BELL MEDIA specialty channels NEWS & SCHEDULES 2017

[mtlguy]

Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams is starting Sunday November 12th at 10pm on Space

http://www.bellmedia.ca/pr/press/thr...r-12-on-space/

[lostjon]

Coinciding with the move from MTV to Spike in the U.S., season 2 of The Shannara Chronicles goes from MTV Canada to Space. It premieres day and date with Spike on Wednesday, October 11 at 10:00pm.

Season 6 of Arrow is moving to Space with first-run episodes airing at the same time as The CW, starting Thursday, October 12 at 9:00pm, following Supernatural. Encore presentations of the previous week's episode follow Wednesdays at 9:00pm on CTV Two starting October 18

Space will also have second window broadcast rights to the new FOX series The Gifted.


Meanwhile, Much will continue to have second window broadcast rights to Gotham, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow all of which will be airing on Saturday afternoons.

Bravo will show encores of Criminal Minds, Law & Order: SVU, Lucifer (moving from Much) and new series The Good Doctor.

Likewise with Comedy, for new seasons of The Big Bang Theory and The Goldbergs. Encores of hit drama This Is Us will run on E!

[mtlguy]

Queen Sugar is back on Bravo on October 4th at 9pm for the second half of Season 2.

IFC comedy series Stan Against Evil is schedule on Space on Thursday October 12th at 10 & 10:30pm.

[InMontreal]

Queen Sugar (...) IFC comedy series Stan Against Evil

Here we go again, Queen Sugar is a OWN original and by logic, Corus should have picked it up for OWN Canada, as well as Stan for IFC Canada. Not to forget the many productions for Freeform which should end up on ABC Spark but Bell picks them up instead... Why does this keep happening ?

[mtlguy]

Here we go again, Queen Sugar is a OWN original and by logic, Corus should have picked it up for OWN Canada, as well as Stan for IFC Canada. Not to forget the many productions for Freeform which should end up on ABC Spark but Bell picks them up instead... Why does this keep happening ?

Most of those is simply because output deal Bell has (as you probably know). Queen Sugar being a Warner Bros show, why would Bell give it up to competition? I know a few IFC shows are on TMN also I think. Yes it would be easier if the same network had the same shows here than their US counterparts, but this is not just in Canada, other country have shows on other network depending on producers.

I don't have a problem with it as long as we have the shows somewhere.

Same think is going to happen with Paramount Network, we're going to get shows blacked out because (mostly) Bell or others have output deal for Canadian rights to shows.

[lostjon]

Season 6 of Major Crimes premieres Tuesday, October 31 at 9:00pm on Bravo (same day and date broadcast with TNT). Bravo will continue airing weekly marathons of episodes from seasons 1 through 5 on Mondays.

An encore presentation of the fourth and final season of 19-2 (8 episodes) begins Tuesday, October 31 at 10:00pm. For the first time in the show's history, first run episodes aired on CTV this past summer.

[mtlguy]

So they are showing season 6 before season 5 was ever shown in Canada... Not good. Hopefully they will show repeats of season 6 once they aired season 5 in December or January...

[lostjon]

On second thought, maybe the reason why they haven't announced the channel is that they don't have it nailed down yet. Maybe Bell wants to off load one of the channels that it co-owns with ESPN - like ESPN Classic. And they haven't finalized a deal yet, and if it doesn't go through, then they have a backup and will sell off one of the channels Bell owns 100% - either Comedy Gold or Investigation Discovery.

Below is an excerpt taken from a recent interview with Bell Media president Randy Lennox that addresses the company's plans to sell off one of their channels:

I agree with (Corus CEO) Doug (Murphy) that there are too many channels. I wholeheartedly agree with him. But, it's not the existence of the channels that's the negative, it's what you do with them. So Series+, which we've just purchased from him, has a strategy to it that we will undertake when we take over the business. Historia has a strategy that we will undertake.

