Orange - which has a multi-year contract with HBO - declined to comment on the report. Canal Plus also declined comment.

In September, French TV companies TF1 and M6 abandoned a merger plan that had been aimed at forming a domestic French TV giant able to challenge U.S. streaming services such as Netflix.

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Piotr Lipinski; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)