Bell Media (TSX: BCE, Stock Forum) and Corus Entertainment (TSX: CJR.B, Stock Forum) made Canadian broadcast entertainment history today when the two companies signed a landmark multi-year, multi-platform deal with HBO that will allow HBO Canada to deliver the entire past-season library of every HBO scripted series currently on air for years to come.
According to the news release, every episode of every season of all current HBO scripted programming will be available on HBO Canada linear and non-linear platforms when the deal rolls out in force this fall.
Customers of Bell Media's The Movie Network and Corus Entertainment's Movie Central will be able to enjoy all past seasons of some of the most acclaimed programs currently airing such as Game of Thrones, Girls, Boardwalk Empire and True Detective at no additional charge.
The deal includes rights to more than 700 episodes from past seasons of current programming on top of the 300 plus episodes of HBO series currently available.
Bell Media President, Kevin Crull, commented, “With this deal, our premium subscribers will be able to enjoy all of their favourite HBO programs, significantly increasing the value of a subscription to The Movie Network.”
He went on to illustrate, “Now we can offer even more of what our subscribers want, which is all of HBO's incredible programming across multiple platforms, including the industry-leading TMN GO.”
John Cassaday, Corus President and CEO, added, “This deal reinforces our commitment to providing our customers with a great value proposition.”
Then he concluded, “Securing prior seasons of HBO's hit programs enables our subscribers to view past episodes of current series that they might not have seen from the very first season and positions HBO Canada as the place to see the most talked about series from start to finish.”
In other news, Bell Media announced that it had acquired the exclusive Canadian multi-platform rights to HBO's complete off-air catalog of seminal television programming, complimenting the aforementioned announcement.