Can you say converging?

That’s the direction for Canadian media after 2009 – a year in which industry players questioned their existing business models and experimented with new ones, amid a challenging economy and changing consumer habits.

As domestic broadcasters and content carriers fought a CRTC-mediated cage match over carriage fees, Canadian media stared down new competition from a myriad of iPhone apps, streaming video, growing on-demand content libraries, video games sold and played online, as well as social media, which tapped increasing ad dollars.

The list of changing and converging business models is bewildering. Turns out webisodes and mobisodes were only practice for the multiplatform revolution to come.

At the start of 2009, no one had heard of the Canada Media Fund. Now, as a new year dawns, its upcoming launch and rules to replace the CTF and the Canada New Media Fund are the subject of keen industry attention.

All of which leaves industry players scratching their heads and wondering where old and new media are headed and where they, as entrepreneurs or companies, should pounce in 2010.

Canada’s fee-for-carriage debate, which still dominates the Canadian airwaves at year’s end, is clearly more than a story about whether to charge cable subscribers for local TV station signals.

Already weakened by viewers and advertisers moving online, Canadian conventionals were the most troubled and challenged players in 2009.

Debt-laden Canwest Global Communications tipped itself into creditor protection and CTV began to sell off assets and shed costs to survive a nuclear winter for TV ad rates.

The CBC and other broadcasters, while also reining back costs, touted higher ratings from the new Personal People Meter technology, only to be told by advertisers the same amount of dollars will be redirected to where audiences are more accurately measured.

Brand integration, targeted dynamic advertising in VOD, or selling ad time on U.S. local avails were just a few of the innovations pursued this past year to get broadcasters back in the game amid increased competition from specialties and the Internet.

For their part, indie producers, facing shrinking licence fees from broadcasters, looked to cold government cash and international coproduction dollars to get through tough times.

If there were winners in 2009, they were among Canadian cable operators and specialty and pay-TV broadcasters like Corus Entertainment and Astral Media, which were more assured of subscriber fees during the industry downturn.

But even here, the cablers showed their teeth in the fee-for-carriage fight over fears subscribers may be angered if they are forced to pay for over-the-air TV signals they already receive for free.

Another potential consumer irritant: CTV and Global Television asking the CRTC for a program deletion regime where carriers would be compelled to black out a U.S. border station signal when Canadian broadcasters air American shows at different times in a seven-day window.

With an eye to Comcast purchasing a majority stake in NBC Universal, Canadian cable and phone giants instead want to change the subscriber’s user experience by offering more programming choice before Canadians cut their cable or satellite TV line and watch movies and TV shows online via iTunes or Redbox.

After all, even cash-rich cable and phone giants are struggling with how to monetize their content as they migrate online for trivial revenues.

Shrewd bets in 2009: Rogers Communications took a minority stake in Michael Eisner’s web video studio Vuguru in return for controlling Canadian rights to its web-based content.

And Bell Canada, after an expensive system upgrade, promised wall-to-wall mobile coverage of the upcoming Vancouver/Whistler 2010 Olympics after signing a distribution agreement with the Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium.

Bell not only stands to cash in on roaming charges to foreign media and other Vancouver/Whistler visitors making calls during the Games, but also secure data charges from sticky Olympics live streaming video to newly signed-up smartphone customers.

In addition, Astral Media launched TMN OnLine to allow its pay-TV subscribers to stream popular content via a computer and high-speed Internet connection countrywide.

The bet is distributors will be able to keep their most loyal subscribers with new content deals that provide user convenience at no extra charge.

Other examples: the launch of HBO Canada as an adjunct for The Movie Network and Movie Central subscribers, and Rogers Media launching an online video portal for the re-exhibition of TV programming that’s already proved itself on air.

Elsewhere, Canadian video game makers faced their own volatility and opportunity in 2009 as French giant Ubisoft was lured by the Ontario government to open a Toronto development studio, just as rival Electronic Arts cancelled plans to build a new development studio in Vancouver.

Still, despite the rough economy, Canadians did show they were willing to open their wallets for compelling media content. Witness the successful launch of HBO Canada on the pay-TV platform, and mobile subscribers flocking to upgrade to emerging smartphones.

All of which leaves everyone none the wiser at year’s end on the future direction of TV in the evolving digital age, and the role of broadcasters and cablecasters, if any, in that business as media companies and audiences increasingly migrate online.