France Telecom/Orange plans to continue investing in exclusive content for its pay-TV platforms this year, according to reports in French newspaper Les Echos, despite opposition from rivals and a recommendation from the French Competition Council that the carriage of exclusive content should be abolished.

Xavier Couture, Head of Content at Orange France, told the newspaper that the company plans to continue investing in content for its premium channels during 2010, although the group's content strategy could be reviewed in 2012, according to the reports.  The telco is believed to have spent as much as €400mn on the acquisition of exclusive sports, movies and TV series rights for its pay-TV services, delivered via IPTV, satellite and mobile TV.

Orange France had reached 2.547mn subscribers to its pay-TV services by the end of the third quarter of 2009, up 59% year-on-year, with the Orange sport and cinema series channels having a total of 596,000 subscribers.