OUTtv: They're Here, They're Queer, They're Canadian!
While parts of Hollywood tiptoe backward on LGBTQ+ rights amid MAGA-fueled DEI backlash, Canada's OUTtv is strutting forward in heels — unapologetically and internationally.
Billed as the world's first LGBTQ+ TV network, OUTtv launched in 2001 with a major assist from Canada's broadcast regulator, which granted it 'must-carry' status — meaning cable providers were required to include it in basic TV packages. That early boost helped the channel survive its startup years in the red light district high up on the Canadian TV dial.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and 'Jurassic World Rebirth' Cast Stun London at World Premiere
Eurovision Drama and 'The Nameless': Movistar Plus+ Exec Touts Focus on Event Programming
Lewis Hamilton Signed Off on Brad Pitt and Damson Idris' Driving in 'F1: The Movie'
But under CEO Brad Danks, OUTtv has morphed into a scrappy global streaming player, now available on Prime Video (North America, Australia, New Zealand), Apple TV+ (U.S. and Canada) and the Roku Channel (U.S.). More recently, OUTtv grew its European footprint by launching the FAST channel OUTflix Proud on Freeview in the UK.
'We really said, 'It's time to put our big-boy pants on and make our own content,'' says Danks. A big bet on streaming platforms in international markets was also encouraged by OUTtv early on finding licensing content increasingly impossible or too costly to obtain, not least as emerging streamers nabbed series rights as they entered the Canadian market.
So OUTtv joined the original series game to attract subscribers on cable and digital platforms. OUTtv pivoted to such originals as Call Me Mother (a drag queen competition), Sew Fierce (for drag wardrobe designers) and Drag House Rules (a satirical spin on the genre).
Canada's earlier embrace of queer rights — including same-sex marriage in 2005 — also gave OUTtv a head start as the Canadian Supreme Court ruling in 2005, a decade ahead of a similar U.S. Supreme Court ruling, opened the way for greater gains for Canadian queer communities.
To be certain, divided Canadians still debate trans athletes, gender-inclusive bathrooms and drag queen events, but with less hate-filled speech than stateside. But Danks says a backlash is bubbling. 'There's been a real conservative revival,' he notes. 'I get arguments from people I haven't seen in 25 years — about spreading disease and mental illness and all that stuff.'
The hate mail is louder in the U.S., where OUTtv expanded via streaming deals. 'You get kind of used to it,' Danks shrugs. 'But it's on a higher volume level.' He adds Canada faces its own retreat on queer rights in recent years, compared to a decade ago.
That backlash in Canada coincides with the MAGA movement stateside. 'I would not have thought the United States would have been in the throes of this democratic crisis they're in right now. If you would have told me 15 years this would have been happening, I would have told you you're crazy,' Danks argues.
OUTtv continues to expand into more precarious territories — recently partnering with Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan — while navigating censorship and coded rejections abroad. 'They'll say it's 'niche' or 'controversial,' ' Danks says. 'But we know what that means.'
But as major Hollywood studios meld into their global-facing streaming platforms, local broadcasters looking to differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded TV market are turning to OUTtv for partnerships.
All of which has allowed what began as a regulatory oddity on the Canadian dial to become a global platform for queer storytelling — porn-free, proudly indie and determined to keep growing. 'It's a marathon,' Danks says. 'But we're still running.'
