Chargeurs Réunis (United Shippers) was a major French company formed in 1872.
Chargeurs was a shareholder in British Satellite Broadcasting, the official UK satellite broadcaster. BSB was set up in 1986 in competition with Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television. Sky was launched in 1989, a year earlier than BSB, and though both companies suffered massive losses, BSB which collapsed first. This allowed a merger on Murdoch's terms to form British Sky Broadcasting. Chargeurs maintained a minority shareholding.
In 1992, Chargeurs bought media group Pathé for 1.2 billion francs. Chargeurs demerged Pathé in 1996: Chargeurs became a textile group and Pathe SA retained the media interests; the film, television, cinema chain and the shareholdings pay TV operators British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) and CanalSatellite.
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