French pay-TV giant Canal Plus and Luxembourg-based broadcaster CLT-Ufa - which is merging with the UK's Pearson Television - are in talks about a potential co-operation in the areas of TV rights acquisition and production.

Speaking at a shareholders meeting on April 28, Canal Plus chairman Pierre Lescure stressed that there were "complementaries between the two groups" and that CLT-Ufa's merger with Pearson gave such talks a "certain urgency".

Canal Plus and CLT-Ufa have similar interests and are a good geographical fit. Both companies aim to become major players in film and television rights trading and a link-up would give them greater leverage.

And while Canal Plus' strengths lie in the south of Europe, the bulk of CLT-Ufa's activities are in Germany although it is involved in free TV operations in France. However, CLT-Ufa is also an indirect partner in digital pay-TV operation TPS, a rival to Canal Plus' digital satellite operation CanalSatellite.

Canal Plus was previously allied with Germany's Bertelsmann - which created CLT-Ufa by merging its television activities with Audiofina SA's CLT - and also tried to link up with CLT before the merger. Lescure also confirmed that Canal Plus' main shareholder Vivendi is currently in talks with News Corp about an exchange between Vivendi's stake in BSkyB against a share of Rupert Murdoch's planned digital pay-TV operation Platco.

Meanwhile Canal Plus is also considering acquiring a stake in the UK's Sportal, a major provider of online sport information, through its Internet subsidiary Canal Numedia.