Bell Media president Sean Cohan has credited the success of the steamy gay hockey drama Heated Rivalry with putting the Canadian broadcaster on the global map, calling it "the biggest global hit that Canada has ever produced." Speaking at the Access Canada Summit, powered by The Hollywood Reporter, Cohan said the show's success came from a calculated gamble that some staff feared could backfire, underlining his broader strategy of taking creative risks to raise Bell Media's international profile amid a fraught US-Canada trade climate that has boosted demand for homegrown content.

Cohan, who joined Bell Media from A&E Networks in late 2023, said his programming team initially approached the project with caution, worried about its explicit content and commercial risk, before he gave it the go-ahead. The six-part series, directed by Jacob Tierney and based on Rachel Reid's novels, was picked up by HBO Max in the US and has been renewed for a second season. Bell Media is also pursuing deals with Hollywood figures including Seth Rogen, Elliot Page and Will Arnett for its Crave streaming service, alongside a majority stake in UK-based Sphere Abacus, as part of a wider push to export Canadian content internationally.