Bell Media Welcomes CRTC Approval of V and Noovo.ca Acquisition

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MONTRÉAL, April 3, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - Bell Media welcomes today's Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approval of its agreement to acquire conventional TV network V along with its related digital assets, including the ad-supported VOD service Noovo.ca, from Groupe V Média.

"With this timely approval, Bell is now one step closer to ensuring the long-term viability of V at a critical moment for the broadcasting industry," said Karine Moses, President, Bell Media Québec and Bell's Vice Chair, Québec. "This is a new era for the Québec television ecosystem that will see Bell Media add new opportunities for French-language content creation and deliver enhanced news programming. We look forward to building on our investment in Québec content and culture with V."

"Bell Media will be able to leverage its portfolio of assets to ensure that V and its related digital assets will thrive in a highly competitive and evolving media landscape. I am confident that the expertise of Bell Media's management team will be able to broaden V's scope and build a larger audience for high-quality French-language content, in a multiplatform broadcasting offering,'' said Maxime Rémillard, President and Founder, Groupe V Média.

Combining the dedicated and experienced Montréal-based management, programming, and production teams of Bell Media and V, the successful completion of the transaction will provide Québec viewers with added diversity in news and entertainment programming on all platforms as well as extended opportunities for Québec's advertising industry.

V Média owns and operates television stations in Montréal, Québec City, Saguenay, Sherbrooke, and Trois-Rivières, and has affiliate stations in Gatineau, Rivière-du-Loup and Val-d'Or.

About Groupe V Média
Groupe V Media, a Quebec-based entertainment and content delivery company, is the largest independent media group in Canada. Groupe V Media owns conventional television network V, specialty channels ELLE Fictions and MAX, content and video-on-demand platform Noovo.ca and the 25Stanley sports news website. Its innovative content delivery strategies with strong, unifying, eye-catching themes enable its properties to reach a vast audience, anytime, on a multitude of platforms, adapting to evolving consumer and corporate trends.

About Bell Media Québec
Bell Media is a leading content creation company with premier assets in Québec in television, radio, digital media, out-of-home and more. Bell Media operates a number of French-language specialty and pay TV channels in Québec including Canal D, Canal Vie, Z, VRAK, Investigation, SUPER ÉCRAN, and Cinépop, and currently has three of the Top 5 most-watched shows on French Entertainment Specialty with key demos, including six of the Top 10 original productions. Bell Media also operates RDS (Québec's #1 sports channel), CTV Montreal (the #1 English news outlet in Québec), and develops and operates websites, apps, and online platforms for its news, sports, and entertainment brands, including RDS Direct. Bell Media owns Canada's only bilingual video streaming service Crave offering more than 6,000 hours of exclusive new French-language content. Bell Media is Québec's leading radio broadcaster, with 25 stations in 14 communities, all part of the iHeartRadio Canada brand and streaming service. Bell Media owns Montréal-based Astral, an out-of-home advertising network of 50,000 faces in five provinces. Bell Media is part of BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE), Canada's largest communications company. Learn more at BellMedia.ca.

For more information:

Bell
Caroline Audet
514-391-9794
[email protected] 

Groupe V Média
Michaël Majeau
514-884-1868
[email protected] 

Investor inquiries:

Thane Fotopoulos
514-870-4619
[email protected]

SOURCE Bell Canada