Canadian telecom Rogers has inked a licensing deal with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) and Comcast’s NBC Universal to bring their entertainment and sports content to the country.
Later this year, Rogers will launch a Canadian variant of NBC’s cable channel Bravo, complete with programming from the stateside network, the company affirmed on Monday. Next year, it will leverage WBD lifestyle content from brands like HGTV, the Food Network and TLC, the company said.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Rogers said it hopes the licensing agreements will help put it on solid ground at a time when competition in the Canadian entertainment market is heating up.
“We’re evolving our business to reflect where consumers are going, bringing the best mix of U.S. and Canadian content to audiences in the way they want to watch it,” Colette Watson, the President of Rogers Sports & Media, said in a statement. “This investment also advances our position as a strong Canadian broadcaster that can compete with foreign streamers.”
Beyond Bravo, it appears Rogers will use its content rights deal with NBC and WBD to distribute shows and live events across already-existing channels, including City TV, Omni, FX and FXX. In Canada, broadcasters are required to set aside a portion of their schedule for Canadian-produced programming, which prevents companies like Rogers from creating precise duplicates of American networks or simulcasting stateside networks in their entirety.
