Canadians to get Warner Bros. content for 'foreseeable future' after Paramount buyout

Bell says Crave users won't have to worry about losing access to Warner Bros. titles, which include HBO, amid Paramount's planned acquisition of the entertainment giant. At least, not yet, anyway.

In a statement to Broadcast Dialogue, a Bell spokesperson said Warner Bros. content will remain on Crave "for the foreseeable future" as part of a "long-term deal." However, the company didn't provide a more specific window, so it's unclear exactly how much time that entails. For context, Bell confirmed in October 2024 that it had renewed its long-running licensing deal with Warner Bros., although it only said at the time that it will run for "multiple years." Therefore, it remains to be seen how long Crave users will continue to have access to Warner Bros. content.

This comes after Netflix withdrew its months-long bid for Warner Bros., teeing up Paramount to buy the company in a landmark US$110 billion deal. The companies expect it to close in the third quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approval.

As part of this venture, Paramount says it plans to merge Warner Bros.' HBO Max service with Paramount+. Since HBO Max isn't available in Canada, the majority of the service's content comes here via Crave. Presumably, then, Paramount would likely want to put all of these Warner Bros. titles on Paramount+ in Canada once its deal with Bell has expired.

It also remains to be seen what will happen with Warner Bros. titles that are licensed to other Canadian companies. For instance, Rogers has a deal for Discovery content, giving it the Canadian rights to OWN, Animal Planet, Discovery Science and more. This gets even messier when you consider that it signed a deal with Bell last year to share these specialty channels. On top of all that, the Paramount-owned FAST service Pluto TV has a deal with Corus Entertainment in Canada.

All of this is to say that Paramount's planned Warner Bros. buyout could impact a lot of Canadian companies.