It’s a year that is bound to go down in the annals of Canadian TV history as one of the most significant for the change that it wrought on a long-standing business model. And while Playback‘s most-clicked stories of the year can be affected by forces outside of sheer newsworthiness (see #3 and #4), the overall picture is one that captures many of the year’s biggest stories.

Unsurprisingly, it was corporate layoffs that made some of 2015’s biggest headlines. While Bell Media’s massive re-org was known in advance of it being executed, Shaw Media’s spring round of cuts was more of a surprise, and as a result, captured the status of being Playback‘s most-clicked story of the year. The restructure saw Shaw Media’s drama head Tara Ellis relocate to the CBC, where she is now executive director of scripted content (a story that appears in #12).

Our #2 is a stalwart on the most-clicked list: the annual reveal of the Playback 5 to Watch. Readers clicked through in droves to find out who made the highly anticipated list, which this year included Jasmeet “Jus Reign” Singh, Giacomo Gianniotti, Stella Meghie, Hannah Cheesman and Mackenzie Donaldson of Aberrant Pictures and Daniel Birnbaum. Updates from the 5 include Meghie’s feature Jean of the Joneses moving into production and Singh organizing “A Very Punjabi Christmas: Live in Concert” special in his hometown of Brampton. And just last week, 2014 5 to Watcher Abby Ho was named to lead CBC’s MCN partnership with Fullscreen.

Number three likely had a fair amount of fan influence but was an interesting business story from the new-media side of things nonetheless. Filmmakers Sarah Rotella and Adrianna DiLonardo (pictured right) used the strength of their YouTube channel to raise enough capital for their feature film Almost Adults, which was fully financed by their Kickstarter campaign to the tune of $100,000. Not too shabby, ladies. Also on the fan-generated click program was our #4, which revealed the renewal of CW series’ Reign and Beauty and the Beast, by Toronto’s Take 5 Productions and Whizbang Films. As one kind person pointed out on Twitter, we were “swarmed by Beasties” on that one. (It was announced in October that season four would be Beauty‘s last.)

Let’s Talk TV makes its appearance in #5, where we revealed that both genre protection and daytime Cancon quotes were being eliminated as part of the CRTC’s almost complete overhaul of the Canadian broadcasting system. No Beasties there to juice those clicks, but the industry clicked in droves to find out how deep the changes would go.

And #6 sees another major theme of 2015 make itself heard, as BravoFACT announced it would be mandating that 50% of its funds go toward female filmmaker-led projects. A small funder, BravoFACT still went where many have called for Telefilm and other major funders to go, and that’s toward a quota-based system for publicly funded projects. It will be interesting to catch up with BravoFACT in 2016 to find out the challenges and benefits of moving to such a model.

Our “own” Amber Dowling made the list at #7, as fans of her TV Junkies work (and previous post as editor of TV Guide Canada) clicked through to read more on her achievement in being named president of the Television Critics Association. She’s only the second Canadian ever to be named to the role, which has risen in prominence in recent years as the number of outlets competing for critics attention has increased dramatically. (She’s also been a regular contributor to Playback magazine over the past year, an addition to our roster we couldn’t be more pleased about.)

On the “people moves” front, one of the biggest stories of the year was definitely Jocelyn Hamilton’s move from Corus to Entertainment One, where she was named president of eOne Television in Canada. Hamilton (pictured right) had long been a figurehead of Corus Entertainment original production, where she started in 1998 as a VP of production. Hamilton brought a wealth of relationships with the indie sector to her new role at eOne, which is growing its original content production rapidly to meet global demand.

On the flip side, Canadian factual producers had to say (professional) goodbye to another long-term programming exec, as Discovery’s Paul Lewis was let go as part of the first round of Bell Media layoffs, our #9 story of the year. As shock reverberated around the industry, Playback subscribers clicked through in high numbers to find out what happened to Lewis, who was the face of original Discovery production and a globally recognized factual executive.

Our #10 story allows us to capture most of the major trends of 2015 in one list, and that’s tax credit cuts. Most keenly felt in Nova Scotia, which completely dismantled its film/TV incentive program before partially reconstructing it, our #10 story was Ontario’s 3.5% downshift in its all-spend production credit. That change – significant when constructing a Suicide Squad-style budget – has been significantly mitigated by the Canadian dollar’s swan dive this year, but could have greater effect in the years ahead if the dollar returns to pre-2015 levels.

1. Shaw Media reorganizes, lays off over 80 staff
2. Playback’s 5 to Watch revealed
3. How YouTube fans helped finance feature Almost Adults
4. Two new CW season pickups for Take 5, Whizbang
5. CRTC relaxes screen quotas, cuts genre protection
6. BravoFACT mandates 50% of funds to female filmmakers
7. Amber Dowling on taking the top TCA job
8. Jocelyn Hamilton named president at eOne TV Canada
9. Bell Media restructure sees departure of Discovery’s Paul Lewis
10. Ontario reduces 25% all-spend tax credit