Producers urge shift to ‘audience-first’ strategy to boost CanCon discoverability in digital age

Ensuring domestic stories can thrive in a crowded digital world depends on an industry-wide shift towards prioritizing the viewer’s experience at every stage of production, according to some players in the Canadian media sector. During a panel discussion at the Canadian Media Producer Association’s Prime Time conference last week, producers and broadcasters came together to unpack the findings of a recent report commissioned by the CRTC. It argued the industry must adopt an “audience-first” approach to achieve the objectives of the Broadcasting Act, focusing on making Canadian content that connects with viewers, rather than assuming that just making it is enough. This ‘discoverability 2.0’ approach is no longer the responsibility of a single person or marketing team, said Nicole Matiation, audiovisual sector lead at Nordicity — the consulting firm that put together the report — and the panel’s moderator. “It's not just what producers could do, it's not just what an actor can do in a show, it's not just about the platform,” she stated. “It's about how all the pieces come together.” For creative producers like Anthony Q. Farrell, CEO of Canfro Productions, thinking about how an audience will find a project is a core part of the creative process. “Artists, we make art a lot of times to have it seen… we want people to experience it, we want people to feel it, we want people to respond to it,” said Farell. While artists primarily create work to be experienced and felt, Farell noted, they must now think about discoverability early on, especially when aiming for a successful hit that provides creators with the necessary “creative leverage” to secure future projects. He highlighted the success that Heated Rivalry director Jacob Tierney had earlier in his career with shows including Letterkenny and Shoresy. The “creative leverage” gained from those earlier shows with “great pedigree” allowed Tierney to take the leap of making Heated Rivalry. However, the sheer volume of content in the digital age makes standing out an uphill battle. Mark Montefiore, CEO of New Metric Media — the production company behind Letterkenny and Shoresy — pointed out that the problem has intensified over the last decade. “Park the breakout hits aside, the general amount of shows that have come out all have the same problem,” he said. “How do you stand out in this market and this ecosystem?” “Every link in the chain” — from the actor to the writer to the producer — “needs to be bringing its own strength” to help a production cut through the noise, Montefiore explained. Media industry players speak about content discoverability during a panel discussion at the Canadian Media Producer Association’s Prime Time conference in Ottawa on Jan. 30, 2026. From left: Chris Harris, Anthony Q. Farrell, Veronica Graham, Mark Montefiore, Nicole Matiation (The Wire Report photograph by Davis Legree). The CRTC report echoed these challenges, noting how in today’s attention economy, audience time, not shelf space, is the scarce resource. Given the inherently global nature of the internet, the report stated that sustainable growth for Canadian creators depends on designing for both domestic and international markets, and recommended that broadcasters be allowed to allocate a portion of their Canadian programming expenditure (CPE) requirements towards marketing and promotion. “A practical policy response to current and emerging business models would see audience development as an eligible and incentivized spend class across the content lifecycle,” the report read. This was also suggested by broadcasters and streamers in consultations with Nordicity, it continued, who argued, “there is little value in producing content that nobody sees.” Veronica Graham, director of content strategy and curation at Bell Media, shared how an audience-first strategy was successfully applied to the series Heated Rivalry. She explained that the broadcaster chose to “be a fan” alongside the audience, using social media fan edits and strategic teases on platforms like TikTok and Instagram to build trust and excitement. This campaign resulted in 1.2 million new followers, the majority of whom were based in the United States, demonstrating the potential for Canadian stories to travel globally when social media is leveraged effectively. She emphasized that having social media experts directly on set makes a significant difference in capturing engaging content that cuts through the noise. Chris Harris, senior director of digital publishing and streaming at CBC, agreed that collaboration between broadcasters and producers on social strategy is essential. He noted that the CBC can have powerful reach on social media, it also works closely with producers on social media strategies and encourages them to have people on their teams with social media skills. One of the structural challenges discussed by the panel was the lack of a robust “star system” in Canada’s English-speaking market. Farrell noted there are many