Jason Badal: Celebs Rumors

Canadian viewers of Disney+ will soon have the chance to pay a little less for their monthly subscription — so long as they don’t mind sitting through a few commercials.

Amber Dowling Stephanie Azam is no longer the head of content for Disney+ Canada, Variety has learned. The executive was let go as part of the company’s recent reorganization after less than a year on the job, and amid news that Disney+ has paused original commissions in Canada. Several other positions were eliminated as a result of the reorganization. Jason Badal remains in place as the VP and general manager of Disney+ in Canada. Sources indicate the company is still looking at Canadian originals, although the timeline surrounding any such commissions is unclear. Last September at a Content Canada conference, Badal indicated the streaming service was in search of Canadian content for the Star component of Disney+ (an amalgamation of Hulu, FX and Fox content that hasn’t been distributed to other Canadian broadcasters). Azam was in the audience at the time and still new to the role. Still, Badal revealed her email for those in the room who wanted to send pitches.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Disney+ has put the brakes on original commissions in Canada until at least the end of the year, Variety can reveal. Sources indicate that the Mouse House has put a pin in local programming from across its brands in Canada, and isn’t actively commissioning. It’s understood that this mandate will be in place until the end of 2023 and could extend into 2024. Disney+ officially launched in Canada in November 2019, but like other streaming services north of the border, it’s taken a few years to get originals underway. Last summer, the company hired respected Telefilm executive Stephanie Azam as its director of content for Canada — an appointment that generated some buzz in the local industry.

Amber Dowling Disney+ is preparing to greenlight original Canadian content. However those seeking to place programming with the northern contingent of the Mouse House may not be preparing pitches the streamer is actually looking for. Less than a year after former Shopify e-commerce director Jason Badal took the top job as VP and GM of Disney+ in Canada, he sat onstage for a spotlight Session at content Canada to discuss the company’s push into general entertainment content. Specifically, he revealed the company is looking to blow out the Disney Star portion of Disney+. “That’s where all of our audience-expanding content is,” he explained. “I love to hear that people with older kids or younger kids love our product, but I’m always trying to, even on a one-to-one basis, remind people that there’s older-skewing general entertainment content.”