On a snowy morning in Iqaluit, a blizzard had shut down local schools. Only the essentials were open, but that didn’t stop parents with bundled kids, elders and other citizens from filing into the local community centre.
They knew that Tara Woodbury and Danielle Woodrow, the women in charge of content for Netflix Canada, were there for a chat, and they had questions.
What did Netflix Canada intend to do in the North? Was the company serious about local stories? And would this northern edition of the streamer actually listen to the communities it wanted to depict?
For Woodbury and Woodrow, that moment was more than just a stop on a listening tour. It was a reminder of something the Canadian industry has historically ignored: Canadians do care about Canadian stories. But they also care about authenticity, specific stories that reflect actual experiences, and quality — not watered-down versions of American television.
At a time when Canadian media is shrinking and traditional buyers are disappearing, Netflix has become one of the few major companies greenlighting TV projects.
Woodbury and Woodrow are in charge of building that slate, but they’re also navigating a complex industry with ongoing regulatory changes. The remit? To greenlight globally appealing titles while getting Canadians to actually watch Canadian TV.
And while early successes like “Wayward” and “North of North” lay out the possibilities, the road to reinventing Canadian viewership is more complicated than a couple of algorithmic wins.
Together, in an exclusive interview in Toronto, Woodrow and Woodbury talked about their main focus: a collaborative, community-driven approach that stands out in a field often defined by top-down decision-making.
“When we set up the Netflix Canada office, we had lots of goals and visions for it. But the one clear goal was to make Canadian shows and films that people really wanted to watch,” Woodrow said.
It may sound simple, but ask anyone in Canadian media: it really isn’t.
Woodbury and Woodrow are often discussed as a duo, but they hail from different corners of the industry.
Woodbury built her career in the creative trenches, most recently as vice-president of development at Sphere Media, the company behind “Transplant” and “Sort Of.” She arrived at Netflix well-versed in Canada’s long development cycles, funding complexities and the overall exhaustion of creators pitching endlessly in a limited marketplace.
As for Woodrow, she gained significant experience as the former senior vice-president of original programming at FX Networks, where she helped bring series such as “Justified,” “Damages” and “Sons of Anarchy” to fruition. She also served as president of television at Perfect Storm Entertainment and established the series division with projects like “Scorpion,” “S.W.A.T.” and “Warrior.”
With that kind of experience, Woodrow is familiar with what resonates with audiences, programming strategy, and the fine line between niche specificity and broad appeal.
For decades, Canadian TV struggled to compete for its own audience. Industry criticisms include the underfunding and overregulation of networks, with programming shaped by Cancon requirements rather than viewer desire.
Marketing budgets don’t match those of American counterparts. Network schedules are populated with American content first and Canadian fodder second. Many assume that Canadians prefer American content.
Woodrow and Woodbury reject that narrative. Before greenlighting anything, the pair spent nearly half a year travelling the country coast to coast during that aforementioned listening tour.
It was these visits that shaped Netflix Canada’s core commitment to hyper-locality, strong creators and projects rooted in community rather than generic settings. The messages they heard in Iqaluit were the same across the country.
“Canadians wanted to see themselves more onscreen and felt like there were so many more stories to tell that they hadn’t seen yet, and they wanted to be seen specifically,” Woodbury said.
“People didn’t want the bad version of a U.K. or U.S. show,” she continued. “They wanted shows that came from Canada that were fresh with excellent storytelling.”
The executives often use the word “specificity.” It’s about sharing uniquely Canadian stories from authentic locations, told by local creators.
“North of North” created an unprecedented production ecosystem in Nunavut, involving CBC and APTN, and invested heavily in local talent. The show’s authenticity helped it land a global Top 10 spot and a rare 100 per cent Rotten Tomatoes score, an unheard-of feat for a Canadian comedy.
Mae Martin’s “Wayward” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, spent two weeks as the top English-language show globally and hit No. 1 in 35 countries. It was proof that deeply Canadian humour and identity can travel beyond home soil.
