Rogers to Launch Warner Bros. Discovery Channels in Canada After Bell Drops Legal Challenge

Canadian media giant Rogers Sports and Media is set to launch Warner Bros. Discovery-branded TV channels in Canada after rival Bell Media dropped a court action to block the distribution as planned from Jan. 1, 2025.

Rogers became the exclusive English-language content rights holder, distributor and advertising representative for the Discovery brands in Canada after it pulled the popular lifestyle and entertainment brands like HGTV, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Magnolia Network and OWN from rival Corus Entertainment. At the time, WBD also agreed to move other entertainment brands like Discovery, Motor Trend, Science, Animal Planet and I.D. from longtime homes at Bell Media to Rogers. 

Distribution of WBD’s suite of English-language U.S. lifestyle and factual channels, including Discovery ID and Discovery in 2025 north of the border can go ahead after Bell abandoned its legal efforts in the Ontario Superior Court to block Canadians from seeing Discovery channels on Rogers platforms. 

In a separate licensing deal, Bell said it renewed and expanded its partnership with WBD to have its Crave streamer continue to be the exclusive home of HBO and Max originals like The Last of Us, House of the Dragon and library series like Friends and The Big Bang Theory.

The latest realignment of top American channels north of the border aims to allow local broadcasters to continue following TV viewers online, and targeting where possible Canadians increasingly favoring catch-up viewing on streaming platforms. Bell Media, which operates the CTV linear TV network and Crave, like rivals Rogers and Global TV at Corus Entertainment continues to acquire and offer new and returning American shows as part of its key primetime offerings to Canadians.

That comes as the rise of Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video as dominant streaming players north of the border continues to reduce ad revenues for Canadian TV networks as marketing dollars shift from traditional TV to online video platforms.

In addition, legacy Canadian networks face a greater impact from economic disruption as they lack the scale of the major studios and U.S. networks in the battle for survival and supremacy in the evolving streaming era.