Canadians increasingly choosing to stream with ads as prices rise: report

Canadians subscribed to streaming platforms again faced rising costs last year, as a new report estimates the 10 leading providers hiked prices by an average of seven per cent.

The annual Couch Potato Report, released Monday by Convergence Research, said consumers are continuing to pivot from traditional cable and satellite television packages toward alternatives like Netflix, Crave and Disney Plus, despite those streaming giants having upped their prices in recent years.

In 2024, the top streaming providers had raised their prices by an average of eight per cent for Canadian customers, according to new data from the firm.

The trend comes as streamers continue to push viewers toward plans that include advertisements. Those packages cost less for subscribers but drive additional revenue for the companies because they are able to sell commercial spots.

‘Saturday Night Live UK’ aims to take a comedy hit across the pond. The first verdicts are in

LONDON (AP) — “Saturday Night Live” has crossed the pond with a mild splash.

A British offshoot of the 51-year-old U.S. comedy institution has debuted to generally positive reviews, defying doomsayers who doubted the show would survive the trans-Atlantic journey.

The format of the first episode of “Saturday Night Live UK” stuck closely to the U.S. original. The 75-minute show opened with a skit showing Prime Minister Keir Starmer seeking help from a Gen Z adviser about how to talk to President Donald Trump, before the proclamation: “Live from London, it’s Saturday night!” Trump posted the skit on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, without comment.

“SNL” veteran Tina Fey was the host, taking questions during her opening monologue from celebrity audience members Michael Cera, Graham Norton and “Bridgerton” star Nicola Coughlan, who jokingly warned Fey that “British people tend to root for the failure of others.”

ABC cancels ‘Bachelorette’ season with Taylor Frankie Paul, citing 2023 video

LOS ANGELES (AP) — ABC has scrubbed the upcoming season of “The Bachelorette,” starring Taylor Frankie Paul, three days before its planned premiere, citing a newly released video from 2023 in which she appears to punch, kick and throw chairs at her former partner as her young daughter watched and cried.

Thursday's cancellation of the already filmed 22nd season of the reality show is unprecedented. While ABC parent company Disney cited the older video, the move comes amid a current domestic violence investigation involving Paul and Dakota Mortensen, father to a son who is the youngest of her three children.

“In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of ‘The Bachelorette’ at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family,” a statement from Disney Entertainment Television said.

A Paul representative responded that she has been abused for years while remaining silent about it.

Netflix to adapt Carley Fortune’s ‘This Summer Will Be Different’ into series

TORONTO - Netflix has ordered a new series based on Canadian author Carley Fortune's Prince Edward Island-set romance novel "This Summer Will Be Different."

The book follows a Toronto woman on her annual visits to Prince Edward Island, where she reluctantly falls in love with her best friend's brother.

The streamer says husband-and-wife duo Dane Clark and Linsey Stewart will be co-showrunners for the 10-episode series.

Netflix says the show will be shot on P.E.I. and in Toronto.

CBC Gem’s ‘Cirque Life’ gives glimpse into lives and training routines of performers

TORONTO -  Aleksei Goloborodko is often referred to as the most flexible man in the world — any fans who have seen his snakelike movements in Cirque du Soleil's Luzia will believe that to be true.

The Russian contortionist holds the Guinness World Record for the most number of prone extreme back bends in one minute.

But what they may not know is that he is married and juggles the relationship long distance while performing around the world.

"Cirque Life," a new CBC Gem series premiering Thursday, features Goloborodko along with other cast and crew members, giving a glimpse into their personal lives and training routines. The five-part docuseries was shot in Montreal last summer, recording the performers practice sessions and what little downtime they have while putting on up to 10 shows a week.

Watch it: You just can’t keep a good plotline down

Esteemed Irish playwright Samuel Beckett could likely have written some excellent absurdist sitcoms if he had been born a little later. But especially on point for this edition of viewing recommendations, consider his most famous quote: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” This is the dogged spirit that propels the characters in these streaming options beyond death, war and career failure.

Toast St. Paddy with TV, books that celebrate the Emerald Isle

In time for St. Patrick's Day, take any of these five suggestions to get a dose of Irish spirit.

Based on a true story? How screenwriters approach dramatizing real-world events

TORONTO -  

Anthony Q. Farrell had one potential deal breaker when he was approached to write a comedy about Canadian runner Ben Johnson's doping scandal.

"My first thing was: Is Ben involved?" the showrunner said on a recent video call. "This can't be one of those things that feels like it's exploiting him and exploiting who he is. It has to feel like it's from him. He's gotta be the source."

The production company's answer was "yes," so Farrell's was too.

Two long-lost episodes of ‘Doctor Who’ have been found. Fans will soon be able to watch them

LONDON (AP) — Over six decades of “Doctor Who,” the intergalactic adventurer’s adversaries have included evil robots, rampaging Yeti — and the BBC, which erased many early episodes of the now-iconic sci-fi TV series.

A film charity announced Friday that it has found two previously lost 1960s episodes in film cans wrapped in plastic bags among the possessions of a deceased collector. They have been restored by BBC archivists and will be available next month on the broadcaster’s streaming service.

