CRTC approves sale of Comedy Gold to Wow! Unlimited Media
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has approved the sale of Bell Media’s Comedy Gold TV channel to Wow! Unlimited Media. The decision came today as the result of a public hearing held in Gatineau on May 31st. The cost of the transaction will be $6.8 million, with Bell Media gaining a 12% ownership stake in Wow! Unlimited. The deal to launch a “strategic partnership in kids and youth entertainment” was first announced in June 2017.
The commission felt the sale would be “in the public interest and will increase the variety of children’s and youth programming available to Canadians.” The new channel, tentatively known as Wow TV, has had its license renewed until August 31, 2023. That said, the CRTC did have some concerns to address:
- They took issue with the company’s ownership structure, which has more than 20% of its board of directors made up of non-Canadians – a violation of Canadian broadcast ownership laws. To appease them, Wow started an independent programming committee (IPC) “to ensure that the parent corporation or its directors do not exercise control over or influence programming decisions.” Officers, directors and employees of the parent corporation are ineligible to become members of the IPC. Additionally, Wow has created a mechanism “to ensure that non-Canadians never hold more than 33 1/3% of the total voting shares.” Those moves, alongside Bell’s investment in the company, alleviated the CRTC’s worries about non-Canadian ownership.
- It’s also broadcast policy for purchasers of a television channel or radio station to invest 10% of the purchase price into funding original content by independent creators. At least 60% of that must be directed towards the Canada Media Fund (CMF). Wow suggested spending their ~$680k three ways: 60% to the CMF, 20% to the Shaw Rocket Fund and 20% to the Wow Shorts development program the company was planning to launch with Sheridan College and OCAD. The CRTC took issue with the last part, suggesting that it would be self-promotional and self-serving as Wow could use the program as a way to facilitate the creation of content they otherwise would’ve made. While Wow argued that the shorts resulting from the program would remain student owned and that any company would be allowed to develop them into shows, the CRTC ultimately felt the program didn’t meet their requirements. They’re requiring Wow submit a new proposal for the remaining 20% by August 9th.
- The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) and the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) disagreed with Wow’s request of having its required Canadian production funding be inline with a new independent broadcaster than what was currently required under Bell. As part of Bell Media, Comedy Gold was subjected to devoting 30% of its previous-year gross annual revenues to funding Canadian programming, with an additional 5% being devoted to funding programs of national interest (PNI – dramas, documentaries and award shows). The WGC commented that as they’re rebranding an already existing service, Wow is inheriting a number of luxuries not given to independent broadcasters. The CMPA also expressed concern over dropping the PNI requirement, which dictates that at least 75% of that funding be given to companies unrelated to the broadcaster. The CRTC ultimately agreed with Wow, giving the channel the Canadian programming expenditure of an independent service (10%) and removing the PNI requirement. The commission did encourage the channel to continue to invest in non-affiliated productions and that they’ll look at how the company has been handling that at future license renewals.
- The CRTC denied Wow’s request that the channel be exempt from providing described video. Under the Bell ownership group, Comedy Gold was expected to produce described video for “all English- and French-language programming that is broadcast during prime time (i.e., from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.) and that is drawn from program categories 2(b) Long-form documentary, 7 Drama and comedy, 9 Variety, 11(a) General entertainment and human interest and 11(b) Reality television, and/or is programming targeting preschool children (0-5 years of age) and children (6-12 years of age)” by September 1, 2019. This condition was added during the channel’s 2017 broadcast year, as prior to that there was no requirement of the channel to provide described video. The commission noted that Bell and Wow finalized their agreement to purchase the channel after that condition had started. The CRTC also stated that Wow failed to provide “any compelling rationale relating to financial hardship or other limitations demonstrating that it would not be able to comply.”
Comedy Gold launched on September 7, 2001, as TV Land Canada. Then owned by Craig Media (with a minority stake given to Viacom), the channel changed hands over to CHUM when that company purchased Craig in 2004. Two years later, Bell Globemedia acquired CHUM and its related assets. The channel was rebranded to Comedy Gold in August 2010, with a focus exclusively on older sitcoms and sketch comedy shows. On April 1, 2010, Globemedia became a fully-owned subsidiary of Bell and was subsequently renamed to Bell Media.
According to financial information shared by the CRTC (separate post for that on the way), Comedy Gold held onto 616,747 subscribers as of August 31, 2017. That marked a 9.36% decline from the end of the 2016 broadcast year. The channel continued to be a money maker for Bell, as even though it posted just over $3 million in revenue (a 6.5% drop from the year before), cost-cutting allowed its $2 million in profit to remain flat year-over-year.
In their initial application to the CRTC, Wow described the new channel as “TV for a Post-TV Generation,” with “plans to develop an immersive, device agnostic, exclusive “destination”, designed to more closely reflect today’s youth, deliver highly targeted programming focused on topics that are relevant and aspirational, but within a media environment kids will love and parents can trust.”
Wow! Unlimited Media was formed in late 2016 as a merger between Rainmaker Entertainment, Frederator and Ezrin Hirsh Entertainment. The company’s CEO, Michael Hirsh, was the co-founder of Nelvana and led Cookie Jar, a company he built from the ashes of Cinar. Some of Wow’s recent productions include Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures, Netflix’s Castlevania and ReBoot: The Guardian Code. The purchase of Comedy Gold puts Wow directly in competition with Canada’s other two private English children’s broadcasters, Corus Entertainment and DHX Media. Hirsh sold Nelvana to Corus in 2000 and Cookie Jar to DHX in 2012.
As of this writing, Wow! Unlimited Media has yet to issue a statement regarding the CRTC’s decision.
I Miss Bionix 
I don’t live in Canada, but I’m excited for Wow Unlimited’s launch because that means the Ocean dub of DBZ Kai might finally air.