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Bell Media Selling Comedy Gold to Wow Unlimited

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33K views 85 replies 19 participants last post by  mcclellandryan184 
#1 ·
According to an article on Cartt, https://cartt.ca/article/new-strategic-partnership-will-see-bell-media-sell-channel Bell is partnering up with a group calling Wow Unlimited Media and will be selling a cat B channel to them likely Comedy Gold or Investigation Discovery as they are the only 2 cat B channels they own 100%. I'm assuming the channel will be Cartoon Hangover based on what they own but who knows.
 
#2 ·
Press Release:
Wow Unlimited Media and Bell Media Announce Strategic Partnership in Kids and Youth Entertainment

Bell will get $6,866,892 in stock (representing approximately 12% of Wow's shares).

Wow and Bell Media will enter into a series of ancillary agreements establishing an ongoing strategic partnership between Wow and Bell Media that relate to, among other things, the ongoing carriage of a Wow branded channel to replace the current branding of the Category B specialty service on Bell TV and related platforms, transitional services whereby Bell Media will provide various operational, transmission, studio and technology services to Wow, the supply of children's and other programming controlled by Wow for use by Bell Media on CraveTV and Snackable TV, and have agreed to collaborate and to jointly develop and produce content for the development and production of future programming.
 
#5 ·
I usually ignore quotes attributed to company officials because they're usually just PR fluff, however I did find something that wasn't included in the formal text of the press release:

Randy Lennox, President, Bell Media said "As part of our partnership, Bell Media will leverage Wow's programming for use across all of our platforms including linear television, CraveTV, and SnackableTV."

I remembered seeing the linear TV phrase when I skimmed it initially, but didn't see it in the clip I posted.

Until now Bell Media hasn't really bothered with kids' programming, especially for CraveTV.

In case anyone is wondering, Bell won't get the TV rights to ReBoot: The Guardian Code since YTV already licensed that show from Wow.
 
#8 ·
Because it's Category A and was thrown in a bunch of bundles. It doesn't matter how many viewers it has if it costs nothing to run and gets subscriber revenue thanks to bundling.

Individual Pay, Pay-per-view, Video-on-demand and Specialty Services - Statistical and Financial Summaries - 2011-2015 - Book Television (formerly Book Television - The Channel) | CRTC

Listed there as having 0 staff in 2015, virtually no advertising costs, virtually no program acquistion costs, total programming costs of half a million, virtually no advertising revenue, and profit of $2 million. That's entirely subscriber revenue (which itself is dropping since the subscriber numbers are in freefall).

By now it might be a candidate to be sold or shut down, but back in 2015 it was just free money.
 
#13 ·
From what I understand, cat A and cat B designations for specialty channels will soon be a thing of the past. There will still be mandatory channels but only on an individual channel basis. Cat A and cat B designations were originally designed for analog only and hybrid digital/analog cable systems which are rapidly disappearing.
 
#15 ·
Genre protection and mandatory distribution for the large vertically-integrated companies like Bell, Rogers and Shaw/Corus have been discontinued effective Sept. 1 with their licence renewals. Independent companies have until their licence renewals next September.
 
#17 ·
Wow! Unlimited picks programming chief
Canada’s Wow! Unlimited has a new SVP and GM in Marni Shulman, the former VP and programming head at now-defunct Canadian SVOD service shomi. (The Rogers Media/Shaw Communications-owned service announced it was shuttering last fall.)

Shulman will be tasked with leading Wow!’s new partnership with Bell Media. In June, the companies announced that Wow! was to acquire a specialty channel from Bell, though specific details on the deal have not yet been revealed. At the time, Wow! CEO Michael Hirsh said the Wow!-branded, ad-supported channel will focus on kids and youth content.

In addition to leading the Bell Media partnership, Shulman—who also held roles as VP of content for IFC Canada, Showcase Action and Showcase Diva Networks, as well as a director of programming for CTV Travel—will also be responsible for overseeing the launch of Wow!’s new multiplatform kids and youth brand.

The announcement comes two weeks after Wow! unveiled another C-suite hire, with John Vandervelde joining as EVP, corporate secretary and CFO.

Wow! Unlimited was formed in October 2016, when Vancouver-based Rainmaker Entertainment acquired US animation studio and MCN Frederator Networks and kids production company Ezrin Hirsh Entertainment.
 
