Bell Media‘s 2025/26 slate will include a comedy series from Elliot Page’s production house, new shows from Tom Green and Jared Keeso and a batch of U.S. acquisitions, as the Canadian broadcaster puts plans in place to supercharge streamer Crave with more network fare.
The Toronto-based owner of CTV and Crave – Canada’s biggest network and streamer, respectively – revealed the headline-heavy slate to advertisers today days after launching what the company called its “most competitive digital rate card,” a move that comes as networks explore how AI can help targeted digital ads offset falling revenues elsewhere.
As Bell’s VP of Content Development & Programming Justin Stockman said in an interview with Deadline: “There are a lot of mouths to feed between being the number one network and the biggest streamer, so we have a lot of content to acquire and commission.”
Crave, in particular, has grown as fare more traditionally popular on linear TV gains digital fans, and streaming originals remain more ambitious in editorial scope than most broadcast shows. As such, Crave will get a significantly broadened selection of English- and French-language content from Bell’s library.
“Bell Media continues to charge forward with investment in Crave, dramatically broadening content available across entertainment, news, and sports,” added Sean Cohan, President of Bell Media. “Our focus is unwavering: to deliver the best storytelling, enhanced discoverability, and an enjoyable user experience to our over four million subscribers.”
At launch, the new Crave service will provide access to HBO and Max originals, Crave originals, CTV, Noovo, news, select sporting events, a deeper collection of programming for kids, and content from Bell Media’s suite of entertainment specialty channels including USA Network and Canal D. A free, ad-supported tier will offer new access to content from CTV, CTV 2, and French streamer Noovo, including CTV Movies and CTV Throwback.
In the interview, Stockman outlined the change in viewing habits. “What works, works,” he said. “Where it works is shifting. Broadcast hasn’t changed much but where streaming was super complex, it has evolved and expanded. Almost everything commissioned for broadcast works on streaming now.”
New slate
Among numerous announcements from Bell’s Upfront in Toronto today, Slo Pitch comes from Page’s Pageboy Productions and Shaftesbury as the first series from a co-development deal Page’s firm struck with the Canadian network in January.
The ten-episode show for CTV and streamer Crave is billed as a comedy following a queer underdog slo pitch team chases their dreams of making it to the beer league championships. J Stevens, Karen Knox and Gwenlyn Cumyn are the creators, with Katie Ford and Jane Cooper Ford developing it for TV.
Coming out of another recent co-development deal, Tom Green’s Funny Farm is billed as a “high-energy” show for Crave in which the comedian engages guests in extended, magazine-style interviews from his farm in Ontario. With an emphasis on Green’s pride in being Canadian, the ten-episode series will also see him visiting historic sites and local villages. Tom Green Productions is the producer.
Details are scarce on Letterkenny creator Keeso’s latest series beyond that it will be a six-part comedy from his New Metric Media business. Production is due to start this fall for a 2026 launch. Keeso entered into a multi-year deal with Crave in December 2023, as we reported first at the time.
I tried pushing Stockman and Bell’s General Manager of Original Programming Carlyn Klebuc for details, but sounds like there won’t be more until the fall on that. What Stockman would say was: “We were really pushing Jared for another spin-off from the Letterkenny universe and this is not it, but it’s exciting enough that he has pushed us off that. When we got the pitch, we were like, ‘we’ll get to the Letterkenny spin-off next.”
Similarly few details 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 will blend live-action and animation and comes from Triscope Studios.
Klebuc said comedies such as The Office Movers, Shoresy and Late Bloomer, all of which had new seasons unveiled today, were among the most popular shows on Bell’s streaming service.
Also notable is Anna Pigeon, the first Bell Media-Versant co-commission for USA Network, which the two companies operate respectively in their own countries. It follows a former city slicker who became a park ranger after a devastating loss changed the trajectory of her life forever, as turns her focus turns to solving crimes that have taken place within national park grounds, while trying outrun her demons.
The series is based on the best-selling novels by Nevada Barr. Morwyn Brebner is showrunner and Lea Thompson directs, with the pair executive producing alongside Todd Berger, Julie Di Cresce, Brett Burlock, Peter Emerson, Sonia Hosko, and Gordon Gilbertson. Cineflix Studios and December Films are the producers.
Seoul Palace, meanwhile, follows exiled Korean singer Lee Sang-Bin in the early 1970s as he seizes redemption after being charged with running Toronto’s first Asian nightclub. Inspired by true events, it comes from Banger Films and runs to six episodes for Crave. Elsewhere, the streamer has also commissioned Yaga, an eight-part series in which a private investigator comes to a small coastal town to look into the disappearance of the young heir to powerful fishery, only to find himself at odds with an apprehensive local detective, a sexy university professor with a taste for younger men, and a labyrinth of enigmatic suspects, secret lives and ancient magic. Front Street Pictures and Blink49 are co-producing.
