In June 2024, Rogers Communications announced a licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), under which it holds the rights to the channel brands and programming of WBD's factual and lifestyle television networks (such as Discovery Channel, Investigation Discovery, Food Network, and HGTV among others). The agreement triggered a major re-alignment of Canadian specialty television, ending the long-term associations between the brands of WBD predecessors Discovery, Inc. and Scripps Networks Interactive with Bell Media and Corus Entertainment respectively.
Most of the changes associated with these agreements took place on and around January 1, 2025, including the rebranding of multiple specialty channels across both companies under new proprietary brands with revised programming lineups; Corus relaunched its Food Network and HGTV channels on December 30, 2024, as Flavour Network and Home Network respectively, and Bell rebranded most of its Discovery-branded channels under the CTV brand on January 1, 2025. An exception were Bell's Discovery Channel and Investigation Discovery channels, which relaunched as USA Network and Oxygen respectively under a licensing agreement with NBCUniversal. Corus would close multiple specialty channels due to the changes, including Cooking Channel, its iteration of Magnolia Network, and Oprah Winfrey Network.
Alongside the WBD deal, Rogers concurrently announced an agreement with NBCUniversal for the Canadian rights to Bravo, mostly replacing an existing relationship with the Corus-owned specialty channel Slice. The new channel launched in September 2024 as a replacement for OLN. Other closures unrelated to the WBD agreements also occurred at the end of 2024, including Bell shutting down its MTV channel, Rogers ending Canadian distribution of WWE Network due to its loss of rights to WWE content to Netflix, and Paramount Global withdrawing BET and CBS Sports Network from Canadian distribution.
The loss of its rights to WBD lifestyle content exacerbated financial issues being faced by Corus since the Shaw family's sale of former sister company Shaw Communications (for which it had financial synergies) to Rogers itself in 2023, resulting in various notable cuts across its properties in mid-2024. Corus also accused Rogers of abusing its market position in cable television since the merger in ways that it considered detrimental to its specialty channels, and of intending to displace Flavour and Home Network to different channel positions in favour of Rogers' Food Network and HGTV channels, under the false pretense the rebranded services were "new" channels.
Background Past licensing relationships Discovery Channel in Canada was first established in 1994 by NetStar Communications, a company formed from the broadcasting assets of Labatt Brewing Company after its sale to Interbrew (due to restrictions on the foreign ownership of broadcasters). Due to its ownership of TSN, ESPN Inc. also held a stake in the company.Broadcast Dialogue newsletter, January 21, 1999 A majority stake in NetStar was acquired in 2000 by CTV Inc., which was then acquired by Bell Canada Enterprises along with The Globe and Mail to form Bell Globemedia—the direct precursor to the current Bell Media. The subsidiary, now CTV Specialty Television, would launch other Discovery channel brands in Canada, including a Canadian version of Animal Planet in 2000,Animal Planet Launch Bell Globemedia press release September 6, 2001 and then Discovery World, Investigation Discovery, and Discovery Science (Science Channel) in 2010 as part of an expanded licensing agreement with Discovery Communications.Discovery to Launch Three New Channel Brands In Canada
Corus Entertainment's association with the former Scripps Networks brands dates back to a corporate precursor, Atlantis Communications, who launched a Canadian version of HGTV in partnership with Scripps in 1997. Toronto Star 1998-07-22 Atlantis would later merge with Alliance Communications, forming Alliance Atlantis. The company would go on to form Food Network Canada in 2000, replacing the original U.S. network on television providers. In 2007, Alliance Atlantis' television assets were sold to a consortium of Canwest and Goldman Sachs Alternatives known as CW Media. After Canwest filed for bankruptcy, the company's assets were acquired by Shaw Communications via the Shaw Media subsidiary. Shaw Media was subsumed by Corus in 2016; both companies had already been principally controlled by JR Shaw and his family, with Corus originally established as a spin-off from Shaw in 1999. Corus would launch other Scripps brands such as DIY Network (which would later be replaced, as in the U.S., by Magnolia Network) and Cooking Channel, and served as a Canadian launch partner for Discovery's streaming platform Discovery+.
Some of HGTV's Canadian content programs have been aired by HGTV U.S., with Love It or List It and Property Brothers in particular being among its top shows. In March 2024, according to ratings from Numeris, Corus stated that its channels accounted for 17 out of the top 20 non-sports programs on Canadian specialty television in January and February, including HGTV and Food Network programs such as Celebrity IOU, House Hunters, and Beat Bobby Flay.
Shaw acquisition by Rogers On March 15, 2021, Rogers Communications announced a $26 billion offer to acquire Shaw, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. The sale was completed on April 13, 2023. The CRTC began to classify Corus as an independent broadcaster as a result. In the months following the sale, Corus began to experience financial issues and declining revenue; on July 13, 2023, Corus announced that it would sell its Toon Boom animation software to the private equity firm TPG Inc. for $147.5 million to help pay down its debt. On October 27, 2023, Corus announced the suspension of its dividend and intention to redirect the use of free cash flow from dividends to debt repayment.