That cultural resonance is the goal. “We really want members to love the shows and films, but it’s also really exciting when they generate conversation,” said Woodrow.
She cites examples such as “North of North” fashion appearing in Teen Vogue, Montrealers wearing swag from the docuseries “Who Killed the Montreal Expos?” during the World Series and Martin landing on “The Drew Barrymore Show.” All of these are international ripples that reflect genuine Canadian pop-culture spillover.
While the early hits are encouraging, the slate continues to unfold. Behind-the-scenes changes at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) are impacting the industry.
Last year, Netflix withdrew financial support for organizations like Hot Docs, the Indigenous Screen Office, the Whistler Film Festival Society, the Pacific Screenwriting Program and L’institut national de l’image et du son. It continued to support initiatives within the Canadian Film Centre, Women in Post and the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices market access program.
The organization decided to transfer resources after the CRTC revealed that foreign streamers operating in Canada at over $25 million of annual earnings must contribute five per cent of their annual domestic revenue to the production of local news and Canadian content.
Following that decision, Netflix and other streamers, including Paramount and Disney, legally challenged the revenue contribution under the Motion Picture Association Canada banner, alongside entities such as Apple, Amazon and Spotify.
The streamer’s main issue is with the mandate to contribute to local news funds, a sector it doesn’t operate in. For now, the order is on hold until the legalities can be sorted out.
Content-wise, skeptics are concerned that Netflix’s global platform still overshadows local titles. That concern was highlighted last week when Netflix announced its intent to acquire Warner Bros., which would give the streamer access to more than a century of content from the studio and networks like HBO.
Then there’s the extremely selective greenlight process at Netflix Canada, which contrasts the “fill-the-schedule” model broadcasters use and means only a handful of projects are approved each year.
Approved projects cater to different audiences as well. Netflix is a global entity, not a local network with specific metrics.
That stance carries weight at a moment when Canadian creators are leaving the country in search of work, putting pressure on the streamer to do more. However, Netflix is aware its Canadian series are part of a global service that includes shows from around the world.
“Our focus really is on making shows and films that the audience is going to love, versus a fixed number,” said Woodrow. “That is admittedly a wonderful thing, because it allows us to really be intentional with the commissions.”
Woodbury added that because Netflix is so focused on the audience, it translates into a variety of content. “It also means we are willing to have a diverse slate and take swings that maybe traditional buyers in the market weren’t willing to take,” she said.
That’s one of the most exciting parts of the job, because she’s often working with creators who are leading their own shows for the first time, like Alethea Arnaquq-Baril and Stacey Aglok MacDonald on “North of North,” or Jesse McKeown and his upcoming untitled Newfoundland series.
“We’re not scared of taking creative risks, but we do need to know the goal of the show and what we’re trying to hit. Then we’ll throw all of the support we can behind it,” Woodbury said.
That support includes larger budgets and community-focused hiring. On McKeown’s Newfoundland-set series, for instance, the crew couldn’t find the right person for a part from audition tapes; the role went to Newfoundlander Willow Kean, who was on location working as an assistant casting director.
“That wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t been casting and shooting out there,” Woodbury said. “Better things come sometimes from shooting locally.”
It’s been roughly four years since Woodbury and Woodrow took on Netflix Canada, and it’s only now that the pair feel ready to talk about their slate and strategy with the media — when they have hits to back up their plans.
“We knew it would take some time to hit that quality bar that would have the shows cut through the surface,” Woodbury said. “That is the vision for Netflix Canada, to offer hits in Canada and around the world. It just took some time.”
The critical question now is whether Netflix Canada can consistently deliver those hits, not just abroad, but at home to that first-mandate Canadian audience.
“One of our goals is to bring that talent home and tell the stories that they want to tell,” Woodbury said. “We really believe Canada is having a moment right now and we want to fan those flames.”