#18 ·
"The Cartt.ca Interview: Bell Media president Randy Lennox" quotes him as saying they "horse traded" Comedy Gold to become a worldwide partner with Wow Unlimited, so I will update the title.

He also referred to Comedy Gold, Book and FashionTV as "dormant, non-strategic" and "resting channels." ;)
 
#20 · (Edited)
Comedy Gold will be sold to Wow Unlimited and will be re-branded as a kids channel. It made almost $2 million in profit before taxes in 2016. The other 2 made about $1.3 million. As long as they don't lose money, Bell will probably keep them around.

"You could have it as resting channels, or you could do what we do with Comedy Gold...that extrapolates into something useful." Bell is a 12% partner in everything Wow does worldwide.
 
#21 ·
He also referred to Comedy Gold, Book and FashionTV as "dormant, non-strategic" and "resting channels."
The problem with with so called "dormant" or "resting channels" is that they can make over $1 million a year just from fees that subscribers a forced to pay a BDU because they are bundled in large packages. These channels are gutted of staff and content plus provide little of value to consumers. This is nothing less than legalized fraud made possible by protectionist laws and lack of effective consumer advocacy at the CRTC. Instead of letting BDUs and communications companies acquire the majority of Canada's broadcast channels, the CRTC should have instituted policies to make them divest their broadcasting interests years ago.
 
#23 ·
@DarksideDan The interviewer asked a question about the future of linear, ad-supported TV and mentioned the French channels Bell bought from Corus plus Fashion TV and Book TV as examples of Bell channels that are "taking up space." It wasn't meant to be a comprehensive list of zombie channels, but I think MTV2 would fall into that category.

Cartt.ca is a subscription site, but if anyone wants to read the article, you can Google the title and they usually allow a click-through.

Lennox seems like a pretty creative guy and has some interesting strategies like getting getting Hulu to co-fund Cardinal and partnering with Netflix on Frontier, The Indian Detective and the Tragically Hip documentary.
 
#24 ·
I guess still holding onto 1 million subs (somehow) means it's not dead.
A million subscribers means nothing. It can simply mean that it's bundled with other channels that a million people want to watch. The number of MTV viewers is the important figure. Channels with low viewership need to be taken out of bundles. That applies especially to channels owned by companies that also own BDUs. That way BDUs won't be able to pad their bottom lines by buying or creating zombie channels.
 
#25 ·
I tend to wonder why BDU who own channels and there not doing so well why they keep them? Then with the new CRTC rules with the that your channels no longer need to follow wait they where originally licensed for basically you got a channel all ready licensed and on providers. basically you re-brand the channel and most case you set to go.

I
In most cases the channel stays on the providers channels they carry.
 
#26 ·
I'm fully aware MTV2 is a channel scraping by off of bundles, much like G4 and many of the other zombie channels were. I just don't understand why in today's landscape, where the CRTC will let you rebrand any channel, that the BDUs would allow them to rot. If I were Wow! Unlimited, I'd want MTV2's channel space over Comedy Gold's.

I know some of the US branded channels up here operate solely as a contractual requirement, but MTV2 is getting sidelined in US and what little new content it's running isn't coming up here.
 
#27 ·
CTV might not be willing to sell MTV2 so Wow will take whatever CTV is willing to sell. It's still probably better than starting a new channel and fighting for carriage on BDUs. Carriage of Comedy Gold might have been part of the deal.

By investment valuation methods MTV2 is worth over $30 million due to its income from bundling and carriage on BDUs. If that bundling and carriage were removed it would be worth nothing. Because CTV can let MTV2 rot and still make over $1 million per year they have no incentive to do anything with it. That's why CRTC rules regarding bundling and carriage need to change.
 
#30 ·
@Blackloz see post 17 - "Wow! CEO Michael Hirsh said the Wow!-branded, ad-supported channel will focus on kids and youth content."
Michael Hirsh's background is kids entertainment going back to his co-founding of Nelvana back in the '70s (now owned by Corus.)


By investment valuation methods MTV2 is worth over $30 million due to its income from bundling and carriage on BDUs...
I don't know how you calculate that MTV2 is worth that much when Comedy Gold is worth under $7 million.
 
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