Corus knows its audiences – they know what resonates. That's why they've launched two new lifestyle brands. But what was the thinking behind these launches? What is the insight? We spoke to Co-CEO Troy Reeb and here’s what we learned.
Corus Entertainment Co-CEO Troy Reeb is bullish about the opportunities the launch of Flavour Network and Home Network – the company’s two new lifestyle channels – presents.
The new brands replace Food Network Canada and HGTV Canada on the dial as of December 30. Reeb says he has been “blown away” by Corus’ teams, which seized the opportunity “to build something incredibly special” and demonstrate the company’s leadership in an area it previously pioneered.
“For almost 30 years, we’ve done something no other Canadian company has been able to: take Canadian talent, make Canadian shows and turn them into international lifestyle sensations,” he says. And in launching these new channels to delight fresh audiences, they’ve created new opportunities for advertisers. Here are the four key bits of thinking behind the move:
1 Developing and nurturing talent
“We were the company that invented the Property Brothers. We created the Baeumlers and many other Canadian talent who have travelled the world. It’s in our DNA.”
Though the new channels carry forward their audiences, keeping both channel positions and social media presences, as well as a substantial portion of their programming slates, including Scott’s Vacation House Rules, Top Chef Canada and Pamela’s Gardens of Eden – the new networks have allowed Corus to make renovations. Combined, the networks have more than 460 premiere hours of television in the winter-spring 2025 season.
“There’s a lot of original content and a lot of it will be Canadian,” says Reeb. That includes the Baeumlers, of course, as well as Ali Budd, Kortney Wilson and Kenny Brain, Sebastian Clovis, Scott McGillivray and Pamela Anderson.
Newcomers Natalie Chong, Kristen Coutts and Andrew Phung also join the lineup at the helm of Rentovation, Beer Budget Reno and Big Burger Battle, respectively, all of which will attract fresh – and, potentially, younger – audiences.
2 Making it Canadian
“We’ve really leaned into launching Flavour and Home with the secret sauce that always made Food Network Canada and HGTV Canada so successful, but with an extra dose of it because of the new commissions and acquisitions,” explains Reeb.
In fact, he adds, Corus is looking forward to building true Canadian-made brands for their audiences, who, according to research, have always assumed that HGTV and Food were Canadian – and not licensed – brands.
“We know the identity of those services in their current iterations really goes to the Canadian content and how our Canadian audiences interact with it,” he says. “We’re investing more to make sure Canadians realize these channels are about them, their lifestyle, and they’re going to see even more Canadian favourites.”
“We put the ‘u’ in ‘Flavour’ very specifically.”
That said, the networks are constantly drawing on “the best of all suppliers” in lifestyle programming in the same way other Corus brands, such as Global and Showcase, have done. For instance, this means “the biggest name in food worldwide,” Gordon Ramsay, finally has a specialty Canadian home for Food Stars and Kitchen Nightmares on Flavour.
3 Keeping it real
The new brands set a clear tone that is “aspirational, but relatable,” Reeb notes. That means less focus on “crazy mansions” and other content that feels out of reach.
“When you’re watching primetime drama or movies, they have exciting characters who live lives nothing like most ordinary people. The people on our shows not only live the kinds of lives our viewers live and do special things with them, but in many cases, they live in their communities,” he says.
“Our stars will be people like our viewers, doing things that our viewers can do, whether it’s making interesting dishes or implementing interesting designs that make their homes more beautiful and spectacular.”
4 Creating a safe, effective, powerful advertising environment
For advertisers, Reeb says, the new brands represent fresh opportunities to “colour outside the lines of what we were able to do in the past”.
“It’s really about thinking differently, including different opportunities for advertisers and how we can integrate them not just in the programming itself, but also around the brands, because we own them – lock, stock and barrel.”
And those opportunities are right across the programming slate, he says. That’s true not only for the existing shows but also new shows from big-name talents, such as Kortney and Kenny’s Life is Messy and Bryan and Sarah Baeumler’s Building Baeumler. “Those are just starting production now, but still open for integrations.”
For Reeb, the upside is clear. “We know the people watching these channels are exactly the audiences that our advertisers want to reach. The people who watch Home Network over-index as people who own homes. The people who watch Flavour Network over-index as the kinds of people who want to be active in the kitchen and household,” he says.
“This is the comfort of home, it’s comfort food, and the comfort you get from knowing your advertising is going to be in a safe space focused on the values and qualities you want your brand to be built around.”
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