The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. shook up the media industry Tuesday by announcing they will jointly launch a sports streaming service this fall. The Globe's Andrew Willis writes that Canada's two dominant sports broadcasters, Rogers and BCE's Bell, might want to follow suit. "BCE and Rogers should come together and entertain the idea of merging their sports content and potentially offer a combined sport streaming service," said Scotiabank analyst Maher Yaghi. "Both consumers and shareholders would be better off." The three U.S. broadcasters face a challenge familiar to Rogers and Bell: A massive portion of their audience is switching from their conventional TV networks to streamers such as Netflix and Amazon. Rogers owns baseball's Toronto Blue Jays and TV's Sportsnet. Bell runs the other dominant sports network -- TSN -- and with Rogers co-owns Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, parent to teams such as basketball's Raptors and hockey's Maple Leafs. "Why not take MLSE, tack on the Jays and combine all the sports streaming licences that Bell and Rogers both have access to and create a consumer-friendly, profitable and possibly a public company?" Mr. Yaghi said.
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