With Rogers and Shaw pulling the plug on their streaming service shomi, rival service CraveTV, from Bell, isn’t going anywhere, says company CEO George Cope.
Speaking to the Canadian Press, Cope said “There’s no change in the status of CraveTV,” adding “It’s meeting our expectations, continues to grow and Canadians continue to subscribe to that service, so we’re going to keep competing in that marketplace.”
Cope would not reveal specific subscriber numbers, but said the impending shutdown of shomi would allow CraveTV to compete “more directly” with Netflix.
CraveTV launched in 2014 and initially was only available to cable subscribers for Bell and Telus customers, similar to the original launch of shomi, which was only available to Rogers and Shaw cable subscribers. The service launched for all Canadians back in January, only after the CRTC mandated Bell, Rogers and Shaw to offer their streaming service to all Canadians.
Will CraveTV suffer like shomi and shut down too? The CraveTV library does have a unique offering with its exclusive HBO library, what other streaming services like Netflix does not. But at the end of day, cord cutters will most likely pick one service to stick with, and Netflix’s original programming keeps getting better and better.
Any CraveTV subscribers out there?
