TORONTO — Bloomberg TV Canada’s first year of operation has been one of growth and expansion, with distribution and advertising levels increasing monthly, the first of several news bureaus across the country coming online, and an “A-list” of newsmakers having appeared on the channel.
Despite not having carriage on Bell TV nor Bell Fibe, Bloomberg TV Canada executives say it has achieved distribution parity with its main business channel competitor, Bell-owned Business News Network (BNN). “We’re very happy, 12 months in, with the progress that we’ve made and the expansion that we’ve seen,” said Chris Fuoco, vice-president of sales and marketing for Channel Zero, the parent company of Bloomberg TV Canada.
“Clearly, in this space, there was a well-established business news competitor and they had a 15-year head start on us. We’re always benchmarking against them,” Fuoco (pictured below) said. “Our distribution deals have been creative and innovative, and although we don’t really let out specific numbers, we have parity distribution to BNN in our view, despite the fact that we’re lacking carriage on any of Bell’s systems.”
Fuoco wouldn’t go into details about how its various distribution agreements with BDUs are structured, but said Bloomberg TV Canada is available to 7.5 million households in Canada, with Vidéotron being the most recent major BDU to carry the channel. When it launched in November 2015, Bloomberg TV Canada already had distribution agreements lined up with Rogers, Telus, Cogeco, MTS, SaskTel, Eastlink, Shaw and Shaw Direct.
However, being available to households is not the same as having actual subscribers signed up. As a privately owned channel, Bloomberg TV Canada does not publicly report its subscriber numbers, however, in Bell’s most recent financial filing to the CRTC, BNN was reported to have almost 6 million subscribers in 2015, although its subscription numbers have been on a downward trend in recent years, as have most channels.
When asked about his statement regarding distribution parity between Bloomberg TV Canada and BNN, Fuoco reiterated that Channel Zero has been creative with its distribution deals and he said BDUs see the value of offering Bloomberg TV Canada to their customers.
“live is a sticky retention tool that I think the BDUs see value in.” – Chris Fuoco, Bloomberg TV Canada
“I think the BDUs are wanting to put a fresh, exciting new service like this in front of as many subscribers as they can. It’s all live content, for the most part, other than some of our evening shows, and live is a sticky retention tool that I think the BDUs see value in,” Fuoco said. “Our goal has been to have parity with BNN and through the first year we’ve achieved that, and continue to do what we can to maintain that.”
Looking at Rogers specifically, both Bloomberg TV Canada and BNN are offered in Rogers’s top-end Premier channel package, with neither channel offered in Rogers’s lower-cost Select and Popular packages. For customers wanting to go the skinny basic route, they can subscribe to the Rogers Starter package and then either add a Canadian News theme pack that includes both Bloomberg TV Canada and BNN or purchase the channels individually.
However, the lack of carriage on Bell continues to frustrate, Fuoco said, adding that he is also concerned about Bell’s proposed acquisition of MTS, a deal still awaiting regulatory approval. Fuoco pointed out that Aliant in Atlantic Canada used to carry Bloomberg TV (the U.S. channel, before Bloomberg TV Canada was launched), but after Aliant’s merger with Bell, Bell Aliant dropped Bloomberg from its channel lineup.
“Bell doesn’t want the channel. I guess they’re looking to protect BNN,” – Fuoco
“Certainly, we hear from their customers. There’s a lot of demand from Aliant customers and Bell customers, saying, ‘Why aren’t you carried on Bell?’ And the answer is pretty straightforward, Bell doesn’t want the channel. I guess they’re looking to protect BNN,” Fuoco said. “As we watch the decision around MTS, and what happens with Bell and MTS, that’s one of the things that keeps me up at night, wondering.”
Fuoco said Channel Zero has met several times with Bell and the company tries to remain optimistic. When asked if Channel Zero might file a complaint with the CRTC regarding Bell’s refusal to carry Bloomberg TV Canada, Fuoco said his company is conscious of its existing relationship with Bell regarding carriage of its other channels, which include CHCH, Silver Screen Classics and Rewind.
“We’ve said for a while that we hope that they’ll add the channel to their lineup for the right reasons, not because of some sort of regulatory intervention, so we’ve not gone down that path,” he explained.
“As a midsize independent broadcaster, not part of a vertically integrated organization, carriage is challenging, and so our situation with Bloomberg and trying to get distribution on a VI that’s got a channel where they have a vested interest is difficult. So there’s two ways to look at it — it’s either the biggest opportunity in front of us or the biggest impediment to our growth,” Fuoco said.
Overall, Fuoco said advertising on the channel is on a very good upward trajectory. The greatest growth has been in automotive, banking and financial advertising, Fuoco said. In addition, Bloomberg TV Canada has been “really thrilled” with the response from the market, on both the distributor side as well as among viewers, and the interest garnered from the newsmakers themselves, he added. 
“We’ve had a great year editorially, and I think that’s in part due to the reputation and strength of the Bloomberg brand. What Bloomberg TV Canada brings to the table for any number of the guests we’ve had on there is it’s not only a platform to speak to Canadians, but to get their message out globally. So much of our content has either been broadcast live, picked up by the network in New York, which then gets it around the world, or it gets archived digitally. So it’s really a pathway for Canadian newsmakers to get their story out globally,” Fuoco said.
(Update: The channel recently added former Reuters journalist Lily Jamali to host a brand new show and is also looking to expand its editorial team with new hires.)
While Bloomberg TV Canada depends on the U.S.-based network for the majority of its daily programming, it has original Canadian content throughout the day and evening. During the trading day, live market news updates are broadcast from the Toronto Stock Exchange. After market close, The Daily Brief host Pamela Ritchie wraps up the day’s trading news in a one-hour program broadcast from Bloomberg’s studio at Brookfield Place in Toronto’s financial district. In the evening on weekdays, Bloomberg North features analysis and interviews with business leaders, with a rotating schedule of hosts, including Rudyard Griffiths, Amanda Lang and Pat Kiernan.
In addition, Bloomberg TV Canada is on track to roll out more original Canadian programming in 2017, Fuoco said. Furthermore, the channel is gradually bringing online several Bloomberg news bureaus across the country. Earlier in 2016, Bloomberg TV Canada started doing live reports and interviews out of its news bureau in Ottawa. The next bureaus Bloomberg TV Canada has scheduled to come on board in early 2017 are in Calgary and Montreal, with Vancouver, Winnipeg and Edmonton to follow at a later date, Fuoco said.
Fuoco said Bloomberg TV Canada has been able to use the global reach of the Bloomberg network to its advantage, such as when The Daily Brief host Ritchie conducted a live exclusive interview in November 2015 with Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who was attending the G-20 economic summit in Antalya, Turkey at the time.
“That’s the power of being part of the Bloomberg organization, and what’s so innovative about this channel here in Canada,” he added.
UPDATE: Since this story ran last week, a Bell Canada spokesperson said in an email to Cartt.ca: "We are constantly evaluating our options to bring the best content to our subscribers. When Bloomberg originally approached us last year, much of the content was already available over the Internet and there was minimal Canadian content. However, we'd be happy to talk to them again about the possibility of carrying the new channel."
