Bell Media’s Rick Brace to Retire at the End of 2013

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TORONTO (November 18, 2013) – Bell Media announced today that Rick Brace, President, Specialty Channels and CTV Production, will retire at the end of the year after a successful, nearly 40-year career that saw him become one of the most highly regarded media executives in Canada.

“Rick has been a leader and friend to many of us and is overwhelmingly respected in every corner of this industry. For me personally, he has been a true mentor and a role model,” said Kevin Crull, President, Bell Media. “I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Rick for his vision and hard work through all these years and wish him a happy, well-deserved retirement.”

Brace will continue to contribute to Bell Media by leading a few special projects as a consultant, as well as continuing to serve as the company’s representative on the board of directors of Discovery Canada, CTV Specialty Television Inc., and the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Bell Media also announced that following Rick Brace’s retirement, Phil King will become President, CTV, Sports, and Entertainment Programming. Currently President, CTV Programming and Sports, King will assume responsibility for Bell Media’s English-language specialty channels in addition to his current responsibilities. This consolidation of all of Bell Media’s English-language TV and digital programming, content creation, and content acquisition teams provides significant opportunities to improve both effectiveness and efficiency. Catherine MacLeod will continue in her role as Senior Vice-President, Specialty Channels, supported by King.

About Rick Brace

Rick Brace joined TSN in 1986, just two years after the network’s inception. As one of the networks’ pioneers, Rick was instrumental in shaping the network’s identity as Canada’s Sports Leader and cementing its status as one of North America’s most influential sports broadcasters. He was one of the key negotiators responsible for landing several high-profile acquisitions for the network, including the NHL, World Juniors, Olympic Games, and the CFL. Rick was also instrumental for his role in negotiations to secure CTV broadcast rights for the Olympic Games. He would go on to help shape Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium’s award-winning coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. After moving from TSN to CTV, Rick played a key role in continuing the network’s role as one of North America’s leading private broadcasters. Later, as President of Specialty Channels and CTV Production, Rick has helped re-invigorate Bell Media’s specialty channel division and in-house productions.

About Bell Media
With passion and an unrelenting commitment to excellence, Bell Media creates content and builds brands that entertain, inform, engage, and inspire audiences through the platforms of their choice. Bell Media is Canada’s premier multimedia company with leading assets in television, radio, out-of-home advertising, and digital media. Bell Media owns 30 local television stations led by CTV, Canada’s #1 television network; 34 specialty channels, including TSN and RDS, Canada’s most-watched specialty channels in English and French; four pay TV services, including The Movie Network and Super Écran; and is managing shareholder of premium pay-per-view service Viewers Choice Canada. Bell Media is also Canada’s largest radio broadcaster, with 107 licensed radio stations in 55 markets across Canada. Bell Media owns Astral Out-of-Home, one of Canada’s most dynamic and innovative out-of-home advertising companies with a network of more than 9,500 advertising faces in Québec, Ontario and British Columbia. Bell Media also operates more than 200 websites, delivers TV Everywhere with its innovative GO video streaming services, including TMN GO and Bravo GO, and owns Dome Productions Inc., a multi-platform production company. Bell Media is part of BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE), Canada’s largest communications company. For more on Bell Media, please visit www.bellmedia.ca.


For more information:
Olivier Racette, Bell Media, 514.939.5001 x3193 or olivier.racette@bellmedia.ca