Out in force

Strong performers in recent months have included the strikingly titled For the Love of DILFs, a gay dating show hosted by Stormy Daniels. The series, which was conceptualised in-house, was renewed for a second season (10x60’) last month after helping to push the number of unique views on OUTtv.com up by 140%.

It follows two groups of singles as they come to an island looking for love. Both groups will live together and take part in challenges as they compete to find their perfect match, with Daniels serving as host and relationship advisor.

Other popular titles include reality series Call Me Mother, which sees three drag legends adopt the next generation of artists into their new drag houses. Dating, competition and docu-reality programming

“always does well” for OUTtv, according to Whitelaw, and the hunt is on for more breakout programming in these genres.

OUTtv is somewhat unusual among Canadian networks, in that it is able to greenlight shows from production companies and creators from outside the country.

Finding globally focused LGBTQ+ stories is at the core of OUTtv’s programming mandate, especially in light of the expansion of OUTtv into more than 10 international territories, including the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and, most recently, South Africa, via Openview Ultra.

“As we’ve expanded globally, it’s hard for us to only tell Canadian stories and have an audience respond to it in a place like Australia, New Zealand or South Africa, so we really do expand the story as far as we can to make programming that makes sense globally,” she says.

“We love to work with Canadian producers, and I would say the majority of our projects come from those producers, but we’re looking outside of Canada too. So no, it doesn’t have to have a

Canada too So no, it doesnt have to have a Canadian element to pass through our development,” says Whitelaw, adding that coproductions are also top of mind

Following OUTtv’s relatively swift expansion into new markets, Whitelaw says it has forced her team to think about development from a more global perspective. which isnt the cas numbers

“It’s opened our eyes, because, as a Canadian broadcaster, you assume that if something has worked in Canada then it has to work elsewhere, which isn’t always the case. Having a streaming platform now, you do get almost immediate feedback from your audience based on streaming numbers, so you can see what’s working and what’s not working,” she says.

As a team th territorie have to take an ma m jority au or o the those things.

As a team that is programming for multiple territories, Whitelaw says: “We have to take an average of, ‘Well, the majority of our audience is watching this, or the majority of our audience doesn’t like that,’ and then take bits from each of “What we aren’t doing is creating projects c territory. We are looking at things for each of them that make sense, that fill out a schedule. You certainly don’t want the same thing across every territory, you want a variety. So, I would say we’re trying to be as diverse within the programming as we can, just to make sure we’re hitting as many audience members as we can.”

“What we aren’t do for a specific te make sche don acr yo wo pr jus hitt mem In projec says th

In terms of bringing projects to OUTtv, Whitelaw says the preference is that a production company is onboard.

Lauren Whitelaw OUTtv

Having talent attached to projects is not essential, however. Pitches can also be relatively brief – just a logline – but producers should have a budget outline, as OUTtv may want to go into production on the project within a year.

Whitelaw stresses the need to think outside the box with project ideas and to have a long-term story arc or progression in mind.

“Think of it like this: if you could submit it to a traditional channel, then it’s not for us. The dirty little secret hiding in your notebook that you tell no one that you wrote? Maybe that’s the one for us,” she says.

“We want something buzzworthy and marketable that we can really latch on to. We don’t tend to look at projects from a one-season-only basis. We want to be able to follow through and go to season two, three or beyond. Look at your story as a whole and make sure you’re telling a story that makes sense but is pushing the envelope.”

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