Heated Rivalry is one of several other new shows for streamer Crave. Adapted from Rachel Reid’s cult classic novel, the six-part series is set in the world of sports and follows the relationship between Major League Hockey stars Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), who begin a secret fling as they chase victory on the ice and over the next eight years engage in a confusing relationship that tests whether there is room in their fiercely competitive worlds for love.
François Arnaud, Robbie GK, Sophie Nélisse, Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova, Dylan Walsh, and Christina Chang also star in the Accent Aigu Entertainment drama from executive producer, director, and writer Jacob Tierney. It was first unveiled back in January and is now officially confirmed.
Klebuc said she has been “begging” Canadian producers to bring her scripted romantic comedy ideas “for years,” and added that while Heated Rivalry doesn’t bring the laughs, “it’s going to be buzzy.” Stockman said the commission was a “very big swing.”
Keeping to the hockey theme, Hockey Fanatics will be an eight-part series from Alex Scrymgeour in which host Dave Foley and guests including Mike Myers, Jason Priestley, Wynonna Judd and Cactus Moser, Scott Wolf, Scott Bakula, Jay Baruchel, and Nico Tortorella travel across North America to explore the passion and fandom of the sport. Shadow Pine Studios and Scrimmy Media are producing. Foley has teased the show on social media. It now has an official greenlight.
Also on the unscripted front, CTV will be doubling down on formats such as The Amazing Race Canada, which was the network’s biggest show overall in 2024; The Traitors Canada; and MasterChef Canada, which is returning after a three-year hiatus.
On Crave, competition formats and true crime are cutting through and Bell has unveiled Make Yourself Over, 16-episode competition series from Scott Brothers Entertainment in which contestants try – and fail – to recreate iconic looks that capitalize on beauty trends and genres. Temptation Under the Sun will be a dating reality show based on Quebecois French-language series Occupation Double: Tentations au Soleil; and on the true crime front 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 construction workers and oil riggers. New Crave docs come in the shape of Saints & Warriors is a doc from InnoNative, Grand Scheme, Uninterrupted Canada about the leaders of iconic Indigenous-Haida basketball team the Skidegate Saints, as they compete to win titles and engage in a political battle to save their land and waters. Skinnamarink Forever, from Wildling Pictures, follows children’s entertainers Sharon, Lois and Bram, who rose to change the landscape of Canadian kids music forever; while Scenario Media’s Turtle Island Rap follows three Indigenous rappers. Wonderland of Chaos is about the notorious 1980s kids party venue the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, which was created and run by teenagers. Jen Markowitz and Jacob Ulrich produce.
Stockman said that financial growth at Crave was helping to ease pressure on budgets, given that Bell effectively now has dual revenue streams for every show.
“We have two places to monetize our investment in the market, but from a broader perspective we’ve been focused on how we can own more pieces of the value chain and partner more,” he added. “We’ve invested in a distribution company, Sphere Abacus, and have been talking more and more with U.S. and UK partners about co-productions and how we retain equity in them, and not advertize Canada as the place you come to make cheap shows, but the place to come to make your money go further.”
Acquisitions & renewals
Bell’s latest batch of acquisitions, which follow the LA Screenings earlier this month, are primarily for CTV, launching on Crave a day later. Fall schedule pick-ups include Ryan Murphy series 9-1-1 Nashville, Blue Bloods spin-off Boston Blue, Rob Low game show The Floor, 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 Best Medicine and Memories of a Killer, in which a hitman develops early onset Alzheimer’s.
Solely for Crave are Starz drama The Hunting Wives, Peacock’s high-concept marital comedy The Miniature Wife, HBO Max France drama The Seduction and Season 21 of Project Runway.
Stockman said of the recent trip to the LA Screenings: “There was less to pick up, but it felt focused. Sometimes you have take the bad with the good and this year was positive in that was mostly good and we got what we wanted.”
He noted that Boston Blue and The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins had “in-built fanbases” and said their “energy really works” with CTV audiences, while being impressed with the semi-serious tone and “Michel Gondry-type” style of The Miniature Wife. Despite only a five-minute sizzle being available, a chat with the creative team convinced him of the concept, which he called a “pretty silly idea being executed in a serious way, a good mix of ridiculous and depth.”
There are also recommissions for Crave comedy and Deadline Global Breakout Late Bloomer (Season 3), Super Team Canada (Season 2), Highway Thru Hell (Season 14), Roast Battle Canada (Season 5).
On the French-language front, new shows for Crave included Montreal Canadiens doc Toujours Canadiens; and Jérémie: Rendez-Vouz À La Plage, in which actors from scripted series Jérémie have a reunion. Elsewhere at the Upfront, it was announced Harlequin Studios is making six TV movies for CTV Life Channel, and a bunch of previously-announced English- and French-language series and docs were showcased.
Other announcements from the upfront include a streaming bundle offer for Crave, Disney+ and TSN. Launch date, and pricing will following in coming weeks, but the offer will provide HBO and Max originals, Crave originals, content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic, and TSN’s roster of live and on demand sports programming.
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