Broadcasters advised to ‘pick their winners’ as pick-and-pay approaches

Media | 11/27/2015 9:58 pm EST

As the Canadian TV industry approaches an era where customers have more choice over the channels they subscribe to, large broadcasters should “pick their winners” and consolidate into a smaller number of channels, a new report from RBC Capital Markets says.   “Today, many if not most specialty channels benefit from being included in large BDU packages — particularly outside of Quebec," the report released Thursday said. "For years, BDUs have been...

HBO deal bolsters CraveTV against Shomi, Netflix: experts

Media | 11/20/2015 10:15 pm EST

BCE Inc.’s move to acquire exclusive rights to HBO programming on all platforms and become the sole operator of HBO Canada will make its CraveTV over-the-top (OTT) service more competitive against rivals, experts said. Having national HBO rights should “bolster the competitive position of CraveTV relative to other OTT services,” such as Netflix and Shomi, especially when CraveTV launches as a stand-alone service next year, RBC Dominion Securities analyst Drew McReynolds said in a research note. Bell Media announced the deal Thursday, stating the move gives it “the...