Telcos on both sides of the Atlantic are making forays into TV content this week, with Bell Canada agreeing to pay C$211m for Corus Entertainment’s pay TV business in the country’s west and Irish incumbent Eir reportedly in talks to buy Setanta Sports.
Telcos on both sides of the Atlantic are making forays into TV content this week, with Bell Canada (TSX:BCE) agreeing to pay C$211m for Corus Entertainment’s (TSX:CJR) pay TV business in the country’s west and Irish incumbent Eir reportedly in talks to buy Setanta Sports.
BCE announced that the Corus deal will enable it to expand The Movie Network into a national pay TV service and become the sole operator of HBO Canada across all platforms.
The Montreal-based telco said it will pay a cash consideration of C$211m (US$158m) – C$195m (US$146m) after tax – for the 927,000 subscribers which Barclays analyst Phillip Huang said values Corus’ pay TV business at 6.7x adjusted 2015 EBITDA.
Meanwhile, the Irish Times reported that private equity-owned Eir is in advanced talks to acquire Dublin-based pay TV broadcaster Setanta Sports, which operates two sports channels and has production facilities in the capital. The target could be worth up to €20m (US$21m) and a deal is likely to be completed in 2016, subject to regulatory approvals, the report stated.
A deal would enable Eir to acquire content for TV service Eir Vision, following in the footsteps of BT’s highly successful push into content. It would also strengthen its position against Virgin Media, which provides cable and broadband.
The Irish incumbent, formerly known as Eircom, called off an IPO last year. It then named Richard Moat, former deputy MD of the UK’s EE, as CEO, and KPN exec Huib Costermans as CFO.