About Home Network

Home Network

Home Network is a Canadian English-language lifestyle specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Launched December 30, 2024, as the successor to HGTV Canada, the channel airs home renovation, real estate, design, and lifestyle programming — built around original Canadian productions and international acquisitions — as Corus's proprietary replacement for the licensed American brand. Wikipedia lists homenetwork.ca as the channel's official website.

Overview

Home Network's proposition is the feeling of home: renovation series, real-estate shows, design competitions, and lifestyle programming, anchored by familiar Canadian personalities and new faces. The channel launched with more than 460 premiere hours for its debut winter/spring season, emphasizing original Canadian productions — a strategic choice by Corus to invest its programming resources in owned brands rather than licensed American ones. The tone is aspirational yet accessible, targeting viewers who love home transformation television.

The channel inherits the audience, channel positions, and production infrastructure of HGTV Canada, but with a fully Canadian brand identity and programming strategy. Its launch — alongside the sister Flavour Network — was the most significant rebranding in Canadian lifestyle television in decades.

History

The channel's history begins as HGTV Canada, the Canadian version of the American Home & Garden Television network, operated by Corus under license from Scripps Networks Interactive and later Warner Bros. Discovery. For years it was one of Canada's most-watched lifestyle channels, built around American HGTV series and original Canadian productions starring homegrown renovation personalities.

In June 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery informed Corus that it would end its trademark licensing and program output agreements at year's end; days later, Rogers announced it had acquired the Canadian rights to the WBD lifestyle brands — including HGTV — and would launch its own HGTV channel on January 1, 2025. Corus chose to continue its channels under new proprietary brands: on September 18, 2024, the company announced that HGTV Canada would become Home Network on December 30, 2024. The rebranded channel retained its Canadian original productions and personalities while adding new acquisitions from ITV Studios and other suppliers, and Corus positioned the owned brand as an opportunity to program with greater flexibility — "younger, fresher, and more diverse," in co-CEO Troy Reeb's description.

Programming

Original Canadian productions anchor the schedule: Building Baeumler with Bryan and Sarah Baeumler, Renovation Resort, Scott's Vacation House Rules, Rock Solid Builds, Pamela's Garden of Eden, Life is Messy with Kortney Wilson and Kenny Brain, Beer Budget Reno, Rentovation, and House of Ali, among others — many of them continuing from the HGTV Canada era with the personalities Canadian viewers know. New acquisitions from ITV Studios and other international suppliers supplement the originals, and repeats of familiar series provide schedule depth.

The programming strategy emphasizes Canadian voices and stories: Corus has stated that the rebranded channels carry more original Canadian content than their licensed predecessors, investing production dollars that previously flowed to American licensors into domestic series. Renovation, real estate, and design remain the core genres, presented with the high production values the audience expects.

Coverage & Audience

Home Network is distributed nationally on cable, IPTV, and satellite, inheriting HGTV Canada's channel positions and carriage. Its audience is the loyal home-and-design viewership built over the HGTV Canada years — predominantly women 25 to 54, along with the broader audience for renovation and real-estate television. The continuity of personalities and channel positions was designed to carry that audience through the rebrand intact.

The channel competes directly with Rogers' new HGTV — the American-branded service that launched January 1, 2025 — creating an unprecedented head-to-head between Corus's owned brand and the licensed American brand it replaced.

Ownership

Home Network is owned by Corus Entertainment, headquartered at Corus Quay in Toronto. The channel is a wholly owned Corus brand — unlike its predecessor, which operated under license — giving the company full control of its identity, programming, and international potential. Within Corus's lifestyle division, Home Network sits alongside Flavour Network, Slice, and W Network, forming the company's owned-brand lifestyle portfolio.

The Home Network Rebrand and Strategic Rationale

The December 30, 2024 rebrand from HGTV Canada to Home Network — necessitated by Rogers' acquisition of the HGTV brand rights for its own competing channel — was among the most significant rebrandings in Canadian specialty television history. Corus's decision to adopt the Home Network identity, rather than ceding the home-improvement audience, reflected the channel's brand equity: decades of viewer loyalty attached to the programming, not merely the licensed brand name.

The transition required rebuilding brand recognition: new logos, new marketing, and the communication challenge of informing viewers that their favorite programs continued under a new name. Corus's execution — emphasizing programming continuity while establishing the Home Network identity — preserved the audience through the disruption.

The rebrand's competitive context — Rogers launching its own HGTV Canada the same day — created the unprecedented situation of two channels claiming the home-improvement heritage. Home Network's advantage lies in continuity: the same Canadian productions, the same familiar hosts, the same schedule viewers knew.

Original Productions and Star Power

Home Network's original Canadian productions — the renovation series, design competitions, and property shows that anchor its schedule — feature the designer and contractor personalities who are celebrities among the home-improvement audience. These Canadian originals, developed with domestic producers, represent some of the most-watched Canadian specialty programming.

The channel's star-driven strategy — building series around charismatic experts — creates the talent franchises that sustain viewer loyalty across seasons. The hosts' books, product lines, and social media presences extend the brand beyond television, creating the multi-platform personalities that define lifestyle media.

Competitive Landscape and the Two-HGTV Era

The emergence of two channels with HGTV heritage — Corus's Home Network and Rogers' new HGTV Canada — created an unprecedented competitive situation in Canadian specialty television. Both channels program home renovation and design content; both claim the audience's loyalty. The competition plays out in programming acquisitions, original productions, talent relationships, and marketing.

Home Network's competitive advantages — programming continuity, established Canadian productions, familiar hosts, and the viewer habits built over decades — are substantial. Rogers' HGTV counters with the licensed brand name and its own programming investments. The market will determine whether brand or continuity matters more to the home-improvement audience.

This duality may ultimately expand the genre's total audience: two well-funded competitors investing in home programming increases the content available to viewers. But it also fragments the audience that a single channel once monopolized, pressuring both services to differentiate.

Streaming and Digital Extensions

Home Network's streaming availability — through StackTV and Corus's digital platforms — serves the cord-cutting home-improvement audience, while its social media presence — design inspiration, before-and-after reveals, host content — engages the visually oriented audience where it lives online. The channel's digital extensions recognize that home content thrives on visual platforms.

Digital Presence

Wikipedia lists homenetwork.ca as Home Network's official website, offering schedules, show information, and streaming access, though the address was not independently load-verified for this profile. The channel streams through StackTV and cable providers' on-demand platforms, and its series are promoted through Corus's digital marketing. Social media accounts showcase renovation transformations, behind-the-scenes content, and personality-driven features, engaging the home-design community that is among the most active on visual platforms. The owned-brand strategy extends to digital, where Corus controls the brand experience end to end.

Launch and Ownership Lineage

The channel launched on October 17, 1997 as HGTV Canada under Atlantis Communications and the E. W. Scripps Company, with Corus Entertainment taking ownership in 2016 — eight years before the rebrand to Home Network.