This morning, CTV was the last of the major Canadian networks to announce a 2015/16 schedule after the annual Hollywood buying spree.
CBC this fall has a predominantly Canadian lineup with some UK and Australian acquisitions, City has more Sunnyside plus CBC’s Mr. D crossing networks, and Global has … nothing. While  boasting “17 hours of simulcast, more than any other Canadian network,” CTV has made room in their fall schedule for a new season of Saving Hope in a plum Thursday 9 pm timeslot, as well as their Saturday stalwart newsmagazine W5 celebrating 50 years on air.
Continuing Canadian daytime shows include The Marilyn Denis Show and The Social, and CTV will host The 2016 Juno Awards as well.
MasterChef Canada and Motive will return midseason in 2016, making CTV the home to the most Cancon of the major private networks this coming year (thanks at least in part to their required benefits spending after the Astral acquisition).
Saturday on baby sister network CTV TWO is repurposed Cancon night, with reruns of The Listener, Flashpoint, Motive and W5.
Look for the full 2015/16 schedule announcement here.
Pretty much what we expected.
Diane, any thoughts on what the new leader of Bell had to say about “the dreaded Netflix” recently? http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bell-media-president-says-using-vpns-to-skirt-copyright-rules-is-stealing-1.3099972
Oh so many thoughts. I have a rant in me that will hopefully come out soon. I love how she said they need to get their content more accessible … while keeping CraveTV tied to a cable subscription. I don’t disagree about illegal viewing etc – I do disagree what’s actually illegal and I do think criminalizing or shaming the audience didn’t work well for the music industry, but making content actually accessible and easily paid for did. I also find it odd that people who work on Canadian shows will often tell American viewers on Twitter they can probably download the show if they want to see it. As in, illegally. Maybe broadcasters should educate their own people before pointing fingers at the audience. Sorry, this was a pre-rant rant.
Can we also appreciate the irony that Canada has some of the best winter sport industries in the world-but her story starts while skiing in the US?
Your pre-rant is okay, I hope you like mine. ;)
Does Daredevil or Orange is the New Black have a widespread piracy issue like Game of Thrones? No, because Netflix is good with pricing and release times and technical functionality. Shutting down Napster didn’t keep the status quo for the music industry and they adapted with iTunes. They are hurting themselves with this too. I’ve had more then one person interested in Bell’s owned-Orphan Black only to back out when its not on Netflix.
I also don’t like the fact that many US shows film in Vancouver or the like because it’s cheaper. So the actors and crew are geoblocked from watching their show on the website of the US network they work for while in Canada to film episodes to go on the US website. D’oh.
And another thing, when Canadians follow a show on Facebook a sneak peek for an episode is geoblocked because it comes from the US website. So usually the only option to see it is if a fan posts it on YouTube. Are we stealing something the Canadian websites never put up?
Sorry worded that a bit poorly. I have no issue with shows filming in Vancouver or such, just the stupid and ironic geoblocking. The EU is actually taking steps to get rid of it. Why can’t we do the same?
It bugs me that a violation of a (supposedly evil) company’s terms of use is conflated with criminal activity, too.
The Canadian TV industry is scared of Netflix hurting their business model and their reaction to it is hurting them further. It’s ridiculous. They won’t believe YouTube is getting into original content until 5 years after it’s established.
It’s not up to Bell to get rid of geoblocking though – that would be a huge initiative to figure out how to make North America (or at least Canada/US ) one territory for rights purposes. I feel like that’s the way the market has to move though – one CBC article called trying to stay ahead of VPN services or other methods of getting around territorial rights is like playing a game of whack a mole.
I understand why Netflix geoblocks–they’re required to because of content licensing but when it comes to the broadcast networks, I really get annoyed. I can’t understand why CW, CBS and FOX rarely geoblock yet NBC keeps at it. Geoblocking is more of an annoyance than a barrier. I can’t understand why any of the nets would want to geoblock a trailer or clip either. A viewer is still a viewer no matter what side of the border they are on and any promotion of a show would benefit both the American broadcaster and the Canadian broadcaster.
Bell and the other telecom companies are the ones who benefit from geoblocking. Canadian cord-cutters are willing to pay for services like HBO Now but get shut out because Bell has “exclusive Canadian rights.”
And then Community Season 6 has Canada be possibly the only English speaking country without a way to legally watch it for reasons unknown.
Going back a little further Shomi gets Transparent after it wins a Golden Globe because Amazon Prime doesn’t have video for Canadians. Made all the more confusing because Amazon’s police show Bosch went to Crave. Shomi is at least going to open up to more of us and hopefully get better technologically because of it, going online their is still a fair number who says it’s navigation is terrible.
The telecom companies already own the lion’s share of TV networks and know the way to profits is to air something exactly when the US does and get simsub revenue. The US network websites let anyone watch a show in the US. The Canadian websites don’t, while trying to get us to pay for the US shows. Different and/or more expensive prices on US products in Canada is the way to end up like Target Canada.
When Netflix was just starting maybe they could have made a deal then, but nobody took Netflix seriously. Netflix has the goodwill in many countries. Rick Mercer summed up the general vibe towards the Canadian companies with the Bell/Rogers Anger Continuum.
Trying to bundle and box us in literally and figuratively is a way to turn even more customers against you.
Yes but in this case Bell is the buyer – they are not being offered and refusing North American rights, they’re only being offered Canadian rights. And HBO doesn’t want Canadians to access their shows on HBO Go because then they couldn’t sell the rights to Bell.
There would need to be legislation or for a whole lot of content owners to decide it’s best for business to treat North America as one market.
Oh I see. I think eventually it is going to become one big market. HBO is owned by Time Warner which doesn’t have a Canadian branch so in the past they had to use the big companies as a middleman who bought the brand name “HBO Canada” and its shows. Now the US HBO is officially getting in the streaming game as of last month. But the middleman doesn’t want to be on par with what is happening in the US. HBO has to hold up it’s contract with Canadian business so it can’t endorse cord-cutters trying to use another service-even their own. If it weren’t for that I’m sure HBO would be fine getting paid directly by Canadians as well as Americans.
Netflix got such a hold up here in part because it’s biggest US rivals Hulu and Amazon are still not here. Now the Canadian companies are trying to buy out the rights to shows to starve Netflix of content. But in ways that are restrictive, glitchy and more costly to customers. Getting on par with US accessibility and pricing are the two big things they need to do to be competitive but their own reputations and incidents like yesterday aren’t helping get people away from Netflix.
I love the comparison to Target Canada because that’s exactly what it’s like. U.S. Netflix is so much better than Canadian Netflix so Canadians still go south (un-geoblock) for their “products”. And if they really want to enter the streaming game here, Shomi and Crave TV need to be available for non cable/satellite subscribers. Shomi and Crave TV will fail a la Target if they can’t become stand-alone services.
Shomi apparently will be standalone in the summer. Doesn’t look like Crave will anytime soon based on this. But she even says content needs to be easier to access so why not open it up?
Correction again: Different *selection* and/or more expensive prices on US products in Canada is the way to end up like Target Canada. Is there any way to edit comments after we post them? I forget one word or something small like that and I’d like to fix it if possible.