YouTube and Bell Media have agreed a partnership to digitise and publish Bell Media's national media archive. The collection spans hundreds of thousands of physical tapes and dates back to the early 1960s.
The project will use Google's Gemini models to generate searchable metadata for footage long held in storage. More than 100,000 tapes will be digitised and published on YouTube by the end of 2026, opening access to material from news, music, sport and entertainment programming.
The wider archive is estimated to contain between 300,000 and 400,000 physical tapes, representing about 255,000 hours of content. It is one of the larger broadcast collections in Canada to be moved from analogue storage to an online video platform.
Bell Media is organising the material into dedicated YouTube destinations tied to well-known brands in its television portfolio, including a new MuchRewind channel, a hub for W5 and archive content from Etalk.
MuchRewind will focus on raw interviews from the MuchMusic era, including footage featuring Madonna, Britney Spears, Missy Elliott, Eminem and Aaliyah. The material is being presented in high definition and, in some cases, exceeds the quality of the original broadcast versions.
W5, Canada's long-running current affairs programme, will make decades of investigative journalism available through a dedicated YouTube hub. Etalk's archive, spanning 25 years of entertainment coverage, is also being added to its YouTube channel.
The archive is also being used beyond Bell Media's own channels, supporting documentary projects including an HBO production by Questlove and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.
Archive strategy
The agreement reflects a broader push by media groups to make legacy libraries easier to search, manage and distribute. Broadcasters are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence tools to identify, tag and retrieve material stored on ageing physical formats, reducing the time needed to process large collections.
For Bell Media, the move is also part of a digital distribution strategy focused on placing archive programming on third-party platforms with large built-in audiences. YouTube offers access to viewers in Canada and abroad without requiring the broadcaster to build a separate archive service.
"As part of a digital distribution strategy, we are leveraging platforms such as YouTube to extend reach and accessibility, ensuring our content meets audiences where they are," said Dave Daigle, Vice President, Local TV, iHeartRadio and Bell Media Studios.
"Our archive is one of our greatest assets, and by investing in the technology and vision to unlock it, we're preserving Canadian history," he added.
YouTube described the agreement as a way to bring longstanding Canadian television material to a wider audience. The deal also highlights the platform's role as a distribution outlet not only for new creator-led video, but also for professionally produced archive programming.
"YouTube is the world's stage, and we are proud to support Bell Media in bringing these iconic Canadian stories out of the vault and onto a global platform," said Stephanie Wilson Chapin, Lead of TV, Sports and News at YouTube Canada.
"By preserving this content digitally, we're ensuring that Canadian creativity continues to inspire and reach new audiences across the globe for years to come," she said.
Historic footage
The material being digitised covers several decades of Canadian broadcast history, from news reporting and music interviews to sports and entertainment programming. Physical tape archives of this size often face preservation risks as formats degrade and playback equipment becomes harder to maintain.
Turning those tapes into digital files with searchable metadata can make archive footage easier to retrieve for editorial use, licensing and documentary production. It can also extend the commercial life of older programming by putting it in front of viewers who were not part of the original broadcast audience.
Bell Media is drawing on some of the most recognisable names in its archive catalogue. MuchMusic interviews with pop and hip-hop artists, W5 reporting and Etalk entertainment coverage give the company a mix of material with domestic significance and potential international appeal.
More than 100,000 tapes are due to be digitised and uploaded by the end of 2026 from a collection estimated at up to 400,000 tapes and about 255,000 hours of footage.