2024–present: New licensing agreements
On June 10, 2024, Rogers Sports & Media announced a licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) beginning in 2025. Under the agreement Rogers will hold the Canadian rights to WBD's factual brands, including Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, Food Network, HGTV, Investigation Discovery (ID), Magnolia Network, Motor Trend, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), and Science Channel.[33] Content will be distributed via new and existing Rogers platforms, including its television networks and Citytv+. Rogers also announced an agreement with NBCUniversal to relaunch Bravo in Canada in September 2024.[34] Rogers' agreement with WBD succeeds long-time partnerships the latter company had with Bell Media and Corus Entertainment, while the Bravo relaunch would be Rogers' third collaboration on a TV channel with Comcast after the launches of OLN and G4 in Canada.
In a statement to The Gazette media writer Steve Faguy, a Bell Media spokesperson stated that their agreements with Discovery "includes protections against the launch of competing services", and that they "fully intend to assert our rights with a view to protecting our business."[35] Bell subsequently filed for a court injunction to prevent Rogers from operating channels under the relevant brands for at least two years after the Rogers deal takes effect, citing non-compete clauses in its outgoing agreement, along with monetary damages from both Rogers and WBD. Bell further alleged that Rogers induced WBD to break the non-complete clauses in question.[36] Subsequently, Rogers filed documents asserting that WBD had failed to disclose the non-compete clauses to Rogers. On August 30, Bell said that in light of that revelation, it was no longer seeking monetary damages from Rogers, but would proceed with claims against WBD; including injunctive relief.[37]
Corus also retaliated by filing a complaint with the CRTC in August 2024, accusing Rogers Communications as a whole of abusing a dominant position due to Rogers Cable offering the ad-supported version of Disney+ to Ignite TV subscribers, and promoting the service adjacent to Corus' Disney-licensed specialty services in the Ignite TV program guide. Rogers countered that Corus "has not kept up with the demands of Canadians and is now looking for the regulator to protect their broken business model" and accused Corus of forcing service providers to carry channels that consumers "no longer want to watch."[38]
On August 28, Rogers announced its plans for how it will deploy the Warner Bros. Discovery factual brands: new specialty channels for the Discovery, Food Network, HGTV, ID, and Magnolia Network brands launched on January 1, 2025, while content from Animal Planet, Cooking Channel, Motor Trend, OWN, and Science Channel will stream on digital platforms such as Citytv+.[39] Rogers would also confirm that OLN will be rebranded as Bravo on September 1.[40]
Later in September, Rogers launched a new audio app known as Seekr, which carries radio stations and podcasts from across the Rogers Sports & Media division. The company will continue its existing partnership with Radioplayer Canada.[41] On October 8, 2024, Bell announced that it had settled with WBD, agreeing to a renewal of its licensing agreements for HBO and Warner Bros. content on its streaming service Crave.[42]
