TORONTO – Corus Entertainment today announced it will sell French-language specialty channels Historia and Séries+ to Bell Media for approximately $200 million.
The sale is pending approval by the CRTC and the Competition Bureau and the two companies expect it to close mid-2018.
"In the 18 months since Corus acquired Shaw Media, we have demonstrated a resolute commitment to de-lever our balance sheet to 3.5 times net debt to segment profit by the end of fiscal 2017 and 3 times by the end of fiscal 2018," said Doug Murphy, president and CEO of Corus, in the company’s press release.
As reported by Cartt.ca, Murphy has gone on record saying the company is going to reduce the number of channels it owns and operates. It's also worth noting that Corus purchased these two channels in 2014 from Bell Media – after the Competition Bureau and the CRTC informed Bell it must do so in order to gain approval for purchasing Astral Media. Corus paid $481 million then for the two French channels, as well as the 50% of Teletoon (which then-included Teletoon, Télétoon, Teletoon Retro, Télétoon Rétro and Cartoon Network) Astral had owned. While there will probably be opposition to this deal (despite likely $20 million in CRTC benefits to come from it), Murphy told financial analysts Wednesday during the company's conference call on its Q4 financials that he expects Ottawa to approve, given the changes in the global media landscape since 2013.
The move does not mean Corus is out of Quebec as it still owns Global Montreal, Télétoon and La chaîne Disney, as well as Toon Boom, its animation software company. Corus Entertainment will continue to own and operate Historia and Séries+ until the transaction closes.
"The addition of Séries+ and Historia perfectly complements our broad slate of French-language channels, further enhancing our competitiveness in the vibrant Québec media landscape," said Randy Lennox, president, Bell Media, in its release. "We look forward to taking Séries+ and Historia further than ever before, reinforcing our commitment to invest and grow in Québec, and deliver even more opportunities for francophone viewers, producers, and advertisers."
"Bell Media has had a proven track record of investing in original French-language production, commissioning over 530 original productions from more than 70 francophone producers, and representing nearly 2,700 hours of new programming," added Gerry Frappier, Bell Media's president, French-language TV and RDS. "Now with the addition of Séries+ and Historia, we look forward to bolstering our commitment to both francophone viewers and the Québec television production community even more."
Bell Media currently operates 10 French-language TV channels in Québec, including Canal D, Canal Vie, Cinépop, Investigation, RDS, RDS Info, RDS2, Super Écran, Vrak, and Z.
This story has been updated.
