MONTREAL – Bell Canada and BCE president and CEO George Cope announced this afternoon that Kevin Crull is no longer president of Bell Media, effective today.
"Kevin Crull departs Bell with our thanks for his contributions to our customers and shareholders," said Cope, in a press release sent out just after 4 p.m. ET. "Kevin has been a significant part of Bell's strategic transformation as he expanded Bell Media's leadership with major new investments in Canadian content, the successful integration of Astral and competitive innovations like CraveTV."
"However, the independence of Bell Media's news operations is of paramount importance to our company and to all Canadians. There can be no doubt that Bell will always uphold the journalistic standards that have made CTV the most trusted brand in Canadian news," said Mr. Cope.
Cope was referring to Crull’s attempt, two weeks ago, to influence the news coverage CTV and BNN gave to the CRTC’s most recent TV Policy decisions. While Crull called it a lesson learned, it was clearly something he should not have tried.
Crull joined Bell in 2005 as president of consumer solutions and was appointed president of Bell Media following its acquisition of CTVglobemedia in 2011. He serves as a director of SickKids Foundation and is a leading supporter of the Walk for Kids Help Phone, the national youth counselling service funded by the Bell Let's Talk mental health initiative.
The company has promoted Mary Ann Turcke as Crull's replacement.
