Bell Media, once synonymous with excellence and innovation in media, should now be ashamed.
While it is seriously considering selling RDS and TSN, channels that have brought sports culture to Quebec and Canada, the company is investing massively in shows that could easily be described as “poor people’s Kardashians.”
This drift towards low-level programming, symbolized by the new reality TV Vie$ de rêve, reflects a troubling contempt for the values that once guided its choices.
RDS, the sports flagship which broadcast unforgettable moments of the Montreal Canadiens, is today on borrowed time.
Bell, focused on its investments in telecommunications and infrastructure, seems ready to sacrifice sports in favor of sensationalist content that reduces television to a showcase of opulence and wealth that sounds very bad.
While the Montreal Canadiens continue to captivate millions of viewers, Bell plans to abandon a cultural institution, instead of investing to adapt RDS and TSN to the new challenges of streaming and modern media consumption habits.
While RDS was abandoned, Bell chose to invest in Vie$ de rêve, a show where rich women flaunted their luxury without embarrassment on the airwaves of Crave.
$28,000 Hermès bags, $211,000 G-Wagons and $4 million condos are all things that are supposed to captivate an audience, but only arouse deep unease.
Unlike popular franchises like Real Housewives, where intrigue and conflict add drama, Dream$$ fails to even entertain.
The protagonists are isolated, interactions non-existent, and the show falls into a monotonous repetition of display of wealth. It’s closer to a vulgar infomercial than a gripping reality show.
The involvement of Isabelle Gauvin, wife of promoter Luc Poirier, in this show arouses total incomprehension.
How could Poirier, a man who built a reputation in real estate and the business community, accept that his wife participated in such a charade?
The $2,000 body scan copied from Kim Kardashian, the incessant references to luxury labels, and the absence of any substance make Gauvin’s participation all the more awkward.
For a public already saturated with discourse on social inequalities, this program acts as a provocation. At a time when many Quebecers are struggling to make ends meet, this type of program offers a distorting mirror of society, where success is reduced to an ostentatious accumulation of overpriced objects.
Bell Media sends a clear message: money speaks louder than culture and sport. By favoring shows like Vie$ de rêve to the detriment of RDS, the company is abandoning not only sport, but also the values of a media that brought Quebecers together around historic moments, whether Canadian matches or performances of local athletes.
The contrast is striking: on one side, sporting excellence and cultural heritage, and on the other, a spectacle where $12,900 Louis Vuitton bags are displayed while making empty remarks like “if you want, you can.”
Vie$ de rêve is not a reality show, it is a betrayal of the expectations of an audience that deserves better.
Bell claims that its strategy aims to adapt to new market realities, but the facts show that it is turning away from content that truly enriches society.
The abandonment of RDS and TSN, in favor of programs that glorify emptiness, reflects a loss of vision. Sport, beyond entertainment, embodies values of surpassing oneself, collective effort and resilience that Vie$ de rêve can never approach.
If Bell sells RDS and TSN to finance programs like Vie$ de rêve, this represents a dangerous drift for Quebec media identity.
RDS is not just a channel; it is a symbol of unity, a platform that gives a voice to athletes and sports fans.
By choosing to turn her back on this heritage, Bell is abandoning much more than a channel: she is betraying an entire community.
It’s time for Bell to reconsider its priorities. Quebecers don’t want luxury fillies showing off their $30,000 bags.
They want to thrill to the exploits of their team, experience the emotions of sport, and come together around values that transcend the labels and whims of a disconnected elite.
The new reality show Vie$ de rêve, broadcast on Crave, is an insult to the collective intelligence of Quebec.
While Bell Media is seriously considering selling RDS and TSN, thus abandoning coverage of sports and the Montreal Canadiens, it is investing in an absolutely empty series.
This show, which shamelessly exhibits the excesses of six rich women from Quebec, reflects not only a disconnect with the reality of the majority of Quebecers, but also a worrying drift in Bell’s cultural identity.
From the first episode, the tone is set: $28,000 Hermès bags, luxurious yachts, diamond rings as big as marbles, and $20,000 shopping.
The objective is clear: to impress and provoke, without ever questioning the social implications of this display of opulence.
Isabelle Gauvin, wife of businessman Luc Poirier, declares with confidence:
“Money buys happiness, times a thousand. »
Tatiana Londono, flamboyant CEO of a real estate agency and former star of an HGTV reality show, isn’t doing any better.
She praises the merits of real estate while half-heartedly criticizing her sisters for their material expenses, without questioning her own excesses.
As for Sonia Zarbatany, “life coach” and former star of a K. Maro music video, she multiplies clichés about merit and success, supported by a driver, two assistants and a makeup artist.
While Vie$ de rêve glorifies material emptiness, Bell abandons RDS, a pillar of the Quebec media landscape.
Considering the sale of RDS and TSN to focus on vapid reality TV shows is a betrayal of the loyal audience that has gathered for decades around Montreal Canadiens games.
RDS is not just a sports channel: it is a symbol of community, a space where Quebecers shared intense emotions linked to sport.
The declarations of the protagonists of Vie$ de rêve underline a total disconnection with reality. Isabelle Gauvin talks about her hearing-impaired daughter and justifies her expenses by highlighting the fact that she can afford state-of-the-art hearing aids.
Certainly, the argument is valid, but is it necessary to juxtapose it with scenes where she buys Louis Vuitton bags for $12,900 or declares that “a couch for $25,000 is normal”?
The episodes follow one another without any real conflict or plot, turning this series into a disguised infomercial, where each protagonist promotes their business or lifestyle.
Entrepreneur Stéphanie Bélanger wants to break the “taboo of success”, but ends up accentuating the discomfort of a public who struggles to identify with these women outside of reality
Bell seems to believe that Quebecers prefer to fantasize about the inaccessible wealth of a privileged few rather than thrill to the performances of their favorite sports team.
This decision reflects a contempt for the values of surpassing, collective and effort that sport conveys.
Bell could justify this shift by citing changes in consumption habits, but sport remains one of the rare contents capable of bringing crowds together.
By letting RDS die, Bell is not only turning her back on sport: she is abandoning a part of Quebec identity.
Shows like Dream Life only reinforce perceived inequalities. By glorifying wealth without substance, they ignore the struggles of the middle class and working people, the very people who made Bell successful as a company.
While viewers wonder if Bell will sacrifice RDS, the company chooses to show off yachts and diamond rings, driving a wedge between the media and its audience.
Richness can be celebrated, but not at the expense of substance and cultural relevance. Bell Media has a responsibility to its audience.
By investing in shows as disconnected as Vie$ de rêve and by abandoning institutions like RDS, Bell is betraying its fundamental values.
Quebecers deserve better than empty windows of opulence. They deserve content that reflects their aspirations, their passions and their community.
It’s time for Bell to choose: continue on this empty path or return to television that unites and inspires, instead of divides and outrages.
Sport, unlike Hermès bags, makes the heart vibrate.
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