The Media Giant That Has Bet Big On Bringing Hollywood Back to Canada

Bell Media in the last year has doubled down on bringing homegrown stars in Hollywood back to Canada to make TV series by unveiling development and production deals with Seth Rogen, Elliot Page and Will Arnett, among others.

An early success is the gay hockey romance series Heated Rivalry, picked up by HBO Max in the U.S. and created by Letterkenny director Jacob Tierney for Bell Media’s Crave streaming platform north of the border. The six-part drama is based on the novel series by Rachel Reid and was brought to Bell Media by Tierney and Brendan Brady through their production banner Accent Aigu Entertainment.  

“Our team have been very excited about this project since it first came to us. We encouraged Jacob to option the books. And there’s more than one book, so there could be more success,” Justin Stockman, vp of content development & programming for Bell Media, tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Tierney, long a movie director with credits like The Trotsky and Preggoland, helmed a slew of Letterkenny and Shoresy episodes and executive produces The Traitors Canada for Bell Media, which all gave comfort for Stockman to get behind Heated Rivalry.

“Everything about this project felt a little risky because of the nature it,” Stockman said of a steamy drama where hockey is only a backdrop to a secret love affair between Canadian hockey star Shane Hollander, played by Hudson Williams, and his Russian rival Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storie). “It definitely lowered our risk because we’re working with someone who’s a known quantity and we know is super talented and has delivered for us many times before,” he adds.

Bell Media rolled out other development deals, including partnering with Rogen and his Point Grey Pictures and Lionsgate to produce an upcoming scripted show in Canada that has yet to be announced after the breakout success of The Studio; Page and his Pageboy Productions signed a deal to create content for the CTV network and streamer Crave, starting with the Slo Pitch comedy from Shaftesbury that just completed production; Bell Media and Fremantle partnered on the return of Match Game, hosted by Canadian Martin Short and shot in Montreal; and comedian Tom Green as part of a co-development deal with Bell Media hosts the Crave interview series Tom Green’s Funny Farm.

But in among the deals announced with top Canadian talent and creatives was news Bell Media had expanded internationally by distributing content to markets outside Canada via London-based Sphere Abacus, in which it acquired a majority stake in March 2025. The strategy to expand the reach of Canadian content and creators worldwide followed Canadian producer Sphere Media, in which Bell Media already had a minority stake, acquiring UK distributor Abacus to create Sphere Abacus.

So taking the majority stake in Sphere Abacus, which has handled distribution of Heated Rivalry beyond Canada, allowed his company to “own more of the television value chain,” Stockman explains. Previously, Bell Media licensed local series with global appeal from Canadian indie producers who then got any upside when those shows were sold into international markets via distributors who paid advances and helped arrange financing.

An example is the CTV original series Sullivan’s Crossing, a romantic drama picked up stateside by The CW, before seizing a bigger audience with Netflix and as Fremantle handled international distribution. “We love this show. It’s a great hit for us. It’s selling all over the world. Fremantle are reaping the rewards of being the distributor, which they deserve, because they put the money in to get it funded and took that risk,” Stockman says.

It turns out his his Bell Media team for years had eyed international distribution as a good business to get into. But it took the Canadian company hiring the A&E Networks and Nielsen veteran Sean Cohan as president in Oct. 2023 to finally drive incremental revenue growth outside Canada by doing a tie-up with Sphere Abacus.

“We just needed the right eyes on it, which is Sean,” Stockman recounts. Tapping Canadian talent and creatives in Hollywood allows Bell Media to bet a locally-made series will have more appeal for its CTV and Crave audiences at home. And internationally, Bell Media can share in any upside from territorial sales, including to regional streamers.

“We were going to ramp up our originals anyways. But knowing we were going to have a distribution company alongside us gave us even more hope we could really pick the right projects,” Stockman argues.

Bell Media and Sphere Abacus also distribute the local comedy The Office Movers, with a guest appearance by Drake in season two; Evolving Vegan, a food and travel series fronted by Aladdin star Mena Massoud; Late Bloomer, another comedy created by and starring Jasmeet Raina , also known as YouTuber JusReign; and Mark McKinney Needs a Hobby, where The Kids in the Hall and Superstore actor crosses North America to try out new hobbies to possibly claim one as his own.

Bell Media won’t get an international uplift from every local series it acquires or develops, like an ITV Studios or BBC Studios. “We’re definitely not in a position like a big global studio to demand distribution on every project. But where it makes sense and it’s to our benefit, we will,” Stockman explains.  

Will Arnett’s animated comedy Super Team Canada on Crave – which has Arnett, Cobie Smulders, Kevin McDonald and guest star Jay Baruchel in its voice cast — is distributed internationally by co-producer Thunderbird Entertainment. Slo Pitch is sold beyond Canada by Shaftesbury, and scripted series to come from Point Grey Pictures will see Lionsgate handle international duties after it brought Bell Media into the partnership.

But Sphere Abacus means Bell Media has positioned itself for jump balls in a fast-changing global TV landscape. “This business is always shifting, and nothing’s ever concrete. But, in general, we’re excited to be in the distribution space in a bigger way – even though it won’t be on every project,” Stockman says.

Bell Media is more than keen to keep licensing TV shows from Hollywood studios and other international suppliers for the Canadian market, as that’s long been their business model and American majors have global networks of their own to solve financing and production puzzles.

But Stockman and his team are looking to own and control more of what they put on CTV, its varied cable channels and Crave, via a production strategy they call Northern Lights. “Match Game, which was on ABC this past summer, that’s Fremantle owning the format. So it was a partnership between the three of us,” he explains, as Bell Media commissioned the game show revival and ABC pre-bought the series.

And as major Hollywood studios and streamers are looking to Canada and other foreign locales to host production of their original TV series and movies to cut production costs and tap international talent, Bell Media is looking to its Northern Lights strategy to make additional strides.

That includes Anna Pigeon, Bell Media’s first co-commission with Versant’s USA Network. The character-driven procedural shot in Alberta is produced by Cineflix Studios, December Films and Seven24 Films, is based on the novel series by Nevada Barr and adapted by Canadian showrunner Morwyn Brebner (Rookie Blue, Saving Hope).

The goal, Stockman reiterates, is building on the early success of Heated Rivalry, which Bell Media developed and greenlit, and for which Sphere Abacus is lining up additional territorial sales overseas.
“It’s unique, and it has people talking and that’s actually good,” he says of a TV drama about rival hockey players that share a secret off the ice that could change their lives. 

“It’s not just clickbait, where it sounds interesting and when people do watch the series and, if they’re into this type of show and the romance and the drama, that they’re going to be really impressed,” Stockman predicts.