This story appeared in the June 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series
22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History
A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
"He Wasn't Remotely Correct": Women Are Revealing The Dumbest Thing That Was Mansplained To Them By A Man, And I'm Appalled
Well, even though it's 2025, women are still being mansplained to (aka the explanation of a particular subject by a man, typically to a woman, that's considered condescending). So we asked the women of the BuzzFeed Community: "What is the dumbest thing that has been mansplained to you?" and their answers will make you red in the face. Here's what they said below. 1."A man once explained to me what an X-Ray image is. I'm a doctor." —ale8 "I learned what an X-ray is from Sesame Street when I was three. I don't think *anybody* needs to have X-rays explained to them, but trying to explain them to a DOCTOR is a whole other level!" —ddaisy 2."I was in the process of buying a house, and a male coworker, who never bought a house, tried to mansplain income debt ratio to me. It took our male supervisor, who had bought a house a year prior, telling him I was right before he accepted, begrudgingly, that he was 'mistaken.'" —fenknight 3."A man once yelled in my face that he was the ultimate authority on how to file for a certain type of construction project, and how I, a lowly woman, couldn't possibly understand the complexities of what I was looking at. So, he never got to build his project, because I, the lady who signed off and permitted them, refused to do so until he fixed his dang paperwork. I was LITERALLY the ultimate authority on it." —renashinoa 4."Once, a man explained to me why Avatar: The Last Airbender is an anime, and he kept insisting it was not a Nickelodeon cartoon. I am an animation student. For comparison, this is like calling the original Ben 10 or the original Teen Titans an anime. (Just to be clear, the style is very clearly inspired by Japanese animation because that's what was popular at the time. But it is not considered an anime because its original language is English, and it was made by an American animation studio.) —thirstyassho 5."I am a residential counselor for male teenagers and have been working in this field for 10 years. I have lost count of the number of times MALE teenagers start lecturing me about my role as a FEMALE and what I should or should not be doing because I keep doing it wrong in comparison to some of my male counterparts, whom I have helped train." —origamidino44 6."When my friend's boyfriend broke up with her, he told her it was because she was bad at sex. My girl lowered the boom on the dicknose by replying, 'Since you were my first, I guess that makes you a bad teacher.' I still miss you to this day, Susan!" —bloodwynne 7."After I finally decided to get a credit card, my husband frowned and told me, 'You do have to pay the money back, you know.' Duh. Then again, his mother actually thought that the credit card limit meant it was free money." —thatvillageidiot 8."A guy once said, 'I went birdwatching... you know, when you watch birds.' It literally could not be named more literally." —shantaewatkins "You should've told him not only were you into birdwatching, but birding as well. (Then watched his face get very confused.) —apromisingyoungwoman 9."I work in film and saw my brother for the first time the other week, and he tried to explain the writer's strike to me and why it'd be over soon. He knew exactly one reason they were striking and not the laundry list of others. I've been in the industry for 10 years and had jobs shut down because of this strike, he works at a car rental place." —deebee2118 10."I had a random guy online try to mansplain hymens, and he kept making the usual false claims about how it 'pops' when you lose your virginity, and that it's the way you can tell a virgin from a non-virgin. I tried to correct him and explain that 1) hymens don't pop, 2) you can wear your hymen down with activities other than sex, and 3) you can lack a hymen and be a virgin, as not everyone even has a hymen (and, again, sex isn't the only thing that wears it down). Alas, he didn't believe me. Typical." —aidensmith 11."I was selling my old bike, and the guy who bought it spent the whole time he was there explaining all of the features of the bike to me. The features were all included in the listing, since I had bought the bike myself and specifically picked it because of them. He got incredibly offended when I asked if he was there to buy a bike or hold a lecture." —torbielillies 12."I'm not customer service, but I work as a branch (bank) manager in a money kiosk in a mall with an anchor store. A gentleman came in and asked for a completely different luxury store. Think, oh, I dunno, Nordstrom vs. Neiman Marcus. I told him the exact address of where he wanted to go, and he told me I was WRONG. Nooooo, I'm not... but let's pull up that Google Maps, huh? That was when he told me he didn't need to look it up because he knew where he was going, but maybe *I* should? On the quickness, I pointed at the Nordstrom entrance, 'Ya know what, you're