UPDATED — Rogers Communication and BCE, the parent company of Bell Media, partnered to bring Canadians the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Game telecasts.

Now the broadcast giants have unveiled a deal to acquire a 75% stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which will add a raft of pro sport teams, including the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors, to their specialty TV sport assets.

The complex deal, expected to close in 2012, will see Rogers and BCE purchase a 79.5% stake in MLSE for $1.32 billion.

Minority stakeholder Larry Tanenbaum will in turn raise his stake to 25% by purchasing a 4.5% stake from the Rogers-BCE consortium.

For its part, Rogers Communications will invest $533 million for a 37.5% equity stake in MLSE, using cash on hand at the closing of the deal.

Bell Canada will in turn invest $398 million for a 28% equity stake in MLSE, also drawing on its own cash reserves.

And the separate BCE Master Trust Fund, which manages pension fund investments for BCE employees, will contribute another $135 million to the MLSE acquisition to take their joint ownership of MLSE to 37.5%, the same as Rogers’ stake.

George Cope, president and CEO of Bell Canada and BCE, told a Friday morning joint press conference that the MLSE deal fits Bell Media’s strategy to deliver the best content on all available and emerging digital platforms.

“We believe that increasingly live content will be more and more important in the technology world, and there’s no better content than live sports,” Cope said.

Bell Media runs the lucrative The Sports Network channel, while Rogers Communications operates Sportsnet.

The ability to air live games involving the Maple Leafs, the Raptors, the Toronto FC pro soccer team, the Toronto Marlies and other key sport properties after they divide up the broadcast and streaming rights between TSN and Sportsnet is what’s largely driving the blockbuster deal.

Cope conceded the deal gets Bell Canada into bed with a competitor.

But he added it also secures for his company and Rogers  content that all Canadians prize and will potentially consume across a range of platforms.

That sentiment was echoed minutes later by Nadir Mohamed, president and CEO of Rogers Communications, who rose to insist the MLSE deal would help Sportsnet become the number one sports media brand in Canada.

“I get to go last,” a broadly-smiling Mohamed added after his boast about Sportsnet, which is in stiff competition with top-rated TSN, generated laughter from the assembled media.

Looking over at George Cope, an enthusiastic Mohamed told his arch-rival: “I don’t know. Go figure. It is the Leafs and Raptors, so we’re in it together.”

Both Cope and Mohamed said the MLSE deal was in part driven by the experience of the 2012 Olympic Games from Vancouver, which drove consumption of content on wireless devices to new heights.

Asked how Rogers and Bell Media can work together airing and streaming live sport telecasts when they compete daily for mobile and cable TV customers, Cope and Mohamed said little will change when it comes to joining battle nationwide.

“There’s no confusion as to what we¹re trying to do. We’ve done deals where we partner together, the Olympics is a great example. Canadians would say that¹s one of the best things that happened for the country,” Mohamed said.

“At the same time, we compete every second on all fronts. So you get the both of best worlds,” he added.

“From our perspective, it’s head-on competition once we leave this room,” Cope said when asked about continuing competition between the two Canadian mobile and broadcast giants.

Photo: Mark Watmough, Flickr Creative Commons