On May 13, 2024, the CRTC approved an "exceptional" request from Corus to reduce its mandatory expenditures into programs of national interest (PNI) from 8.5% to 5% of revenue, in order to help offset its loss of Shaw community television expenditures for local news in metropolitan markets (which was reallocated from Corus's Global stations to Rogers' Citytv stations as a result of the acquisition).
Rogers agreements with Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal On June 6, 2024, Corus disclosed that Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) had declined to renew some of its brand licensing and programming agreements with the company, which were set to expire at the end of the year. Without revealing specific details, Corus CEO Doug Murphy alluded to the presence of "inequitable structural relationships in the Canadian media and telecom industries, particularly affecting independent broadcasters like Corus".
On June 10, 2024, Rogers Sports & Media announced an exclusive licensing agreement with WBD, under which the rights to all WBD lifestyle and factual brands would move to Rogers platforms beginning in 2025, including Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, Food Network, HGTV, Investigation Discovery (ID), Magnolia Network, Motor Trend, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), and Science Channel. Content would be distributed via new and existing Rogers platforms, including its television networks and Citytv+; on January 1, 2025, Rogers relaunched Discovery, Food Network, HGTV, ID, and Magnolia Network as new linear discretionary services. Content from Animal Planet, Cooking Channel, Motor Trend, OWN, and Science Channel will stream on Citytv+.
All five channels have initially operated as exempted discretionary services, allowing them to launch without formal approval from the CRTC provided that Rogers submits license applications after they exceed 200,000 subscribers. Rogers formally filed applications for discretionary service licenses in June 2025.
Alongside the WBD deal, Rogers also announced an agreement with NBCUniversal to acquire the Canadian rights to Bravo and its original programming, which had historically been carried by Corus channel Slice. The new channel launched on September 1, 2024, using the former channel allotments and license of OLN.
Programming changes Due to the end of the licensing agreements, both Bell Media and Corus Entertainment announced plans to rebrand and/or relaunch their WBD-licensed channels under new brands, while preserving existing programming scopes and Canadian productions:
Corus Corus stated that most of its WBD-licensed networks would continue to operate under new brands and an "alternate foreign program supply". Corus did not rule out the possibility of networks being shut down outright instead. The Canadian version of Oprah Winfrey Network shut down on September 1, 2024. Programming changes at Corus networks began in the 2024–25 television season, with Slice widening its format to include true crime programming, and acquiring new reality and comedy programs (including additional We TV programs and Comedy Central's The Daily Show; the latter having formerly aired on CTV Comedy Channel until 2023, following Trevor Noah's 2022 departure and the aftermath of the 2023 WGA strike).
On September 18, 2024, Corus announced the rebranding of HGTV and Food Network as Home Network and Flavour Network, respectively, on December 30, 2024; the two networks would be built around new and existing Corus original productions, as well as new U.S. and international acquisitions (including content from Fifth Season/The Roku Channel, and Studio Ramsay Global). Corus co-CEO Troy Reeb stated that the rebranding was an opportunity to widen the networks' programming to be "younger", "fresher", and no longer bound by the limitations of the existing licensed brands. In December 2024, Corus announced a further acquisition of entertainment and lifestyle content from ITV Studios for Flavour, Home, and Slice.
Beginning in November, multiple television providers stated that the Corus-owned iterations of Cooking Channel and Magnolia Network would be closed on December 31. This was confirmed directly by Corus, via the channels' websites, in early December.
Bell Bell Media announced its plans for its WBD-licensed networks on October 17, 2024: the company announced new licensing agreements with NBCUniversal to introduce the Oxygen and USA Network brands to Canada, which replaced ID and Discovery respectively on January 1, 2025. Oxygen saw no major changes in programming scope over ID as it is also focused on true crime, but Discovery's rebranding as USA Network formally broadened the channel's scope to include more entertainment programming outside of science and technology. The remaining channels were brought under CTV branding similar to Bell Media's other thematic specialty channels, with Animal Planet, Discovery Science, and Discovery Velocity relaunched as CTV Wild, Nature, and Speed Channel respectively. All five channels retained their existing Canadian programming.
In an unrelated move, Bell Media announced that MTV would also close on December 31, 2024, citing "changing audiences".
Other companies The realignment coincided with other changes not directly related to the Rogers/WBD deal:
WWE Network (which was distributed in Canada by Rogers as part of Sportsnet's rights to WWE professional wrestling programming) ceased operations in Canada at the end of 2024 due to a new licensing agreement with Netflix, which gives it rights to all WWE weekly programming, live events, and archive content outside of the United States, and exclusive rights to WWE Raw in the United States and internationally. To supplant WWE programming on Sportsnet 360, Rogers would announce a deal with the competing promotion TNA (owned by Canadian broadcaster Anthem Sports & Entertainment) to air its weekly series TNA Impact! and other library programming beginning in January 2025.