right, Neiman Marcus is right inside, so sorry, I don't know HOW I missed that...'" —nicolermacklin 13."When I was a junior in college, I was talking to a friend about some of my classes, and his roommate took our conversation as an excuse to explain to me what linguistics was and what the major program was like. He was a freshman political science major, and I was in my third year of my linguistics program." —skailyr 14."An ex was firmly against any kind of vibrator because it would 'stretch you out like an old T-shirt.'' —taryncooksey 15."Taking my husband to the ER for a kidney stone, the two male-admitting nurses RUSH outside to greet my husband. They say, 'Oh, this is bad. We can tell by how he is walking that it's kidney stones. No disrespect, ma'am, but this is so much worse than giving birth.' Now, luckily, I am married to a wonderful man, who had my side on this, and chuckled through his pain, and said, 'No, you guys are looking at someone who went through 36 hours of labor with a broken tailbone, I got this.'" —angelaandres 16."A man thought he had to explain to me what a square was when I was 22." —profplum 17."I have an unusual first name. I was gobsmacked when someone asked how to correctly pronounce my name, and Captain Doorknob interrupted me to mansplain MY OWN NAME. INCORRECTLY." —shazzerz "I once had a man ask me, 'Isn't your name supposed to be spelled with an a?' Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I said, politely, 'You might be thinking of a different name. This is the standard spelling.' He then proceeded to give me a skeptical look and say, 'Are you sure?' (He did run away when I snapped, 'Am I sure about the spelling of my own name? Is that your question?')" —five_star 18."On my nineteenth birthday, I got into a car accident that basically totaled my car. The next day, my period started, and I was scheduled to work open to close at the coffee shop I worked at for the 'birthday' event marking the anniversary of the company's creation, with different deals." "My cramps were awful, I was getting waves of heat and nausea, and had to be moved to register. It got worse and worse, and eventually I had to excuse myself to puke out the back door into the alley, not once but twice. I asked to go home at that point, in tears, and my manager, the man who owned that particular franchise location, told me he knew periods didn't do that because he had a long-term girlfriend, it had never happened to her, and he didn't appreciate my 'crocodile tears.' Still, he let me go home and then called me once I got there to fire me. The man employed almost exclusively teenage girls and young women in their early 20s." —clairew4cf1db903 19."I was a chemical engineering major in college. I tutored pre-med college students who struggled to pass chemistry and/or organic chemistry. Guys came to my grandmother's house, where I lived, for professional tutoring by recommendation of their professors. I can't tell you how many guys attempted to mansplain chemistry to me. It was so frustrating. I'd taken every chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry course the college offered and was a 4.0 GPA student." "If they kept mansplaining, I'd pick up the phone, call the professor in front of them, and ask the person being tutored to repeat the answer to the question. Then the professor would say: If you're not listening to the person who is tutoring you when you're wrong, you shouldn't be a doctor because you are an idiot without listening skills. It always made me laugh. I probably tutored two dozen pre-med guys in three years. None of them ended up going to medical school." —snarknado 20."A guy I just started talking to was really good with cars. I asked him a question about my car, and he asked what I drove. I told him and… he told me I couldn't drive the model I was, because he'd never heard of it." ''Are you sure you drive that?? That doesn't sound right. I've never heard of that. You must mean a Mountaineer.'I finally had to stop him and ask him if he was REALLY asking the person who sees this vehicle every day for the last three years??He was STILL skeptical, then asked me to show it to him on our first, and consequently last date." —smileyk 21."I sent in a maintenance repair request to my landlord for a mole issue in the backyard. I explained the steps my husband and I had already taken to mitigate the problem. He responded with a copy and pasted Wikipedia article on moles and how pervasive they are and how difficult they are to remove. He suggested we 'stamp down the mounds.' I responded with 'I own a 6-acre farm, I'm also a maintenance director for an 18,000 square foot facility; I'm familiar with moles, Mike. But hey man, it's your lawn that's starting to get real effed up here. Do what you want.' Two days later, a mole man was out with traps." —mixedevolutionllc 22."I typically wear band or Star Wars shirts to work. This younger guy came up to me and said, 'I like your Billy Joel shirt.' I'm like, 'Thanks. It's Billy Idol.' The same guy comes up to me on a different day and notices I have a Star Wars shirt on. Asks me if I have seen any of the shows. I say yes. He says, 'There's