Canadian networks tend to be on well -known franchises, American sizes in advance

Despite the current urge to Canadian products in the aftermath of Trump’s tariff wars, Canadian broadcasters double the American formats and partnerships for the coming television season.

Bell Media, Corus, Rogers Sports & Media and the Canadian Broadcasting Center (CBC) each lasted a day to present their previous week in Toronto to advertisers and press. During the four -day frenzy they flew into talent, presented red carpets and unveiled plans for consolidated advertising sale.

The presentation styles varied, because CBC almost chose a breakfast event and Rogers did, but the message was the same: when it comes to programming network television, the content of the US still rules the supreme.

In contrast to American schedules, which contents of our own soil, Canadian TV schedules are historically anchored with American acquisition programming. These are the series that attracts Canadian advertisers and viewers, which can be influenced for marketing campaigns on both sides of the border. The diagrams are then interrupted with more expensive Canadian content, which are regulated under the current rules of the Canadian Radio-Vision and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

The exception is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), whose main schedule and streaming service, CBC Gem, consists of Canadian dishes. This year the CBC surprised many during his presentation with heavy investments in factual programming but not a new script series, although managers say they should make announcements in the coming months.

“We have more than a handful of scripted shows Greenlit, but there are steps that have to be taken, after green light, pre -camera rolling and production,” says Barb Williams, Executive VP at CBC. “We need financing partners for all our productions and in some cases the producers are still working on getting that last piece of financing. In other cases, casting is still not confirmed. So this specific year, for a number of different reasons, we were unable to fully announce.”

Despite the clear call for patriotism in Canadian media and advertising in the past three months, there were no large water cooler Canadian moments of the three private networks. CTV, Global and CityTV were again anchored by American content, and every network head promised advertisers that they had bought the most exciting new series.

The acquisition of those American series on the LA-Genshoning is partly money, partly already existing relationships with the studios, which often use Buzzy titles to load less attractive rate through bundles.

“The long -term relationships that we have with many of the big studios are really important,” says former CEO of Corus Entertainment, Troy Reeb, who left the company two days after the first place. “Where we can, we start those conversations, often as soon as the show is developing and especially when they want to photograph in Canada, as many shows are now. We look for those opportunities.”

However, sometimes those partnerships can have the opposite effect, as Corus and Bell Media learned last year when Rogers Sports & Media announced a new deal with Warner Bros. Discovery that decades long runs of networks such as Food Network Canada, HGTV Canada (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Bell) (Bell) (Bell) (Bell) (Bell) (Bell) (Bell) (Bell) (Bell) (Bell) (Bell) (Bell) (Bell) (Bell) (Bell) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) (Corus) () BELL) (Bell) (Bell) has ended.

Those channels transferred to Rogers -ownership in January under their original titles. Corus lost all American programming that best rated special channels and racing to Rebrand as home and taste channels by taking advantage of Canadian talent such as Bryan Baeumler, Scott McGillivray and Anna Olson. At Rogers, Execs used the Voetjes to confirm the original series for Food Network and HGTV, including a new project by Drew and Jonathan Scott, the launch of “Home Town Takeover Canada”, the return of “Come Dine With Me Canada” and a new David Rocco series.

In the meantime, Bell Media initially sought compensation, but decided the legal dispute in October after expanding his partnership with Warner on HBO and HBO Max content for several years. That partnership ensures that HBO Max is not quickly launched in Canada in Canada and can crave strengthening subscribers with popular shows such as “The Last of Us” and “House of the Dragon.”

“HBO is an important part of the Crave offer, and I would lie if I didn’t say that was true,” says Justin Stockman Vice-President, Content Development & Programming at Bell Media. “If we look at our top series, several of them are HBO.”

The decline of network viewers and the recent Warner situation, however, may have learned Canadian TV -Execs a few hard truths and it seems that more canon is on the horizon. There were few canceled script series this year, and although the original committees on the network were scarce, Execs confirmed various Canadian sizes, including the return of “MasterChef Canada” and “The Traitors Canada” on CTV and the launch of “The Price Is Right Tonight” in Torvonto.

“Our Canadian programming has always been about telling Canadian stories and finding programming that really resonates with our audience,” says Kale Stockwell, head of original programming at Rogers Sports & Media. “I think you can take a really famous franchise such as ‘Law & Order’ or ‘The Price is right’ or even ‘hometown takeover’ and you can give it a unique Canadian twist that clearly speaks to the Canadian market.”

This year’s disputable La Screenings winner was “The Office” Spin -Ooff “The Paper”, who ended up in Corus Studios thanks to the general partnership with Peacock. The series is broadcast on Specialty Channel Showcase, together with the Simu Liu series “The Copenhagen Test” and Emilia Clarke’s “Ponies” from Peacock in an attempt to push subscriptions to the StackTV streaming canal of the showcase.

“Stacktv is strategically our most important product,” says Reeb. “It is incredibly important that there are Canadian voices in an increasingly busy streaming system. Stacktv has been a great small growth motor and we want that to continue.”

At Bell, Crave builds on his HBO Max and Starz libraries with a new French and English cancon, including a new format “Bon Cop Bad Cop”, the return of “Project Runway Canada”, a without title Jared Keeso project and a new iteration of “Match Game” organized by Martin Short. It also announced the pick-up of “Tom Green’s Funny Farm” and Elliot Page’s “Slo Pitch”, together with a new queer hockey comedy, “Heated Rivalry” from “Letterkenny” co-maker Jacob Tierney.

“We are all looking for it. We are looking for IP and we are looking for makers of content,” says Carlyn Klebuc, general manager of Bell Media, original programming. “We are looking for everything, because we are looking for something that goes through, that will be Buzzy, that will involve the audience.”

In the development arena, Crave seems best ready to develop successful content with international attraction that will give it a competitive advantage. All in all, the 116 original new and recurring titles announced for its 2025/26 English and French -speaking slate. It also announced the expansion of Crave to record networks CTV and Noovo, as well as selected sports, news and children’s content by the end of the year, and confirmed that new bundle offers with Disney+ and TSN will launch in the coming months.

The news is on the heels of Bell Media’s Recent investment in Blink49 Studios and the acquisition of a majority stake in global content distributor Sphere Abacus.

“This is not a kind of rescue mission for Crave who has his best year ever,” says Stockman. “This year Q1 was our most viewed quarter ever. Last year was our most viewed year.