Bell Media‘s 2025/26 slate will embrace a comedy collection from Elliot Web page’s manufacturing home, new exhibits from Tom Inexperienced and Jared Keeso and a batch of U.S. acquisitions, because the Canadian broadcaster places plans in place to supercharge streamer Crave with extra community fare.
The Toronto-based proprietor of CTV and Crave – Canada’s greatest community and streamer, respectively – revealed the headline-heavy slate to advertisers in the present day days after launching what the corporate known as its “best digital charge card,” a transfer that comes as networks discover how AI may help focused digital adverts offset falling revenues elsewhere.
As Bell’s VP of Content material Growth & Programming Justin Stockman mentioned in an interview with Deadline: “There are loads of mouths to feed between being the primary community and the largest streamer, so we’ve got loads of content material to accumulate and fee.”
Crave, particularly, has grown as fare extra historically in style on linear TV good points digital followers, and streaming originals stay extra formidable in editorial scope than most broadcast exhibits. As such, Crave will get a considerably broadened choice of English- and French-language content material from Bell’s library.
“Bell Media continues to cost ahead with funding in Crave, dramatically broadening content material obtainable throughout leisure, information, and sports activities,” added Sean Cohan, President of Bell Media. “Our focus is unwavering: to ship the very best storytelling, enhanced discoverability, and an fulfilling person expertise to our over 4 million subscribers.”
At launch, the brand new Crave service will present entry to HBO and Max originals, Crave originals, CTV, Noovo, information, choose sporting occasions, a deeper assortment of programming for teenagers, and content material from Bell Media’s suite of leisure specialty channels together with USA Community and Canal D. A free, ad-supported tier will supply new entry to content material from CTV, CTV 2, and French streamer Noovo, together with CTV Motion pictures and CTV Throwback.
Within the interview, Stockman outlined the change in viewing habits. “What works, works,” he mentioned. “The place it really works is shifting. Broadcast hasn’t modified a lot however the place streaming was tremendous advanced, it has advanced and expanded. Virtually every part commissioned for broadcast works on streaming now.”
New slate
Amongst quite a few bulletins from Bell’s Upfront in Toronto in the present day, Slo Pitch comes from Web page’s Pageboy Productions and Shaftesbury as the primary collection from a co-development deal Web page’s agency struck with the Canadian community in January.
The ten-episode present for CTV and streamer Crave is billed as a comedy following a queer underdog slo pitch workforce chases their desires of creating it to the beer league championships. J Stevens, Karen Knox and Gwenlyn Cumyn are the creators, with Katie Ford and Jane Cooper Ford creating it for TV.
Popping out of one other latest co-development deal, Tom Inexperienced’s Humorous Farm is billed as a “high-energy” present for Crave by which the comic engages friends in prolonged, magazine-style interviews from his farm in Ontario. With an emphasis on Inexperienced’s delight in being Canadian, the ten-episode collection can even see him visiting historic websites and native villages. Tom Inexperienced Productions is the producer.
Particulars are scarce on Letterkenny creator Keeso’s newest collection past that will probably be a six-part comedy from his New Metric Media enterprise. Manufacturing is because of begin this fall for a 2026 launch. Keeso entered right into a multi-year cope with Crave in December 2023, as we reported first on the time.
I attempted pushing Stockman and Bell’s Normal Supervisor of Unique Programming Carlyn Klebuc for particulars, however appears like there received’t be extra till the autumn on that. What Stockman would say was: “We had been actually pushing Jared for one more spin-off from the Letterkenny universe and this isn’t it, but it surely’s thrilling sufficient that he has pushed us off that. Once we obtained the pitch, we had been like, ‘we’ll get to the Letterkenny spin-off subsequent.”
Equally few particulars are forthcoming on Sigil, which is from Devery Jacobs and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Chris Lavis. The eight-part horror-fantasy drama for Crave counts Matrix co-director Lilly Wachowski as an exec producer and can mix live-action and animation and comes from Triscope Studios.
Klebuc mentioned comedies equivalent to The Workplace Movers, Shoresy and Late Bloomer, all of which had new seasons unveiled in the present day, had been among the many hottest exhibits on Bell’s streaming service.
Additionally notable is Anna Pigeon, the primary Bell Media-Versant co-commission for USA Community, which the 2 corporations function respectively in their very own international locations. It follows a former metropolis slicker who grew to become a park ranger after a devastating loss modified the trajectory of her life endlessly, as turns her focus turns to fixing crimes which have taken place inside nationwide park grounds, whereas attempting outrun her demons.
The collection relies on the best-selling novels by Nevada Barr. Morwyn Brebner is showrunner and Lea Thompson directs, with the pair government producing alongside Todd Berger, Julie Di Cresce, Brett Burlock, Peter Emerson, Sonia Hosko, and Gordon Gilbertson. Cineflix Studios and December Movies are the producers.
Seoul Palace, in the meantime, follows exiled Korean singer Lee Sang-Bin within the early Seventies as he seizes redemption after being charged with working Toronto’s first Asian nightclub. Impressed by true occasions, it comes from Banger Movies and runs to 6 episodes for Crave. Elsewhere, the streamer has additionally commissioned Yaga, an eight-part collection by which a non-public investigator involves a small coastal city to look into the disappearance of the younger inheritor to highly effective fishery, solely to seek out himself at odds with an apprehensive native detective, an attractive college professor with a style for youthful males, and a labyrinth of enigmatic suspects, secret lives and historic magic. Entrance Road Footage and Blink49 are co-producing.
