Saturday Night Live is set to leave longtime Canadian home Global Television for rival CTV and the Crave streamer, starting with the 52nd season later this year.
The deal between CTV-parent Bell Media and NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution will see the NBC sketch comedy series shift to CTV and Crave, which already has library SNL episodes on its platform. A change of Canadian rights holders also follows NBCU’s Peacock as a direct-to-consumer streaming platform continuing to focus on the U.S. market and doing deals for its studio programming with Canadian broadcasters.
“A proven hit for over 50 years, the series has always been at the vanguard of pop culture, setting the tone for modern humor. We will be enjoying alongside viewers when the new season premieres on Crave and CTV,” Justin Stockman, vp of global content at Bell Media said in a statement on Monday.
The Canadian rights to SNL shifting north of the U.S. border from longtime Corus Entertainment comes as local media giants continue to play musical chairs with major U.S. TV brands amid streaming competition. In May 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery did deals to move popular lifestyle and entertainment brands like HGTV, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Magnolia Network and OWN from Corus Entertainment to rival Rogers Sports and Media.
WBD also switched other entertainment brands like Discovery, Motor Trend, Science, Animal Planet and I.D. from longtime homes at Bell Media to Rogers. The realignment of top American channels and series aims to allow local broadcasters to continue following TV viewers online, and targeting where possible Canadians increasingly favoring U.S. streaming platforms Netflix and Prime Video.
The big loser in that Canadian TV horse race is Corus, a major buyer of American series from major Hollywood studio suppliers, but which has been hobbled by a recapitalization plan to stay in business that has yet to receive final approval from the CRTC, the country’s TV watchdog. Corus draws Canadian primetime TV viewers with American series like the Survivor and NCIS franchises, the FBI,CIA and 9-1-1 series, but has now given up SNL as it deals with a continuing decline in linear TV advertising in Canada.
