By Moyra Rodger, CEO of Magnify Digital, a boutique digital agency specializing in online marketing strategy, advertising, and training for the screen media industry
A new wave of Canadian patriotism is emerging in response to U.S. tariffs, making this the perfect moment to focus on what truly matters—our stories. More than ever, Canadian content must reach audiences at home and abroad.
Securing the future of Canadian content means moving beyond a system that prioritizes production and treats audience engagement as an afterthought. Both legacy and digital-first producers need a unified approach to capturing and sustaining audience attention. If we fail to act, we risk cultural and economic erosion in a media landscape increasingly shaped by foreign ownership, algorithmic control, and fragmented attention.
The solution? A Canadian Audience Development Strategy (CADS)—a unified framework to equip content creators with the tools, skills and insights necessary to connect homegrown stories with domestic and global audiences while reflecting Canada’s linguistic, regional and cultural diversity.
A New Model for Growth and Sustained Visibility
Success isn’t just about creating content—it’s about ensuring it reaches the right audiences. Policies that rely solely on broadcasters and platforms to promote discoverability are no longer sufficient in an era of fragmented consumption. With audiences accessing content across social media, direct-to-consumer streaming and countless global platforms, producers must take an active role in reaching and retaining audiences. Yet, audience engagement has been chronically underfunded, and historically, producer-led efforts were discouraged. This has led to a widening skills gap and missed opportunities to connect with audiences in an evolving media landscape.
A national strategy would bridge this gap by integrating specialized training, industry collaboration, and a robust framework for data capture and analysis.
1. Education & Training
Audience development requires expertise beyond traditional promo and marketing. Training programs targeting filmmakers, producers, creators, distributors, and marketers should be delivered in collaboration with institutions such as NSI, CFC, industry events and festivals. Additionally, partnerships with digital marketing and analytics programs in post-secondary institutions could create specialized certification tracks for content creators.
2. Inclusive National Approach
Underrepresented voices must be central to this strategy. Industry organizations working to improve equity, diversity and inclusion should be engaged to ensure the plan reflects Canada’s full creative ecosystem and audience-building best practices.
3. Standardized Funding Requirements
A modular, adaptable approach to audience development planning, aligned across funding bodies, would streamline application requirements for producers. Marketing costs must be recognized as essential with dedicated support for long-tail discoverability.
4. Sector-wide Data Strategy
Measuring success requires tools to modernize and expand data sets. A national approach should aggregate insights from multiple sources, including broadcast and streaming viewership, box office performance, festival attendance, industry awards, critical acclaim and digital engagement. The Danish Film Institute’s audience research strategy provides a useful model, ensuring data is used to shape funding decisions and promotional efforts. Our homegrown global audience analytics platform, ScreenMinerTM, could be one component of this larger data capture strategy, giving producers access to comprehensive, anonymized insights to sharpen their audience development efforts.
5. Industry Collaboration
Developing and tracking audiences benefits everyone in the value chain—from creators to platforms, funders and distributors. By coordinating marketing efforts, leveraging shared data insights and fostering direct relationships with audiences, Canadian content can gain greater visibility and longevity. A national strategy must prioritize industry-led partnerships over bureaucratic oversight, ensuring that creators have the tools and resources needed to reach and retain viewers.
How to Fund a National Strategy
A Canadian Audience Development Strategy will require industry co-investment, bringing together funders, industry organizations and Canadian Heritage. The CRTC should allocate a portion of program funding to support this initiative. Countries like South Korea and Australia have invested in audience-building strategies; Canada must do the same to stay competitive.
Powering Success
For this initiative to succeed, it must move at the speed of technology. A lean operational structure driven by industry expertise rather than administrative burden will be critical.
A Nation That Champions Its Stories
Canada needs a bold, coordinated strategy to ensure our content thrives and to guarantee a return on cultural investment. By embedding audience development into the core of our screen sector, we create a future where Canadian stories—across all languages, formats and perspectives—are discovered, engaged with and valued.
At this moment of political and economic uncertainty, storytelling remains one of the most powerful ways to reinforce and express our national identity. By prioritizing audience development, we can ensure Canadian content not only thrives but also deepens its impact at home and extends its influence globally.
Photo of author
HIGH QUALITY JOURNALISM REQUIRES AN INVESTMENT.
Cartt.ca publishes breaking news, in-depth feature stories, analysis, and opinion geared specifically for those working in the cable, radio, television, and telecom industries in Canada.
Breaking news, top-notch analysis and commentary is posted as it happens while twice-weekly newsletters compile those stories and deliver them directly to more than 4,000 industry subscribers. Cartt.ca offers credible journalism for the industry professional.
