Two years have passed since Paramount+ unveiled its first Canadian development slate. And it’s been an eventful two years, both for the media industry at large and for Paramount+, at home and abroad.

Paramount+ Canada wasn’t immune to the wave of layoffs sweeping its parent company, Paramount Global, in early 2024, with a number of staffers making their exits in April of last year, including head of original programming Tom Hastings.

The waters remain a little choppy for Paramount Global midway through 2025, as it is still in the process of finalizing a merger with David Ellison’s Skydance Media. The deal was initially expected to close in April, but with that deadline passed, the new date is set for early July, dependent on current back-and-forths with the FCC.

As for the slate revealed in 2023, according to Vanessa Case (pictured right), VP of content for Paramount+ and Pluto TV, Canada, “while there have been a couple projects that did not fit the platform, and development did not continue, we have continued conversations and development with a few producers.”

While those “continued conversations” remain private for the most part (Carpe Demon, which was in development with producers Todd Berger and Julie Di Cresce, “remains a discussion for us,” and Hate the Player: The Ben Johnson Story was co-commissioned with GameTV this week), Case maintains that engaging with the Canadian production community is a core priority for both the streamer and the FAST portfolio.

One development on the Canadian content front is the greenlight of a local adaptation of the massively popular Shores unscripted franchise, currently under the working title Canada Shore, to be produced by Insight Productions. The adaptation of the 495 Productions format that first launched in 2009 with Jersey Shore is set to enter production this summer. The streamer also recently came on board as the Canadian partner for season four of SkyMed.

Also, Case points to a “truly Canadian opportunity” in the form of lifestyle series Colin & Justin’s Sub-Zero Reno, which premiered in January. Her team came in early on production for the series and worked with its stars for the release. It is produced by Farpoint Films and Melbourne’s WTFN in association with Paramount+ Canada, with Farpoint Distribution handling Canadian rights.

Playback: What are the current priorities for Paramount+ Canada when it comes to commissioning, acquisition and development?

Vanessa Case: Every deal is going to be different. In particular, [we’re] looking not only at if the content fits our strategy and our platform, but how that deal is going to come together. It could be a windowing strategy, a financing strategy or a shared window. There’s a lot of different ways that we might structure a deal, and I think we’re really open to that creative deal-making to try and find the right fit for both the producer and us.

Over the past year, we have successfully explored different investment and windowing strategies that allow us to partner on original projects from a wider range of genres. This has allowed us to engage with producers on work already developed or partially financed and partner with other Canadian networks and platforms on shared windows. We are engaging in a less traditional development strategy but are working across more projects.

In terms of Canadian originals for Paramount+, what are you looking for?

We are looking for projects that connect with Canadians but that can also travel internationally. We work closely with our international Paramount+ teams, and where a title could have rights beyond Canada and is a creative fit, we like to bring these forward for consideration.

With the recent announcement of the Shores franchise coming to Canada, are you looking to adapt more international formats for local audiences?

I think we have to wait to see how the casting unfolds, and we’re working with Insight on that, of course. But, when we do, that’ll be the stepping point for: Can we do more, should we do more reality? Can it continue to be a huge opportunity for us? I’d love to think that there are growth opportunities for that within Canada.

What are you looking for in a format when considering whether it’s a fit for the Canadian market?

Can it be something that Canadians will immediately relate to or [can we] find the reason that it deserves its own unique version here? I think the beauty of something like Shores is that each territory has their own uniqueness to it. It’s never exactly duplicated.

What are some other recent highlights in terms of acquisitions for the Canadian platform, and content investments?

We have a really active acquisition strategy. We added a film to our platform after its TIFF [Toronto International Film Festival] 2024 premiere, Aberdeen [directed by Ryan Cooper and Eva Thomas]. It’s a beautiful film, it’s a tough film. But we thought it was perfect for our platform.

Similarly, just the year before, we had launched 500 Days In the Wild (pictured above) as a Paramount+ original. That was an amazing opportunity to get into the feature documentary area and to look at how we can grow docs on the platform.

Areas where we’ve made investments into Canadian content would be where we’ve worked with producers who are making true crime content. We have a lot of success with true crime on Paramount+. We’ve really leaned into that with shows like FBI True and PD True (pictured left) [both produced by Toronto’s Bright North Studios] and we’ve been able to bring much of that Canadian content exclusive to the platform.

Following 500 Days in the Wild, we have [The Pink Pill] in the production pipeline now with [producers Catalyst and Everywoman Studios].

Looking at Pluto TV in Canada, what types of content do you see connecting with audiences through the service?

We do really well in comedy, both new and classic comedy, and we do really well in crime, both scripted and unscripted. Those are core categories for us. We see hits in stunt events, be it movies, series, pop-up schedules, [or] pop-up channels and then, as I mentioned before, curated channels that are very specific to genres.

I would never say we’ve covered everything, but in the growth from where it started to where we are now, in this 200-channel environment, we have worked really hard to try and ensure we’ve got such a diverse list of categories, and within each category a diverse list of content and channel offerings.

We have many single-series channels, which are really strong performers, and we’re really engaged with those, but, to develop from where we were at launch to grow to where we are now [means] making sure we’ve got a really strong balance of single-series channels that deliver on content and different genres, [as well as] stunt events that make us unique in the FAST environment and curated multi-channel opportunities.

When it comes to what you’re looking to acquire for Pluto, what opportunities are there for Canadian producers to leverage their properties?

We have really strong relationships with [Canadian distributors and producers] – from CBC, because we’re carrying their news channels, to Cineflix and the NFB [National Film Board of Canada].

When Canadian producers are licensing their content, if they’ve got something that fits one of our core genres that we’re looking to make a multi-channel opportunity out of, we will absolutely look at and consider all content.

Images courtesy of Paramount+ Canada

This story originally appeared in Playback‘s Spring 2025 issue