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OPINION: Canadian media at a crossroads
Broadcast | |November 4, 2026
The federal budget on November 5 arrives at a crossroads for Canadian media. The government has promised $600 million annually to stabilize the audio and audiovisual sectors, where many businesses are struggling financially.
But the budget should signal more than how Ottawa intends to distribute money. It should set a new direction for the industry.
At a recent event in Ottawa, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) released Broadcasting in Canada 2026, prepared by Communications Management Inc. Three findings stood out.
Canada’s television and video market has doubled since 2005 to $13.6 billion, yet Canadian television services share of this market has fallen from 82 per cent to 45 per cent. Online video now generates $6.2 billion in Canada, but foreign services receive $5.3 billion of that total, leaving Canadian services with only $900 million, or approximately 15 per cent. Meanwhile, the share of households subscribing to a TV distributor has fallen from 80 per cent to an estimated 52 per cent.
The picture is clear. Canada’s audiovisual market is growing, but Canadian companies are losing ground because they remain disproportionately dependent on a declining broadcasting system.
The response most commonly heard from the CAB and large Canadian broadcast groups focuses on two familiar demands: greater regulatory flexibility for Canadian broadcasters and regulated financial contributions from foreign streaming services.
The first demand is understandable. However, reducing broadcasters’ obligations does not guarantee the savings will be reinvested in broadcasting. Large vertically integrated companies have competing financial priorities, and there is little reason to assume regulatory relief will build new Canadian distribution capacity: the ability to secure rights, acquire and retain audiences, and turn that relationship into revenue.
The second, contributions from foreign streamers, has become entangled in Canada-U.S. trade relations. Even if they arrive, these contributions would likely flow principally to content production rather than build Canadian distribution capacity.
Both proposals address the financial pressure on the existing system. Neither directly addresses its most important structural weakness: Canada has failed to build streaming businesses at sufficient scale to capture the audience and revenue migrating online.
That omission is striking because streaming is an enormous international opportunity. Omdia reports global online video revenue, excluding advertising, reached US$176 billion in 2025, up 13.5 per cent and ahead of pay TV for the first time. The opportunity is not limited to giant general-interest platforms. Antenna found U.S. specialty streaming subscriptions grew 14 per cent year over year in Q2 2026, compared with 6 per cent for premium services.
Canada cannot win by matching Netflix’s scale, but it can back its own services: Canadian-owned companies that prove they can build a paying audience, wherever in the world it is.
So why is there so little discussion about increasing the number and scale of Canadian streaming companies?
The answer begins with how the system was built.
Canadian broadcasting policy was developed within a protected domestic market. Licensing, carriage requirements and simultaneous substitution created a walled garden in which Canadian broadcasters and distributors controlled access to Canadian audiences. Public funding focused on production because the distribution system was already protected. Vertical integration reinforced that structure, placing production, broadcasting and distribution within a small number of large corporate groups. In that system, distribution was protected rather than built, and no one had to compete with foreign-owned platforms for audiences.
Streaming removed the walls, but our funding incentives have not adequately adapted. They still reward making content rather than building the businesses that reach and keep audiences. As Nordicity observed in research published by the Canada Media Fund, “current funding mechanisms are primarily focused on content production.”
The gap matters because the business has changed. In the traditional model, a show is produced and sold through multiple third parties: a broadcaster, then rights distribution companies, then international buyers. Streaming is shifting that toward deals in which a single platform acquires worldwide rights and keeps the audience relationship and data.
It may be asked: If Canadian-funded productions increasingly end up on one platform, does it matter whether that platform is Canadian?
It does, as recent events have taught us. Canada ships aluminum to the United States, which turns it into cans and sells them back to us. The greater value is in the second step. We are making the same mistake in media. Canada funds production, but when the intellectual property and the audience relationship sit elsewhere, so does most of the economic value. That must change.
Artificial intelligence (AI) raises the stakes. As AI increasingly mediates how audiences discover content, the companies controlling customer relationships and first-party audience data gain a considerable advantage.
There is a cultural stake too. Whoever commissions the work and controls the platform decides which stories get made. In a market our size, global audiences are what make Canadian companies, and Canadian stories, sustainable.
The issue is not whether we should continue supporting Canadian production. Of course we should. The question is whether that investment should also build lasting Canadian-owned distribution businesses. There is evidence that distribution capacity matters: a 2025 Korea Development Institute study found that adding an international sales outlet was associated with a 39.9 per cent revenue increase for Korean content companies, compared with 6.8 per cent for a domestic outlet.
This can be done. OUTtv has paying subscribers in 42 countries, built from Canada. If one Canadian company can do it, others can, and the shift to online video that makes it possible is happening now. With global expansion now the key market driver, it is imperative that Canada move aggressively.
The federal government can begin building distribution capacity immediately, without waiting for legislation or another lengthy regulatory process, and without dismantling existing production support.
First, create a Distribution Capability Fund. Allocate a small share of the $600 million to help existing Canadian-owned streaming services expand their distribution capabilities. Eligible investments should include international market entry, localization and audience acquisition. Funding should reward demonstrated commercial results rather than establish permanent subsidies.
Second, establish an Enterprise Growth Pilot. Provide multi-year funding to help Canadian audiovisual companies with proven recurring revenue reach a scale where private investment becomes viable, by building the rights, audience and distribution capabilities investors look for.
Third, change production funding incentives. Without spending additional money, the Canada Media Fund and other funders should give greater weight to projects that retain exploitation rights under Canadian control, develop Canadian-controlled audience relationships and demonstrate international market potential. This would encourage production investment that builds distribution capacity, which compounds and creates opportunities for more Canadian titles.
These initiatives should be accompanied by improved audience measurement. Comparable data across streaming and broadcasting, potentially through Numeris or a shared industry system, would allow investment decisions to reflect actual audience performance.
The $600 million represents an opportunity to do more than compensate the industry for declining broadcasting revenue. It could begin creating a new generation of Canadian media companies capable of competing internationally.
The objective should not simply be to increase the supply of Canadian content, but to increase the capacity of Canadian companies to directly reach audiences, learn from them and compound their success.
Brad Danks is CEO of OUTtv, which launched the world’s first LGBTQ+ linear channel 25 years ago and now operates both that Canadian channel and a streaming service with paying subscribers in 42 countries.
A lawyer with a background in entertainment law, he is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Victoria, a faculty advisor at the Centre for Digital Media and a member of the board of Numeris.
The positions and opinions expressed by The Wire Report columnists and contributors are solely reflective of the author’s perspective and do not necessarily reflect The Wire Report’s views or values.