this really good one out called The Mandalorian. You probably don't know about it.' This was a couple of months ago. And he's far younger than I am." —jolynnnewbaker 23."A patient once responded to my doctor (who is also a woman), telling him he had cavities with 'Well, but I have those black spots under my fingernails sometimes, so I don't think it's a cavity necessarily.' He initially came to us complaining of pain when he eats sugary things. He was convinced the black/brown spots on his teeth were just stains and dirt that could be cleaned off." —erintrimber 24."A man once tried to explain to me what a person can and can't eat when they are breastfeeding. He wasn't remotely correct. I am a mother, postpartum nurse, and lactation consultant. The same man also told me that he was frustrated with his wife in labor because 'she was pushing wrong.'" —emunro09 25."I had a guy DM me in order to mansplain how to take care of my plants after seeing them on Instagram???" —Pez Fez Women, share with us your experience with being mansplained to in the comments or anonymously in the Google Form below:
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Seth Meyers: ‘SNL' Boss Already Knows Who Will Replace Him
Seth Meyers thinks Lorne Michaels already knows who will succeed him at Saturday Night Live. 'I do believe he has already talked to himself about who it's going to be,' Meyers said on Sunday's Talk Easy With Sam Fragoso podcast. 'And that person doesn't know.' Michaels kicked off rumors that he would be stepping down and choosing a replacement amid the show's 50th anniversary celebrations. Meyers is a popular choice for the job, though he's previously said he isn't gunning for it. 'It's certainly possible' Michaels could tap him, however, he said Sunday. 'It's so flattering,' Meyers said, stressing that he doesn't think 'anyone can replace Lorne,' but added, 'I don't want people to think that I don't feel esteem when I hear it.' Michaels, who created SNL in 1975, previous said that another of show's former head writers, Tina Fey, could 'easily' replace him as boss, but has otherwise stayed mum on the topic. Meyers, meanwhile, has been adamant that talk about Michaels' replacement was premature, despite the SNL boss' comments about 'figuring out' what he'll do after the show's 50th anniversary. The Late Night host said last March, 'I think this is a false narrative that Lorne is going anywhere. I think it made sense for Lorne, who's got a flare for the dramatic, to say, 'I think I'll be done at 50.' But now, it's not like Lorne's got something else he wants to do more than this.' That said, Michaels is known for springing big news on people as if they are already on the same page, and the conversation with his successor would likely go the same way, Meyers said. 'When I got Late Night, he called me and I remember getting off the phone and thinking, 'Was that a follow-up?'' Meyers joked. 'It was a follow-up conversation to a conversation we hadn't had, where he immediately was like, 'So look, I think you'll be good at it. It'll take time.' And I was like, what's going on?'
Elle
3 hours ago
- Elle
‘The Buccaneers' Season 2 Is Finally Here—Here's When to Watch
Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. After a whirlwind first season filled with corsets, clashes, and crushes, The Buccaneers is back on Apple TV+ for round two. Inspired by Edith Wharton's final novel, the period drama picks up with Nan, Jinny, Conchita, Lizzy, and Mabel, no longer as fresh arrivals in England's aristocracy, but as powerful players in it. Now immersed in London society, the American heiresses find themselves navigating new scandals, old flames, and the steep cost of growing up in a world still defined by title and tradition. Nan (Kristine Froseth) is now the Duchess of Tintagel, Conchita (Alisha Boe) has become a household name as Lady Brightlingsea, and Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse) has vanished into infamy after fleeing her marriage with a secret. Season 2 brings back the original ensemble—Froseth, Boe, Josie Totah, Aubri Ibrag, and Waterhouse—alongside Christina Hendricks, Matthew Broome, Guy Remmers, and Barney Fishwick. Among the newcomers is Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester in a yet-undisclosed role, rumored to be central to one of the season's key mysteries. In an interview with ELLE in March Boe spoke about Meester joining the cast, saying, 'She's lovely. We were all really excited to have her join and can't say much about who she is playing, but she is great.' 'The show offers a unique perspective about female friendships because they're going through the same things,' Boe added. 'It is a story about sisterhood, and there are five girls in the main ensemble. You get to see friendships, whether good or bad, turn sour and sweet.' Here's how to stay tuned on the new season. Season 2 features eight episodes in total, just like season 1. After the premiere on June 18, new episodes will roll out weekly on Wednesdays, exclusively on Apple TV+. Each installment usually becomes available to stream at 12 A.M. ET/9 P.M. PT the night before. The full schedule is as follows:
