Corus Entertainment Inc. says the Competition Bureau has cleared it to buy the remaining half of Teletoon and other specialty TV interests from Astral Media Inc.
The asset sale was a condition of the Competition Bureau’s approval of Astral’s takeover by BCE Inc., a $3.38-billion deal that would combine two of Canada’s largest television and radio businesses.
Toronto-based Corus – which has been Astral’s partner in several specialty channels – has conditionally agreed to buy the remaining 50% of Teletoon, which includes the main channel, Teletoon Retro, their two French-language counterparts as well as the Cartoon Network (Canada).
Corus played a key role in helping Bell and Astral get Competition Bureau approval for their friendly deal by agreeing to $494 million in acquisitions.
They include the French language channels Historia and Series+, currently owned 50-50 by BCE and Shaw Media, a division of Shaw Communications.
The various transactions also require approvals from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
