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Bell Media Launches CraveTV Streaming Service

166K views 552 replies 105 participants last post by  Dr.Dave 
#1 · (Edited)
Bell Media announced today it will soon launch a new video streaming service devoted exclusively to the best content on television. From the company with more than a decade of leadership delivering Canada's most-watched and most-acclaimed television programming across the Pay, Specialty, and Network TV landscapes, the on-demand subscription service, currently code-named "Project Latte", will feature thousands of hours of content representing TV's top premium brands including, it was confirmed today, HBO. With content from all key Hollywood major and independent studios, "Project Latte" does not duplicate existing services, but instead features additive and exclusive programming.

Now available to every TV provider in Canada, "Project Latte" is designed to enhance the value of the subscription television ecosystem. "Project Latte" will therefore be made available to all TV subscribers in the country, pending agreements with participating TV providers, on their traditional set-top box, as well as via mobile apps, the web, and other platforms including game consoles and Smart TVs. Additional details will be announced in the weeks to come.

"We built Project Latte as a complementary service that will delight and amaze viewers with thousands of hours of premium entertainment available on-demand and on the device of their choice," said Kevin Crull, President, Bell Media. "Project Latte addresses a significant gap in the Canadian TV system and allows TV providers to greatly enhance the value they provide to their clients. We are incredibly excited about the potential for this product and how it fits into our overall portfolio of Canada's best television brands and programs."

"If you like TV, you will love Project Latte's program lineup," said Mike Cosentino, Senior Vice-President, Programming, Bell Media. "Our singular focus on TV series, along with our established studio relationships in Hollywood and beyond, means we are uniquely positioned and hyper-focused on delivering the best TV programs to the most-devoted TV lovers. While our extensive HBO deal is a game-changer and instantly makes us a viewer favourite, HBO content comprises only 10% of our planned inventory at launch. Stay tuned as Project Latte's complete lineup is revealed in the weeks to come."

HBO is the first of many world-class content partners announced for "Project Latte", which, further to Bell Media's previously announced agreement, will be the Canadian home of the entire off-air library of HBO's iconic programming catalogue. As confirmed today, "Project Latte" will feature the entire HBO scripted library, featuring some of the most-celebrated television programming of all time. In addition to THE SOPRANOS and SEX AND THE CITY, additional Emmy® and Golden Globe® Award-winning HBO classic series to be available on "Project Latte" include SIX FEET UNDER, BAND OF BROTHERS, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, BIG LOVE, ENTOURAGE, OZ, IN TREATMENT, HUNG, ROME, and DEADWOOD, among others. "Project Latte" will also feature creator David Simon's newly re-mastered version of THE WIRE, which will be presented in HD for the first time.

"Project Latte" will also showcase the complete HBO Films catalogue of nearly 100 titles that have been the recipients of countless Academy®, Golden Globe, Peabody, and Emmy Awards, as well as the Palme d'Or and other film festival accolades. Among the selections are ELEPHANT, AMERICAN SPLENDOUR, BEHIND THE CANDELABRA, GAME CHANGE, TEMPLE GRANDIN, CONSPIRACY, THE GATHERING STORM, THE NORMAL HEART, and GREY GARDENS.

As well, "Project Latte" is the home to more than 150 titles from the HBO Documentaries library, including Academy Award-nominated 4 LITTLE GIRLS, the Emmy and Peabody award-winning WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS, SIX BY SONDHEIM, and the recent festival favourite SEDUCED AND ABANDONED.

Finally, "Project Latte" will exclusively feature HBO's lineup of close to 160 iconic stand-up comedy specials featuring some of the biggest names in comedy of all time, including George Carlin, Robin Williams, Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Maher, Dennis Miller, Louis C.K., Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho, and more.

About "Project Latte"
Created for TV lovers and devoted exclusively to television, "Project Latte" is Canada's premium subscription on-demand service, providing the most robust lineup of hit television content in the country. From TV's most-acclaimed dramas and beloved comedies to documentaries, music, and factual programming, "Project Latte" will feature more than 10,000 hours of non-kids TV programming, with more than 350 unique TV titles. Designed to complement traditional television, the video service gives viewers the ability to watch thousands of hours of hit past and present TV series. Available to all TV providers, "Project Latte" will be delivered via set-top box, apps, online, and other platforms. "Project Latte" is from Bell Media, Canada's premier multi-media company.
Press Release.

EDIT: Here's the official launch announcement for CraveTV: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=2357225
FAQs: www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=2363673
 
#367 ·
Decided to try CraveTV out recently to do a rewatch of Deep Space Nine for fun. On my Bell Aliant STB, the interface suffers horrifically from having nothing that lets you resume a series you've started watching. What I have to do every time is this:

1. Go to the On Demand Menu
2. Go to CraveTV
3. Go to Collections
4. Go to Star Trek
5. Go to Deep Space Nine
6. Go to Season 1
7. Find the next episode

After that episode ends, sometimes it'll bring up a menu to watch the next one, and other times it just goes back to whatever live TV channel I had on before I did step 1, which means I have to do it all over again.

