 6, 2014, submitted a binding to gain 56% PRISA had in Canal+ Spain, in exchange for paying about 725 million euros. PRISA ended up accepting the offer the following month. On June 18, 2014, submitted a binding offer to acquire

Mediaset Spain Mediaset S.p.A. is an Italian mass media and television production and Television syndication, distribution company that is the largest commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcaster in the country. The company is controlled by the holding c ...

's 22% ownership of Canal+ Spain for 295 million euros. The offer was later accepted on July 4, 2014, allowing to obtain full control of the company. On April 22, 2015, the CNMC gave its approval to the sale of Canal+ to . After this, Canal+ began the process of merging with Movistar TV effective July 7, 2015, which resulted in the creation of Movistar+ the following day. In June 2019, an over-the-top video streaming service was launched under the brand Movistar+ Lite. It features select content but not LaLiga football matches or cinema and series exclusives. The streaming offer saw a complete overhaul on August 1, 2023, now offering a larger amount of content and the majority of the linear TV channels available on the satellite and IPTV offers, making the service more similar to

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

's Now. Over the course of 2023, Movistar Plus+ renewed its deals with all major Hollywood Studios to continue offering their content on the Spanish TV platform. All television channels in Spain from

Sony Pictures Entertainment Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment (theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and rec ...

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Outline of entertainment, entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It was formed from WarnerMedi ...

Paramount Global Paramount Global (Trade name, d/b/a Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and Headquarters, headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Times Square, ...

and

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

continued to be broadcast on Movistar Plus+. This also saw the incorporation of the studios' content directly on Movistar Plus+'s video-on-demand services, with said content coming directly from Sony's AXN Now, Warner Bros. Discovery's

HBO Max Max (known in other countries as, and soon to be reverted globally to HBO Max) is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. It is a proprietary unit of Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming on behalf of Home Box Of ...

and Paramount and Comcast's SkyShowtime, while Disney's content is available through the offer of subscriptions to

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

at a discounted price. In January 2024, after earlier exceptional involvements in film production with '' While at War'' (2019) and '' Prison 77'' (2022), Movistar Plus+ announced a strategy to act as co-producer of films on a sustained basis, presenting a slate of 5 initial titles set to begin production in 2024 and to be directed by Icíar Bollaín ('' I'm Nevenka''),

Rodrigo Sorogoyen Rodrigo Sorogoyen del Amo (born 16 September 1981) is a Spanish film director and screenwriter. After co-helming the sketch comedy film '' 8 Dates'' with Peris Romano in 2008, Sorogoyen has directed the features ''Stockholm'' (2013), '' May God ...

('' The Beloved''), Alberto Rodríguez ('' Los Tigres''),

Oliver Laxe Óliver Laxe Coro (; born 11 April 1982) is a French-born Spanish film director, screenwriter and actor of Galicians, Galician ancestry. His feature directorial debut, ''You All Are Captains'', premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, where i ...

('' Sirât''), and Ana Rujas (''El desencanto''). On 28 January 2025, Movistar Plus+ revived the original name of the Cine por M+ channel — which was renamed Estrenos por M+— and replaced Series por M+ with a new blockbuster movie channel, Hits por M+. Likewise, Caza y Pesca became part of the platform's basic package. These changes were carried out after the departure of

AMC Networks AMC Networks Inc. is an American mass media and entertainment corporation headquartered in 11 Penn Plaza, New York City. The company owns and operates the AMC cable channel, BBC America, IFC, Sundance TV, and We TV. It also owns the art ho ...

' channels from the platform, effective 1 January 2025, which prompted the operator to reorganize its offering of its own channels to compensate for the disappearance of these signals. In 2025, Movistar Plus+ sacked Director of Fiction & Entertainment Domingo Corral, the chief responsible for the platform's move into scripted originals after joining in 2014. He was replaced by Jorge Pezzi (fiction) and Hugo Tomás (non-fiction and entertainment). This decision "stunned" the Spanish audiovisual industry and prompted a letter of support to Corral by near 150 figures of the entertainment industry.

Channels operated by Movistar Plus+

;Generalists *

Movistar Plus+ Movistar Plus+ (formerly Movistar+) is the trade name of the subscription platform for digital television owned by , which operates in Spain. The service is distributed via optical fiber and ADSL as well as with satellites such as Astra. The pl ...

Informational notes

References

{{Authority control 2015 establishments in Spain Telefónica Television networks in Spain Direct broadcast satellite services