Book and FashionTV are dormant, non-strategic, so there's a very big difference… it's the old adage, right? It's not what you say it's how you say it. Well, that's how specialty works. You could have it as resting channels, or you could do what we do with Comedy Gold, where I took Comedy Gold and horse traded it to become a worldwide partner with Wow Unlimited, with Micheal Hirsh who's the founder of Nelvana. Now, anything that he does worldwide… we're a significant shareholder, as a part owner. That would be a good example of a dormant existing channel, in that case Comedy Gold, that extrapolates into something useful.

Source: https://cartt.ca/article/carttca-int...totters-and-ty (subject to payroll; try copying the link in Google and then click on the item)

*****

Here are some takeaways:
* With Comedy Gold being selected as the channel to be sold off as a partnership with Wow Unlimited Media, that marks an entry for Bell Media into the kids' specialty market, placing them in competition with Corus (and their empire of kids' specialty channels) and DHX Media (with Family and their suite of specialty channels. In the process, one less Canadian retro-based channel that no longer serves its purpose in the specialty landscape. Corus should consider doing the same with Dejaview - perhaps sell it off to Channel Zero.

* As for Book and FashionTV, if these channels are being seen as "dominant, non-strategic and resting" now, when can we expect this to change in the near future? Unless they can apply a strategy like they have with Comedy Gold, then it's only a matter of time before these channels either get sold off to another party (if anyone is even interested in acquiring them) or go off the air altogether. As time goes on, perhaps more of the major, competing providers (and some have already started to do this) will either drop these channels from their lineup or offer these channels exclusively as a pick and pay option and remove them from packages where they are bundled with popular specialty channels. Gradually as these channels continue to have less subscribers, Bell Media will eventually go to the CRTC and request to have their licenses revoked.

Like we saw recently with the likes of Stornoway's channels (iChannel, bpm:tv and Pet Network) and with G4 (Rogers), in the event that there is notice of these channels ending service on a particular date, it would more likely come from competing providers like Shaw and Cogeco.

So far, Videotron is still hanging on to FashionTV while they are the only major provider as far as I know that dropped BookTV from their lineup in August 2016.

[DraicKin]

The more I take a look at it and the more it raises some questions...

I understand the " let's try to do something with Comedy Gold before it's too late" argument and if someone is interested in a dormant, non-strategic channel then for Bell it was now or never.
If this was a normal "I'm selling you this channel for this amount of money, do whatever you want with it" kind of sale then it would be fine but this is more a " strategic partnership" kind of sale and I'm not sure what are Bell and Wow real expectations regarding that Wow channel, if you look Comedy Gold's current situation they start with a few strikes ...
- currently doesnt have an HD feed
- I didnt find Comedy Gold on ShawDirect and Shaw Cable
- on Rogers, look how Comedy Gold is currently package compare to the others kids/teens/tween channels


Yes I know that trying something is still better than doing nothing and that they can launch an HD feed , negociate carriage and packaging with Shaw, Rogers , Videotron and all , so let's wait and see but if I take for example Gusto on Rogers, the channel is still in the Music and Entertainment theme pack (most likely the theme pack M3 was in)


Once again let's wait and see

[mtlguy]

So I am ready this article from the Hollywood Reporter and they basically announce a new Streaming service to be launched by BELL Media for comedy shows called Snackable.

Is Crave TV so popular that they want to divide the content? It is announced here as a FREE service with ads, so that is different why not make a free version of Crave. That will cost more marketing, less content. I feel like this is a bad business decision. If they had decided to have the free version of Crave with those shows going to Snackable, it would show the <premium< no add content to people going there and making them want to buy the full version. Anyway, just weird decision..

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...canada-1081683

[mtlguy]

OK I now see Bell had a press release today. It for short form apparently

http://www.bellmedia.ca/pr/press/bel...p-snackabletv/

[PokerFace]

I saw the Snackable tv ads a few days ago and was completely confused each time they appeared, so I just tuned out and assumed they were poorly-presented Crave commercials. After reading the linked articles, I noticed Honeymoon Tour listed and decided to rewatch the 8 episodes via the Comedy Central site (skipping past the opening commercial of each episode).

I didn't even realize that Snackables had a free version because I just assumed it was part of a paid Crave subscription. I'm not the target audience because I'm not looking specifically for short-form entertainment. And if I was, I'd just go to youtube.

