Canada’s Bell Media Launches FAST Channels Spanning News, Sports, Reality & ‘Corner Gas’

“We’ll launch FAST channels pretty darn soon” Sean Cohan told Deadline back in March and the Bell Media President has delivered on that pledge with the rollout of ten new channels.

The Canadian media giant has launched English and French-language offerings across the entertainment, factual, news, comedy and sports categories. They are initially available on LG Channels, and will launch on Samsung TV Plus later this quarter.

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The English channels include lifestyle net CTV@Home, Corner Gas Channel featuring eps of the classic comedy and its animated spin-off. Shows including Highway Thru Hell will be on CTV Gridlock, while news will be covered on CTV News. Niche sports will be the order of the day on the TSN The Ocho channel.

The French-language offering includes reality net Noovo télé-réalités, film channel Noovo cinema and comedy service Noovo comedies.

FAST channels have become a way for media companies that own a lot of content to monetize their catalogs. Bell Media Studios makes thousands of hours a year and has a large library.

“Bell Media is once again growing and deepening relationships with our audience by taking compelling stories to Canadian consumers wherever they are,” said Cohan. “We’re thrilled to partner with FAST platforms to offer new opportunities to advertising partners to engage their target audiences, drive outcomes, and measure campaign success.”

Cohan has been atop Bell Media since last November. As well as targeting FAST launches, the company President told Deadline he will bolster its international program sales operation. On the domestic front his targets include driving growth at the Crave SVOD service.

Meanwhile, there is the possibility of industrial turmoil in the Canadian TV business. The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) said today its members have voted “overwhelmingly” in favor of authorizing strike action if there is no resolution to the ongoing talks with the Canadian Media Producers Association.

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