U.S. relationships “will evolve, not lapse,” says Lennox
TORONTO – If it feels like Bell Media's 2019 Upfront presentation unleashed an avalanche of new content and viewing options for Canadians, just as more Hollywood studios get set to launch more Netflix-killer streaming services, it's no coincidence.
The way Bell Media president Randy Lennox (pictured Thursday with the company’s latest home-grown star, Mary Berg of Mary’s Kitchen Crush) tells Cartt.ca, he's moving chess pieces in a larger game of redefining long-standing relationships with Hollywood content suppliers while the major studios sort out whether to continue licensing popular American shows to the Canadians, or hold back content for streamers possibly to launch in Canada.
"Those relationships will evolve, but they will not lapse," Lennox says as he bets Bell Media will still be in business with long-standing studio partners when the dust settles on Hollywood's escalating streaming wars.
A broadcaster who in an earlier life at Universal Music Canada saw Apple's iTunes take nearly two decades to finally displace retail music stores sees lots of runway ahead for Bell Media as digital disruption takes hold. "It's a long term transition because they (studios) have their own mouths to feed. Disney is getting into streaming space, but it also has the ABC network to supply with content," Lennox says.
CBS and Viacom, should they merge, have the CBS network to feed. Ditto with Comcast and NBCUniversal, and the entertainment, news and sport content required for NBC-branded channels. "As long as they (Hollywood studios) have their own version of what our CTV system is, our risk is ameliorated by that fact," Lennox insists.
What’s more, he forecasts “market confusion” when Canadians are faced with considering streamers from Disney, WarnerMedia, Apple and Comcast that haven’t even launched north of the border.
So, for now, with CTV, Crave as a streaming platform and Bell’s the cable-lite Alt TV, Bell Media has settled into three key distribution lanes for an ambitious digital future: linear TV, ad-supported digital live TV and subscription VOD.
Here, the teeter-totter effect of a fast-changing TV business has Bell Media also making its main CTV network ubiquitous, and tucking in specialty channels like The Comedy Network, Space, Bravo, and Gusto into the CTV brand, while also making bold bets in digital and streaming.
"We have a network business, we have an entertainment specialty business and brands that stand for different things, we have different partnerships and a big priority in our emerging mobile (content) strategy and we have the OTT platform Crave," Mike Cosentino, president, content and programming at Bell Media, told Cartt.ca as he surveys his conventional, specialty and streaming assets.
Subscription VOD and ad-supported Internet TV, far from cannibalizing CTV's linear TV business, allows Bell Media to innovate, leverage its existing TV brands and create long-term value for BCE.
"We can't rebrand these channels without demonstrating investment and commitment to our programming.” – Mike Cosentino, Bell Media
Heading into the 2019 Upfronts, Bell Media followed up existing exclusive content deals with Starz, HBO and Showtime by signing new deals to bring Corus’ HGTV veteran Mike Holmes and his family to star in Holmes Family Rescue for CTV, launch the homegrown medical drama Transplant and order and invest in 20+ films from Harlequin Studios to help target the new CTV Drama channel brand for female viewers.
This wall of new stuff for Canadian TV viewers enables a larger opportunity for Bell Media to slice and dice and mix and match different channel packages like the rebranded CTV Drama Channel, CTV Sci-Fi Channel, CTV Comedy Channel and CTV Life Channel offerings from September.
"We can't rebrand these channels without demonstrating investment and commitment to our programming," Cosentino insists.
Likewise with Canadians set to subscribe to Starz content through Amazon's Prime Video channel launching here, Cosentino said that distribution deal was always envisioned as part of Bell Media's original exclusive deal with Lionsgate's premium cable channel.
“The irony is OTT right now is pick and pay, something the CRTC wanted to impose on linear TV, but will evolve as wholesalers in the market will aggregate OTT (services) all day long,” – Randy Lennox, Bell Media
Bringing out his crystal ball, Lennox foresees a time when the fat cable bundle now breaking down will be replaced by a fat OTT bundle where Canadians opt for a package of streaming apps rather than cable TV packages. "To me, the irony is OTT right now is pick and pay, something the CRTC wanted to impose on linear TV, but will evolve as wholesalers in the market will aggregate OTT (services) all day long. The Amazon channel is already that, Roku is already that, the Apple channel is already that," Lennox argues.
And as streaming TV inevitably turns into something resembling today's entertainment landscape, Bell Media also has a growing focus on short form content, especially when parent BCE has 10 million mobile customers as a vital revenue generator.
"We're looking forward to Quibi coming to Canada, because that fits beautifully with our overall Bell strategy, given our mobile subs," Lennox declares.
He won't be drawn on whether Bell Media may have a hand in bringing Quibi (the billion-dollar mobile-only video content startup being built by Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg) to Canada, but the fact Lennox this Sunday at the Banff World Media Festival will be onstage to interview Katzenberg gives more than a winking hint of how the Quibi founder and chairman's digital platform for premium mobile content will cross the U.S.-Canadian border.