The discovery leaves 95 episodes still missing from the adventures of a galaxy-hopping alien known as the Doctor that debuted in 1963.

“Doctor Who” — the “who” is an existential question, rather than the character's name — has become a television institution with millions of fans around the world. But the BBC’s attitude to the show in its early years was careless. Scores of episodes were lost because the broadcaster threw out film recordings or wiped video tapes for re-use.

PWHL to reach national US TV audience with Scripps Sports to broadcast neutral site game in Detroit

The Professional Women’s Hockey League is coming to a TV set near you in the United States.

The league announced that its neutral-site game at Detroit on March 28 between the New York Sirens and Montreal Victoire will be the first accessible to a national U.S. television audience. The PWHL has chosen Scripps Sports to broadcast the game on ION, which is accessible to 126 million American households, in a one-time deal that could potentially turn into a long-term partnership.

Scripps already has a track record of broadcasting women’s sports as a rights-holder for WNBA and NWSL games. And it has previously aired PWHL games in its NHL TV markets.

The agreement also involves Detroit-based Ally Financial, which is the “Takeover Tour” game’s primary sponsor, and has played a significant role in backing the NWSL and other women’s sports.

Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis adapt ‘Scarpetta’ book series for TV

NEW YORK (AP) — When Jamie Lee Curtis' blockbuster film “True Lies” premiered worldwide, it would've been improbable to think that 30 years later she would be giddy about a TV show — about as improbable as performing her iconic helicopter stunt without special effects.

“I guarantee you when I was … literally hanging under a helicopter above the Florida Keys over the Seven Mile Bridge in Florida, I did not imagine I’d be sitting in New York City that many years later with Nicole Kidman,” Curtis said. “Not only being co-bosses on a show, but then also playing her slutty sister. I was not imagining that as my future.”

The Oscar winners co-executive produced and star in “Scarpetta,” a new mystery crime series from Prime Video, out March 11, based on Patricia Cornwell's popular books. Curtis credits Kidman as one of the major Hollywood players who helped shrink the gulf between perceptions of film and TV roles with prestige series like “Big Little Lies” and “Nine Perfect Strangers.”

Kidman, 58, plays the titular character Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a forensic pathologist who solves complex murders. Upon returning to Virginia, she comes across cases eerily reminiscent of one three decades prior that catapulted her career forward. To prepare for the role, Kidman spent time with a medical examiner in Tennessee, where she learned how to hold a scalpel, and how to identify and dissect organs.

Good dad intentions are at the heart of Steve Carell’s new series ‘Rooster’

Recently, Steve Carell had a misunderstanding with his adult daughter over whether or not to give her a ride home. While both preferred she take an Uber, they agreed Carell could go hours out of his way to drive her instead — thinking it was what the other really wanted to do. His wife, Nancy, eventually stepped in, telling them to stop “acting like idiots” and to just be honest. That's when Carell realized he was “trying too hard” to do what he thought was a good dad deed.

“She would really have preferred to take the Uber and I would really have preferred to just go home without dropping her off,” Carell said in a recent interview.

That type of push and pull between a father and his adult daughter is at the center of Carell's new series “Rooster,” premiering Sunday on HBO. Carell plays Greg Russo, a successful author of “beach reads” whose protagonist is named Rooster. When Greg's daughter Katie (Charly Clive), a professor at Ludlow College, finds herself in the middle of a humiliating breakup, he takes a job at the small liberal arts school to stay close to her.

The series, created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses, is Carell's first outright television comedy since leaving “The Office” in 2011.

Netflix orders new Alexander the Great series from ‘Heated Rivalry’ creator Jacob Tierney

TORONTO - Netflix has ordered a new series about Alexander the Great from "Heated Rivalry" creator Jacob Tierney.

Tierney is set to write, direct and executive produce "Alexander," a "high-stakes" period drama based on the novel "The Golden Mean" by Canadian author Annabel Lyon.

The show will explore the story of Alexander the Great and his friendship with his tutor, Aristotle, starting at the fall of the Athenian empire.

Netflix says Jason Bateman and Michael Costigan of Aggregate Films will executive produce the series, along with Tierney's producing partner Brendan Brady of Accent Aigu Entertainment.

From theaters to TVs: Apple bets its F1 movie buzz can drive viewers to the races on Apple TV

Apple succeeded when it brought Formula 1 to the big screen last year.

It hopes many of those viewers will watch on their televisions and mobile devices when the season begins this weekend with the Australian Grand Prix, as Apple TV begin its stint as F1’s U.S. broadcast partner.

Apple reached a five-year deal with the global motorsports series last fall, averaging $150 million per year. ESPN, which had carried F1 races since 2018, paid nearly $90 million during a three-year extension signed in 2022.

“We certainly think that over the next five years, we have a great opportunity for Formula One and Apple TV to grow the sport significantly. In the U.S., it’s grown quite a bit, but at the same time it’s still relatively small to the size of the fan base,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, said during a briefing last week. “We would go into theaters when we were testing the (F1) movie, and we would ask people to raise their hand if they’d ever watched a race, and very few hands went up. But after they watched the movie, if you ask them, do you want to go see a race or you want to see a race, basically, all the hands went up.”