Mr. Phil King reports

BELL MEDIA INKS CONTENT DEAL WITH UNITED ARTISTS MEDIA GROUP AND HIGHWAY ENTERTAINMENT; PARTNERS TO CREATE NEW FORMATS AND CONTENT FOR CANADA AND THE WORLD

BCE Inc.'s Bell Media is forming a multifaceted partnership with United Artists Media Group (a newly formed joint venture among MGM, Mark Burnett, Roma Downey and Hearst Entertainment) and Omnicom Canada Corp.'s Highway Entertainment to create new television formats for Canadian and international audiences. As a result of the partnership, pilots for several new formats are currently in development and preproduction at Bell Media, parent company of conventional broadcaster CTV, the leading adapter of formats for the Canadian market. Terms of the deal were not released.

"We are thrilled to partner with Mark Burnett, a pioneer in format television, and United Artists Media Group, along with Canada's Highway Entertainment," said Phil King, president -- CTV, sports and entertainment programming, Bell Media. "With enormous pedigree and an incredible track record for hit format creation, we look forward to not only developing content for our own market, but internationally as well."

"CTV and Omnicom are important strategic partners for United Artists Media Group. CTV's desire to produce more original content and Highway Entertainment's ability to come in with funding is something we are really excited about," said C. Scot Cru, executive vice-president, international strategy and business development, United Artists Media Group. "Phil and his team are the great collaborators, we're looking forward to bringing these new shows not only to Canada but distributing them worldwide through our partnership with MGM."

"Highway Entertainment is in the business of funding great programming," said Adam Ivers, president and chief executive officer, Highway Entertainment. "Doing so with creative forces like Mark Burnett and Bell Media reinforces the strength of our model and the true spirit of partnership at a time when our industry is looking to innovate."

CTV has developed and broadcast some of the most successful format adaptations in Canadian history, including The Amazing Race Canada, the most-watched Canadian television program on record, as well as Masterchef Canada, the No. 1 new competition series in 2014, and Canadian Idol, So You Think You Can Dance Canada, and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, among others.