Dominique Ambiel, board chairman of Vivendi Universal's French television production division Expand Images, has resigned. His departure, over differences in the management of the company, was followed by board member Xavier Gouyou-Beauchamps.

StudioCanal's CEO Richard Lenormand will announce a replacement . Ambiel, a former advisor to right-wing culture minister Francois Leotard in the late eighties, was a founding member of the Expand group, which was folded into Canal Plus' TV production arm Ellipse Programme in March 2000, and subsequently taken over by Vivendi in June 2001.