The company used to be a subdivision of Sogecable (renamed Prisa TV in 2010) with shares held by Mediaset España and Telefónica.
The economic loss of both them in the early years and Telefónica's none investment in its division motivated the fusion process between them for merging, apart from the government.
After several months of consideration, on 28 August 2002 CNMC published a report in which the organization recognized that the existence of both satellite companies was unviable, but it warned of fusion's danger to free competition, in markets like movies and sports broadcasting, as well as in pay-TV channels production.
[2] On 13 November CNMC Defense Court sent the definitive report to the government, containing 10 conditions, including PPV's cession to cable companies, and limitations in football clubs rights contracts renewals.
[3] Days later, on 29 November, Ministers Council approved the fusion, with an increase to 34 conditions (24 more ones than CNMC requested).
[6] In October 2007, it began providing Canal+ România, a specialized package for Romanian immigrants, which included Pro TV International.
Among the business interested in buying out Digital+, there were Telefónica, Vivendi, Telecinco, British Sky Broadcasting and ONO.
[16] On 8 July 2015, Telefónica launched Movistar+, a new platform as a result of the merger of Canal+ and Movistar TV which involved changes in the packages and new channels like Canal+ Estrenos, which broadcast the newest films, or Canal+ Series Xtra, which had alternative and European shows.
Canal+ 1 disappeared and traditionally named Canal+ was back, although it would not contain premium programming such as premieres of movies, American cable TV series and the exclusive Sunday football match.
Canal+ is a supporter of the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) initiative that is promoting and establishing an open European standard for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface, and has run pilot HbbTV services in Spain.