Bell says Crave customers received’t have to fret about dropping entry to Warner Bros. titles, which embrace HBO, amid Paramount’s deliberate acquisition of the leisure big. A minimum of, not but, anyway.
In a press release to Broadcast Dialogue, a Bell spokesperson mentioned Warner Bros. content material will stay on Crave “for the foreseeable future” as a part of a “long-term deal.” Nevertheless, the corporate didn’t present a extra particular window, so it’s unclear precisely how a lot time that entails. For context, Bell confirmed in October 2024 that it had renewed its long-running licensing cope with Warner Bros., though it solely mentioned on the time that it’ll run for “a number of years.” Subsequently, it stays to be seen how lengthy Crave customers will proceed to have entry to Warner Bros. content material.
This comes after Netflix withdrew its months-long bid for Warner Bros., teeing up Paramount to purchase the corporate in a landmark US$110 billion deal. The businesses anticipate it to shut within the third quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approval.
As a part of this enterprise, Paramount says it plans to merge Warner Bros.’ HBO Max service with Paramount+. Since HBO Max isn’t accessible in Canada, nearly all of the service’s content material comes right here by way of Crave. Presumably, then, Paramount would probably wish to put all of those Warner Bros. titles on Paramount+ in Canada as soon as its cope with Bell has expired.
It additionally stays to be seen what’s going to occur with Warner Bros. titles which are licensed to different Canadian firms. As an example, Rogers has a deal for Discovery content material, giving it the Canadian rights to OWN, Animal Planet, Discovery Science and extra. This will get even messier when you think about that it signed a cope with Bell final 12 months to share these specialty channels. On prime of all that, the Paramount-owned FAST service Pluto TV has a cope with Corus Leisure in Canada.
All of that is to say that Paramount’s deliberate Warner Bros. buyout may affect a number of Canadian firms.
Picture credit score: HBO
Supply: Broadcast Dialogue
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