TORONTO – Bell Media continued its programming spending spree, announcing an agreement with HBO for all Canadian multi-platform rights to HBO's complete off-air catalogue of television programming.
The agreement is separate and distinct from its earlier announcement that HBO Canada has secured the entire past-season library of every HBO series currently on air.
In this agreement, Bell Media has exclusively acquired all national multi-platform rights, including SVOD, for the entire off-air library of HBO's programming catalogue. The deal encompasses more than 850 hours of past scripted programming, as well as hundreds of hours of HBO movies, documentaries, and stand-up and music specials.
According to sources, this deal – whose financial terms were not released – is similar to the deal HBO signed in the U.S. market for its catalogue with Amazon, which likely means Bell Media now has its hands on even more seriously premium content for the new online portal it plans to launch in the new year, as Cartt.ca has reported previously. We bet this bit of information comes up on Wednesday when Bell appears in front of the Commission during the TV Policy Review hearing.
