As the streaming wars heat up, Bell Media (TSX:BCE) is bolstering its available content by purchasing the exclusive Canadian rights to original series produced by American platform HBO Max.
The deal struck with Warner Bros. secures new programming to help fortify Bell's "Crave" streaming service as the market gets more crowded with new entrants such as Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus. The deal also confirms that HBO Max isn't headed to Canada as a standalone option when it launches in the U.S. in May 2020.
Instead, Bell Media said in a news release, that TV shows produced for HBO Max will land on Crave's premium HBO tier, which costs $20 a month. The subscription price won't be raised as part of the new agreement, said Bell.
Upcoming titles from HBO Max include a spinoff of "Gossip Girl," DC Comics series "Green Lantern," and "Dune: The Sisterhood," a show that's set in the universe of Frank Herbert's Dune novels. But not everything on HBO Max will come to Canada as the agreement only covers output from Warner's television production operations.
That means certain TV shows produced by other companies will be excluded from Canada, among them Sony's update of the cult animated series "The Boondocks" and "Sesame Street," which has a U.S. deal with HBO Max for both past and upcoming seasons.
Wildly popular 1990s sitcom "Friends" was confirmed to be leaving Netflix for the HBO Max service in the U.S. but won't be coming to Canada. Viewers in Canada will have access to HBO titles such as "Game of Thrones" and "Succession," as well as classic network TV hits such as "Seinfeld" and the "Big Bang Theory."
Exclusive content has become an asset for all the major streaming players, who have invested billions of dollars in producing new shows and films to attract more subscribers and retain current ones.
