Bell Media and Corus to lose trademark licensing rights for several channels
By Linda Stuart
Rogers Communications on Monday announced multi-year deals with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery for the licensing rights to several TV channels and content currently held by Bell Media and Corus Entertainment.
Starting this September, Rogers will launch NBCUniversal’s Bravo channel in Canada, and will become the English-language television content rights holder in Canada, featuring unscripted programming that will include new seasons of Bravo’s hit franchise series, a Rogers press release says. The deal also includes content rights to new Bravo series, a Rogers spokesperson confirmed.
The Bravo channel hasn’t been seen in Canada since 2019, when it was rebranded as CTV Drama Channel by Bell Media.
Starting in January 2025, Rogers will be the home of Warner Bros. Discovery’s suite of English-language U.S. lifestyle and factual brands, including Discovery, Motor Trend (currently known as Discovery Velocity in Canada), Science, Animal Planet and Investigation Discovery (ID), all brands to which Bell Media currently holds the rights, as well as HGTV, Food Network, Magnolia Network, Cooking Channel, and Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), to which Corus currently holds the licensing rights, the Rogers spokesperson confirmed. Rogers is also acquiring the rights to U.S. content on these channels, currently held by Bell Media and Corus, respectively.
“Rogers invests to bring Canadians the most coveted sports and entertainment,” Colette Watson, president of Rogers Sports and Media, said in the company’s press release Monday. “We’re evolving our business to reflect where consumers are going, bringing the best mix of U.S. and Canadian content to audiences in the way they want to watch it. This investment also advances our position as a strong Canadian broadcaster that can compete with foreign streamers.”
Rogers said in its press release it will work with Canadian distribution partners to make the content widely available. In addition, the content will be available on Rogers’s streaming service Citytv+, it said.
Corus announced Friday it had been informed by Warner Bros. Discovery that some of its programming and trademark licensing arrangements will not be renewed upon their expiry on Dec. 31, 2024. When contacted Monday morning by Cartt, a Corus spokesperson said the company had no more to say beyond what was included in its Friday press release, but it did confirm programming and brands on HGTV Canada, Food Network Canada, Cooking Channel, Magnolia Network and OWN are anticipated to be impacted after the end of the year. Adult Swim and Cartoon Network, however, are not impacted, it said.
Food Network Canada and HGTV Canada are two of the channels currently included in Corus’s 16-channel streaming service StackTV.
“I want to reinforce Corus’ intent to continue operating the country’s largest and most widely distributed lifestyle channels based on the strength of top-rated Canadian programs and alternate foreign content supply,” Troy Reeb, executive vice president of networks and content at Corus, said in the company’s Friday press release. “We have an exceptional fall schedule coming in September and a vast amount of Canadian and U.S. content to carry us into the future.”
“This is an unfortunate example of inequitable structural relationships in the Canadian media and telecom industries, particularly affecting independent broadcasters like Corus,” Doug Murphy, Corus president and CEO, added in a statement released three days before Rogers announced it had acquired the licensing rights to the aforementioned channels and content.
“It highlights the urgent need for regulatory reform, including to rules affecting how market-dominant players interact with suppliers and competitors. Corus intends to explore all potential remedies. We look forward to adapting and advancing our strategies while we pursue new opportunities through our other content suppliers.”
When asked via email Monday how Rogers’s new licensing deal with Warner Bros. Discovery will impact Bell Media as the current licensee of the Discovery channel trademark, and whether there will be any content changes to CTV Drama Channel in light of Rogers launching Bravo in Canada this fall, a Bell Media spokesperson responded to say “it’s business as usual over here.”
A Bell spokesperson later added the following: “Bell Media is Canada’s foremost media company, with industry-leading assets across every content genre. Our long-standing partnership, content, and brand arrangements for the Discovery Canada channels includes protections against the launch of competing services. We fully intend to assert our rights with a view to protecting our business.”
In its announcement last week of its 2024/25 original programming slate, Bell Media noticeably avoided using any brand names for its specialty channels.
