MONTREAL — Bell Media today announced it has made a minority investment in Grandé Studios, a Montreal-based company which provides production facilities, camera and lighting equipment rentals in Montreal and Toronto, as well as technical services to the local and international TV and film production industry.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed in Bell Media’s press release.
Grandé Studios’ facilities (pictured above) have already been home to several Bell Media original productions, including Transplant, La semaine des 4 Julie and the Crave Original film The Song of Names. In addition, several Hollywood blockbuster movie productions have made use of Grandé Studios facilities, such as X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Jack Ryan and Moonfall, one of the biggest productions currently filming in Canada, says the Bell Media release.
“When we started out, Andrew Lapierre, Mitsou Gélinas, Paul Hurteau and I dreamed of one day having a complete service offering that would rival with the big ones and the construction of Grandé Studios was a crucial step in achieving this vision,” explained Iohann Martin, president of Grandé Studios, in the release. “This partnership with Bell Media is a source of pride. Together, we are committed to contributing to the influence of creators here and across the country.”
“This partnership accelerates Bell Media’s ongoing commitment to the Québec economy and increases our ability to help bring more Québécois content to market,” said Karine Moses, Bell’s vice-chair, Québec, and president of Bell Media Québec. “With their real estate, Grandé Studios has the opportunity to meet the increased demand for production facilities in Montréal, and we look forward to working with creators to increase the number of productions in the city.”
Bell Media’s new partnership with Grandé Studios follows the company’s other recent investments in Canada’s French-language film and TV industry, including its acquisition of the V network (recently rebranded as Noovo) and the addition of French-language content to its Crave streaming service.