[InMontreal]

So, Bell Media came up with a brand name that rhymes with "Crackle", cherry-pick Comedy Network, HBO comedies, etalk segments and other random things as content for their new service, and there ! Ad-supported content you'd find otherwise on Youtube, and pay us for the full version. I'm sensing Bell is lining up its new "short-film" service to take another stab against Channel Zero... remember Moviola? and the canadian BloombergTV?

[mtlguy]

Bell has made an update to their Bravo Media site page...first since September I think.

Coming Soon:
Cardinal - Season 2
Queen Sugar - Season 3
Ten Days in the Valley
The Details
The Disappearance

Scheduled:
Carter - Tuesday 8pm May 15 (already announced)
Hard Sun - Sunday 10pm May 6
Picnic at Hanging Rock - Sunday 10pm June 10
Queen of the South - Thursday 9pm June 21
Shooter - Thursday 10pm June 21

And looks like Famous in Love has moved from Bravo to E!. It starts April 8th, Sundays at 8pm.

[Donovan's Monkey]

...all-new CORNER GAS ANIMATED (Comedy) ...

The first of the 13 episodes will be on Comedy on Mon. Apr. 2.
Last night (Thursday Mar. 29), all of the cast were at the HotDocs Cinema in Toronto.
http://boxoffice.hotdocs.ca/websales...?evtinfo=72690
http://www.cornergas.com/corner-gas-...pecial-guests/
There was a table read (also with Debra McGrath and Colin Mochrie) of an episode revolving around a Sasquatch hoax, along with two of the characters' obsession with a 'Game Of Thrones'-like TV show, which was followed by the showing of an episode that involved beeswax and 'local produce'. It is very much like the live-action series, although being animated allows for brief cut-away fantasy or flashback sequences, for example a fight between a unicorn and a Sasquatch, or one of the characters remembering something that happened when they were in high school.

[mtlguy]

More scheduling, Season 3 of Colony premieres Wednesday May 2nd at 9pm on Bravo.

Also, Season 2 of comedy Brockmire is premiering April 26th at 10pm on Comedy.

[mtlguy]

Funny how a press released about ratings doesn't actually contains any ratings per say. Only how much it increased... Spin spin spin.

http://www.bellmedia.ca/pr/press/vie...tale-on-bravo/

[Donovan's Monkey]

Daily Planet and Innerspace have been cancelled by Bell Media.
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/bell-media...sure-1.3944436

[InMontreal]

June 7, 2018
TORONTO (June 7, 2018) – In a bold move to strategically leverage Canada’s #1 entertainment brand, Bell Media announced today it will rebrand four of its leading entertainment specialty channels as CTV properties. Space, Bravo, Comedy, and Gusto will become CTV Sci-Fi, CTV Drama, CTV Comedy, and CTV Life. They will be joined by CTV Movies and CTV Vault, two new ad-supported VOD services, in a new CTV digital super-hub featuring all seven services.
https://www.bellmedia.ca/pr/press/be...ovies-service/

Now, that's the dumbest move ever! These are the another pieces of what CHUM built as unique canadian branding. Bell sold CLT, Drive-In and SexTV to Corus, the 4 music-video channels to Stingray, crushed MuchMoreMusic (M3, then Gusto), Razer, CourtTV, and turned FashionTV and BookTV to pure crappola. Star! became E!, MuchMusic shorted to Much and airs comedies, TV Land became Comedy Gold (3 shows in rotation, being sold). Space turned to derision by adding cop shows like Castle, Bravo! gave up arts... CP24 is the only remaining CHUM asset left intact.

Now, all hail to CTV !

[PokerFace]

Drama and comedy quite often tend to be interchangeable, so there will never be tried-and-true divisions of content, regardless of what they call them.

I just hope that CTV Sci-Fi has a smaller and less distracting logo than Space currently has (although I almost always wait a few days for the logo-free WEB-DL download options from the pirate sites to appear, even when I have the option to stream from the CTV or any other official website).

CTV 2 ... Hey everybody, we're rebranding ... look for CTV Too to launch sometime in 2020. #All for 1 and Too for all.