Where can I watch Discovery Channel programming in Canada in 2025?
Having trouble finding shows like "Deadliest Catch" and "Highway Thru Hell" in Canada? Here's what you need to know.
News from late October 2022, including "Game of Thrones" in 4K in Canada, and a bunch of other international shows coming soon.
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Hi! This is the the October 24, 2022, edition of Watching This Week, the weekly newsletter from Where Can I Watch – covering the latest news on where TV shows and movies will be available in Canada.
Read on for updates on Game of Thrones in 4K, a number of new international acquisitions coming to Canada (eventually), and answers to questions about Catastrophe, Pennyworth, and more.
But first, here's what's ahead this week (plus a couple of things we neglected to mention this past week, like a new Doctor Who special)...
Compiled from our monthly listings and/or any subsequent updates we've come across. We strive for accuracy but schedules may change without notice. Some series/seasons may have weekly rollouts; we won't list new episodes every week (though we may note significant episodes such as series finales). Particularly notable premieres (in our rough estimation) are bolded. *An asterisk denotes notable programming added in past weeks that we've learned about since (or was somehow omitted from) our last newsletter.
Here's some of the reader questions we've received recently by email (hello@wherecaniwatch.ca) or Twitter (@wherewatchtv). We welcome questions of general interest, and publish a few of them (and our answers) from time to time; messages may be edited for brevity and clarity.
Carol: I somehow missed the comedy Catastrophe. When I search for it, the results say it's on Amazon Prime but I have had no luck finding it there. Where is it now?
WCIW: Catastrophe, the British comedy series starring Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan, was orginally commissioned by Channel 4 in the UK from production company Avalon Television. In Canada, it initially premiered on Shomi. After the Rogers/Shaw joint-venture platform shut down, it moved to Prime Video in Canada, where the last two seasons premiered here.
Ultimately however, it was an acquisition for both of those services, and evidently Amazon’s Canadian streaming rights to the series have now expired.
So at this point, it’d be up to Prime Video or another service to secure a new licence to stream the series from the producers. Maybe it’ll eventually show up on a service like BritBox, but that’s just a guess at this point. In the meantime, the series is still available for digital purchase, at least on the Apple TV (iTunes) Store.
Jim: Any chance of CTV Throwback offering a separate streaming service? Or any of the cable mainstays in Canada offering a separate streaming option for cable-cutters?
WCIW: CTV Throwback itself is a free-to-watch section of the CTV app, no cable subscription required. We don’t think think Bell Media will pull it out into a separate app anytime soon, if that’s what you’re suggesting, because Bell / CTV only recently got through merging a bunch of its other apps into the CTV one.
In terms of the parts of the CTV app that are restricted to cable subscribers – in an investor presentation a few months ago, it sounded to us like a Bell executive was suggesting the possibility of launching a service called “CTV Live" that would presumably be similar to StackTV for Corus/Global, or Citytv+ for Rogers. We haven’t heard anything about this since, but it’s still a possibility.
As for a full streaming-based cable bundle similar to what exists in the U.S. with YouTube TV and Philo, it doesn’t seem to be in the pipeline from Bell, Rogers, or any other provider – other than those directly tied to internet service like the app-only version of Bell Fibe TV, or the very limited options available currently with Quebecor's RiverTV and U.S.-based FuboTV. The latter services exist outside of the usual regulations around cable TV services, so such a service would need the willing participation of a bunch of different channels, including (of course) those owned by Bell and Rogers. It might happen eventually, but it doesn’t seem imminent.
Sylvain: With the addition of the show The First 48 on Disney+ this November, is it a sign that more programs from A&E (50% owned by Disney) will be coming to the streaming service in 2023, such as American Pickers?
WCIW: With both of the series you mentioned distributed by A+E Networks (even though some of their series are produced by other companies like ITV Studios), that seems like a definite possibility. But that may depend to some extent on how viewers respond to this series – Disney is still presumably paying some amount to A+E (the other half of which is owned by Hearst), so it's more expensive to stream than series Disney ows outright. If this series doesn't affect Disney+ usage, other A&E series may not be prioritized.
That said, programming ownership does not seem to be a strict barrier anymore for Disney+, as we've also noticed the service adding more Sony-owned series, even granting that they're mostly programs originally produced for FX (including, next month, Rescue Me).
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