French media and defense group Lagardère is poised to fulfil its long-held ambition to move into pay-TV.

According to insiders, today (Friday) could see the inking of a deal with Vivendi in which Lagardère will take a stake in new pay-television operator Canal Plus France.

It aims to fund the share purchase with €500m ($594.2m; £341.5m) in cash plus a transfer to Vivendi of its current holding in a Canal Plus satellite-distribution subsidiary.

Under the new Canal Plus structure, Vivendi will retain a 65% majority stake, say moles who have seen the numbers. Lagardère would hold 20%; while 10% will be held by Television Francaise 1 and five percent by M6-Metropole Television.

Data sourced from Wall Street Journal Online; additional content by WARC staff