Heated Rivalry is one in all a number of different new exhibits for streamer Crave. Tailored from Rachel Reid’s cult basic novel, the six-part collection is ready on the earth of sports activities and follows the connection between Main League Hockey stars Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), who start a secret fling as they chase victory on the ice and over the following eight years have interaction in a complicated relationship that exams whether or not there’s room of their fiercely aggressive worlds for love.
François Arnaud, Robbie GK, Sophie Nélisse, Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova, Dylan Walsh, and Christina Chang additionally star within the Accent Aigu Leisure drama from government producer, director, and author Jacob Tierney. It was first unveiled again in January and is now formally confirmed.
Klebuc mentioned she has been “begging” Canadian producers to convey her scripted romantic comedy concepts “for years,” and added that whereas Heated Rivalry doesn’t convey the laughs, “it’s going to be buzzy.” Stockman mentioned the fee was a “very large swing.”
Preserving to the hockey theme, Hockey Fanatics shall be an eight-part collection from Alex Scrymgeour by which host Dave Foley and friends together with Mike Myers, Jason Priestley, Wynonna Judd and Cactus Moser, Scott Wolf, Scott Bakula, Jay Baruchel, and Nico Tortorella journey throughout North America to discover the eagerness and fandom of the game. Shadow Pine Studios and Scrimmy Media are producing. Foley has teased the present on social media. It now has an official greenlight.
Additionally on the unscripted entrance, CTV shall be doubling down on codecs equivalent to The Superb Race Canada, which was the community’s greatest present general in 2024; The Traitors Canada; and MasterChef Canada, which is returning after a three-year hiatus.
On Crave, competitors codecs and true crime are chopping by means of and Bell has unveiled Make Your self Over, 16-episode competitors collection from Scott Brothers Leisure by which contestants strive – and fail – to recreate iconic appears that capitalize on magnificence tendencies and genres. Temptation Below the Solar shall be a courting actuality present primarily based on Quebecois French-language collection Occupation Double: Tentations au Soleil; and on the true crime entrance are docu-series Narco Mennonites; and three-parters Above Suspicion and The Christine Jessop Story.
Elsewhere, Blink49 Studios’ Blue Collar, following Dan Petronijevic (Letterkenny) as he experiences the worlds of development employees and oil riggers. New Crave docs come within the form of Saints & Warriors is a doc from InnoNative, Grand Scheme, Uninterrupted Canada concerning the leaders of iconic Indigenous-Haida basketball workforce the Skidegate Saints, as they compete to win titles and interact in a political battle to save lots of their land and waters. Skinnamarink Ceaselessly, from Wildling Footage, follows youngsters’s entertainers Sharon, Lois and Bram, who rose to vary the panorama of Canadian youngsters music endlessly; whereas Situation Media’s Turtle Island Rap follows three Indigenous rappers. Wonderland of Chaos is concerning the infamous Nineteen Eighties youngsters social gathering venue the Mad Hatter’s Tea Occasion, which was created and run by youngsters. Jen Markowitz and Jacob Ulrich produce.
Stockman mentioned that monetary development at Crave was serving to to ease strain on budgets, on condition that Bell successfully now has twin income streams for each present.
“Now we have two locations to monetize our funding out there, however from a broader perspective we’ve been targeted on how we are able to personal extra items of the worth chain and associate extra,” he added. “We’ve invested in a distribution firm, Sphere Abacus, and have been speaking an increasing number of with U.S. and UK companions about co-productions and the way we retain fairness in them, and never advertize Canada because the place you come to make low cost exhibits, however the place to come back to make your cash go additional.”
Acquisitions & renewals
Bell’s newest batch of acquisitions, which observe the LA Screenings earlier this month, are primarily for CTV, launching on Crave a day later. Fall schedule pick-ups embrace Ryan Murphy collection 9-1-1 Nashville, Blue Bloods spin-off Boston Blue, Rob Low sport present The Ground, and Tina Fey comedy The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, starring Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe. Coming midseason are Fox’s Doc Martin remake Finest Medication and Recollections of a Killer, by which a hitman develops early onset Alzheimer’s.
Solely for Crave are Starz drama The Searching Wives, Peacock’s high-concept marital comedy The Miniature Spouse, HBO Max France drama The Seduction and Season 21 of Undertaking Runway.
Stockman mentioned of the latest journey to the LA Screenings: “There was much less to choose up, but it surely felt targeted. Typically you may have take the dangerous with the great and this 12 months was optimistic in that was largely good and we obtained what we wished.”
He famous that Boston Blue and The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins had “in-built fanbases” and mentioned their “vitality actually works” with CTV audiences, whereas being impressed with the semi-serious tone and “Michel Gondry-type” fashion of The Miniature Spouse. Regardless of solely a five-minute sizzle being obtainable, a chat with the inventive workforce satisfied him of the idea, which he known as a “fairly foolish thought being executed in a severe means, a great mixture of ridiculous and depth.”
There are additionally recommissions for Crave comedy and Deadline International Breakout Late Bloomer (Season 3), Tremendous Workforce Canada (Season 2), Freeway Via Hell (Season 14), Roast Battle Canada (Season 5).
On the French-language entrance, new exhibits for Crave included Montreal Canadiens doc Toujours Canadiens; and Jérémie: Rendez-Vouz À La Plage, by which actors from scripted collection Jérémie have a reunion. Elsewhere on the Upfront, it was introduced Harlequin Studios is making six TV motion pictures for CTV Life Channel, and a bunch of previously-announced English- and French-language collection and docs had been showcased.
Different bulletins from the upfront embrace a streaming bundle supply for Crave, Disney+ and TSN. Launch date, and pricing will following in coming weeks, however the supply will present
HBO and Max originals, Crave originals, content material from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Nationwide Geographic, and TSN’s roster of stay and on demand sports activities programming.
