Some of Canada’s top media executives erred toward cautious optimism on the final day of Prime Time, despite domestic industry concerns around the impact of U.S. president Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on Canada’s economy in an already downturn time in the sector.

“We’re not the 51st state … Every panel this whole conference has talked about how dire it is,” said Jocelyn Hamilton (pictured, centre left), Lionsgate Canada’s president, television during the panel, titled State of the Industry: Canada’s Media Leaders. “[We] can’t put our heads in the sand about that, but at the same time we have to persevere, we have to be resilient [and] we have to keep going. Our business has always done that.”

The three-day conference was punctuated by several conversations regarding topics such as the widespread use of creative content to teach generative AI and the broad implications of a federal Conservative Party win on the Canadian screen industry. However, as moderated by the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) president and CEO Reynolds Mastin (pictured, far left), panelists also discussed their excitement for the future.

Justin Stockman, Bell Media’s VP of content development and programming (pictured, left), said the company has shifted its approach to projects in the last few months. Although there will be some overlap, Bell Media’s two focuses are Canadian content for Canadians who are not seeing as many homegrown stories due to global streamers, and the Canadian stories it thinks will find popularity abroad.

“We want to bring Canadian series to the world,” said Stockman, which he said involves different financing than the global approach. “We think they can sell. We think Americans will watch them. They will still be made by Canadians and about Canadians. This isn’t service production we’re talking about.”

Hamilton echoed a similar approach to financing: “When you’re coming to us, make sure the creative is something that you believe could actually expand globally.” Hamilton also brought up Lionsgate’s “podcast to broadcast” strategy via Hallmark+ and the W Network’s Mistletoe Murders as a surefire way to proof of concept.

Magda Grace, head of Prime Video in Canada, Australia and New Zealand (pictured right), spoke about continuing to maintain different financing models for Canadian and shot-in-Canada series, as well as the need to incentivize in order to make bigger projects in the country.

Working with Canadian creators

During the panel, Stockman singled out Jasmeet Raina and his Crave series Late Bloomers as a unique Canadian voice, saying that Bell Media worked with Raina for a decade prior to the series. He also praised Jae and Trey Richards’ Crave series Office Movers in translating what works from their YouTube audience onto a series.

Stockman also said the company worked with TikTok’s Boman Martinez-Reid for nearly four years to take his point-of-view into what eventually became a 6 x 30-minute first season from Toronto’s Alibi Entertainment.

Andrew Peterson, YouTube’s head of Canada (pictured, centre right), for his part, highlighted Robert Randall, whose YAPTV YouTube channel featuring his short films and web series currently stands at 1.98 million subscribers. He also discussed the YouTube Partner Program, a revenue share model for creators. According to Peterson there are over 45,000 channels in Canada monetizing on the platform.

“I think YouTube and Canada, for instance, is really one of the key deciphering mechanisms for TV shows,” said Peterson.

Citing Nielsen data, he said 49% of Canadians  who watch TV and film content on YouTube use the platform to discover new shows. Another 31% of Canadians subscribe to a direct-to-consumer platform to watch those series once they’re discovered.

The state of the FAST market

The panel also touched on the FAST market, with Jamie Schouela, Blue Ant Media’s president, global channels and media (pictured, far right), stating that there is lots of room for new channels in Canada and the rest of the world outside the U.S.

“There’s a lot of room for growth, it’s early adoption,” said Schouela. “I’ve seen stats that only five to 10% of the general population even know what a FAST channel is.” He advised to not treat FAST as a strategy in and of itself, but as a broader piece of the overall content strategy.

Given that consumers are spoiled for choice between live programming, AVOD, SVOD and more, Peterson offered a quote from Steve Martin: “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

However, Hamilton said that, despite the great opportunity for libraries and discoverability, original commissioning strategies are not quite at the point of incorporating FAST markets yet.

The panelists spoke about the importance of a more flexible industry in the future, in terms of competition and business models. As well, regarding the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s implementation of Bill C-11, the panelists promoted the idea of Canadian sovereignty without losing the opportunity to reach globally.

“It really is going to be the devil in the details of how things are defined so they can’t be abused, so that people don’t have workarounds,” said Stockman. “We need to protect our culture but at the same time we’re not handcuffing ourselves.”

Photo by Dave Chan