Bell Media says Crave will be getting a major overhaul by the end of 2025. The new version will include over 30% more content, a redesigned user experience, and both paid and free options.
For paying subscribers, the upgraded Crave will include content from HBO and Max Originals, Crave Originals, CTV, Noovo, Bell Media specialty channels like USA Network and Canal D, and more kids programming.
The free tier, available through a simple account registration, will include ad-supported content from CTV, CTV 2, and Noovo—including movies, classic shows, and select news and sports programming.
“Bell Media continues to charge forward with investment in Crave, dramatically broadening content available across entertainment, news, and sports” said Sean Cohan, President of Bell Media. “Our focus is unwavering: to deliver the best storytelling, enhanced discoverability, and an enjoyable user experience to our over 4 million subscribers.”
Bell Media says the new Crave will also improve recommendations and personalization, support multiple languages, and bring a refreshed interface for smart TVs and streaming devices. That’s a welcome addition for many users of the Crave app.
The upgraded Crave platform will offer a wide range of content, including national and local newscasts from CTV News and Noovo Info, select live sports events, and expanded entertainment from Bell Media’s specialty channels like USA Network, Oxygen True Crime, and Canal Vie. Viewers will also get access to a large free catalogue of movies and shows through CTV Movies and CTV Throwback, which were previously only available on CTV.ca and Noovo.ca.
Premium content includes Crave Originals such as Canada’s Drag Race, Shoresy, Letterkenny, Empathie, OD Tentations au Soleil, So Long Marianne, Vie$ de Rêve, and Billionaire Murders, as well as blockbuster franchises from HBO and Max like the DC Universe and Harry Potter. The new platform will also feature a deeper collection of popular kids programming.
Viewers who already subscribe to Crave through a TV provider can use their login to access the new platform when it launches.
Bell hasn’t announced pricing or the exact launch date yet, but more details are expected in the coming months.
Earlier today, Bell also announced a new streaming bundle that included Crave, TSN and Disney+.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
I have little faith in the new app version is going to be anything other than even worse. It took them years to get the existing version to where it is today, and it still barely works. For the new version Bell is going to cheap out like they always do, hire incompetent and overworked software devs, and release a half baked disaster of an app.
Crave is much more expensive compared to Netflix and other streaming platforms. Why doesn't bell offer a streaming service similar to Citytv+ and stacktv where streaming is more affordable and call it CTV+?
Yes, they have a CTV App, but you have to be a Bell user to access most content.
Bell is behind the times!
Media productions aren't content in and of themselves. I guess since the c-word is relative then all of these works are the content of a platform, but we consumers care about the content of the medium we're interacting with directly: the singular production as a whole — in particular its subject matter and information contained and conveyed by the medium's formatting. That's the c-word in proper. Find some other word to refer to a list of doodads.