Canadian stars, but they often achieve their fame in other countries. He suggested creators must often attach these international stars to their projects just to make broadcasters feel comfortable enough to consider a pitch, as these figures bring their own established audiences. The CRTC report acknowledged this discrepancy, noting that French-language markets in Quebec benefit from a strong domestic star system and cultural supports that are less prevalent in the country’s English sector. The report suggested that national identity campaigns could help amplify discoverability by attaching individual titles to a broader cultural narrative, potentially building pride and normalizing the selection of Canadian content. The panel also addressed the evolving role of platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Graham noted that younger audiences are increasingly consuming content in "chopped up" segments on social media. She used the example of the series The Rookie, which has seen high engagement on TikTok through three-minute clips that she said eventually lead viewers back to full episodes on Crave, Bell’s streaming platform. While she acknowledged the challenge of monetizing these fragmented viewing habits, she argued the industry must move away from the mentality that there is only “one right way” to consume content. The CRTC report supported this view, stating that audiences move fluidly across services and devices, and that recommendation engines are central to how work is found. It points out that YouTube has become a major broadcaster in its own right, often rivaling or exceeding premium streamers in engagement. New Metric’s Montefiore discussed his experience with Shozer, a recently launched YouTube channel featuring clips of comedy shows and stand up. “As of next week, Letterkenny will have been on the air for 10 years. And, when we first started, a lot of our fans were 15-years-old,” he said, “and 10 years later, there's new 14-, 15-year-olds right now, who aren't on Crave or they're not on Hulu.” “So we're exposing a whole new generation of audiences, who otherwise wouldn't know the show and wouldn't see it, in a way that's bringing it to where they are.” Packaging and presentation were also identified as critical components of discoverability. Harris noted that broadcasters are increasingly asking producers for pieces of “key art” to represent a show in different ways across various streamers. He compared this to the podcast industry, where immense care is put into thumbnails and art because that is the first and often last thing a potential listener sees. Harris added that this is essentially a digital version of the “old days,” where a movie was sold on its title, logline, and poster. The CRTC report emphasized the technical side of this packaging, noting that metadata is the “connective tissue” that makes content legible to both humans and machines. It suggested that Canada should invest in a national metadata infrastructure to ensure Canadian works are correctly indexed in search results and fairly surfaced in recommendations. Ultimately, the panelists agreed that the future of the industry depends on deep partnership and early collaboration. The CRTC report concluded with several strategic considerations, including the need to achieve Canadian policy objectives through the ownership and control of intellectual property (IP). It argued that when Canadian companies retain their rights, they can build franchises and capture the “long-tail” value of their work over time. Letterkenny’s success was cited in the report as a prime example of the power of cultivating and leveraging Canadian IP, which has led to spin-offs, merchandise, and international licensing deals. Fostering such ownership, the report continued, anchors Canadian stories in their place of origin and ensures that the economic benefits of success stay within the domestic ecosystem. “Because discoverability is a shared responsibility, it also needs shared governance,” read the report. “A static, one-time regulatory fix will not resolve a dynamic, multi-actor, technology and audience behaviour-driven, constantly evolving challenge.” “While CRTC consultations are essential to establishing a robust regulatory framework,” the report also calls for a standing forum of public entities, industry associations, and foreign services to “surface barriers, test collaborative solutions, and align policy and market practices over time.” This coordinated effort is seen by Nordicity as essential to ensuring that Canadian and Indigenous voices remain visible and accessible to audiences in a “global, algorithmically-mediated marketplace.” phalentm@thewirereport.ca

Producers urge shift to ‘audience-first’ strategy to boost CanCon discoverability in digital age

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By Phalen Tynes-MacDonald
|February 6, 2026

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Producers urge shift to ‘audience-first’ strategy to boost CanCon discoverability in digital age

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