Combined with just how slow the menus on the STB are, all that takes a coupe of minutes. The speed is probably the fault of the STB, as I hear the newer ones are much faster, but the sheer number of menus I have to go through to get "watch the next episode" is goofy, especially for a service that's so geared to TV series watching.

Netflix on my PS3 is "push down to recently watched, scroll to it, hit X twice, and it's playing the next episode".
 
#368 ·
I agree. A Recently Watched menu would make a world of differences.
Every night after watching a bit of the news, we watch Corners Gas but it takes an eternity to get there.
 
#370 ·
I don't see how it's intentional. The website appears to work well enough. It's just a crappy implementation on the STB side of things. Netflix generally uses its own app that's designed for it, while the TV providers are trying to shoehorn CraveTV into their poorly-designed VOD menus that they generally didn't develop, and some of the problems there might just be limitations of the platform they're using (in this case, Mediaroom, for which development has been largely stagnant since Microsoft sold it as far as I can tell). There is a channel number you can go to that will save you a couple of steps though. It's 523 on Bell Aliant.

I don't subscribe to it right now as I have enough stuff on my backlog, but if I did, I imagine I'd just use a Chromecast and send what I want to watch from my PC.
 
#372 ·
New Distributors; Eastlink can now use STB

Bell Media announced today that four additional television service providers are now carrying its premium television streaming service, CraveTV: Hay Communications, Mitchell Seaforth Cable TV, Tuckersmith Communications, and Wightman Telecom. These new distribution partners join a growing list of providers that also includes Bell Fibe TV, Bell Satellite TV, and Bell Aliant FibreOP TV, TELUS Optik TV, Eastlink, Northwestel, Nexicom, Access Communications, and Cable Cable.

As part of today's announcement, Bell Media also confirms that Eastlink customers can now access CraveTV through their set-top box, a new feature that launched on Monday. Eastlink previously provided the service through the CraveTV app and website only.
Full Press Release
 
#376 ·
The new SHOWTIME comedy HAPPYISH will make its historic debut on CraveTV, marking the first time in Canada that a premium pay series will have an exclusive first-window on a subscription streaming service. HAPPYISH becomes the first SHOWTIME series to be made exclusively available to CraveTV subscribers as part of its multi-year agreement with CBS Corporation that was announced last month.

Raunchy and star-studded, HAPPYISH begins streaming Sunday, April 26 at 9:30 p.m. ET on CraveTV, day-and-date with SHOWTIME in the U.S. New episodes will be available weekly on Sundays at the same time, in the official SHOWTIME- branded collection only on CraveTV.

Full Press Release.
 
#478 ·
#377 ·
I'm not sure I like this tactic of buying up the exclusive first-run rights to TV shows they're not even going to show on TV. If putting shows on a schedule is no longer a limitation for the number of first-run shows they acquire, then I could see a future where they own nearly everything. Bell has not been shy about throwing money at programming and they certainly have the resources to do it. I expect that if a show they acquire to do this with ends up being a big hit, they'd find a spot on one of their channels for it though.

On the other hand, if other networks can no longer compete for US programming, maybe they'll start looking elsewhere or producing more of their own.
 
#378 ·
I'm not sure I like this tactic of buying up the exclusive first-run rights to TV shows they're not even going to show on TV.
I agree. I can't even watch Orange is the New Black, new season of Trailer Park Boys, House of Cards etc...

But Netflix has put the money where their mouth is I guess to drive up subscriptions and now Crave is doing the same thing. As far as I'm concerned, it's called competition.

If I really wanted to see the above shows then I could subscribe to Netflix. But I'm not "entitled" to watch the above shows.
That's what this whole Crave/Shomi/Netflix argument appears to me to be. A huge sense of entitlement where none exists.
Whoa I'm cranky this morning... Better grab another coffee!
 
#379 ·
With the big difference that Netflix doesn't require me to buy a bunch of other things from them before allowing me to pay them for those shows. They'll sell to anybody.

Crave and Shomi are tools of the oligarchs to prop up other business areas. Crave is particularly absurd in that they demand you have a TV subscription for shows that are not on TV.

When Netflix also requires Netflix Internet and Netflix TV, the comparison will be more valid.
 
#380 ·
love that CraveTV has lots of programs and more and more available thru the set top box. That is both a good thing and a royal pain in the rear. I have had Crave since it launched but lately rarely using it. Using the set top box is just too painful, so slow, having to wade thru menu after menu to get the show to start. The remote is annoying as well with having to have it pointed at the box perfectly lined up to work.
 
#382 ·
To be clear, I'm not and have never been against the idea of CraveTV or Shomi, even if tied to a cable subscription. The difference with Netflix is that they are creating and financing that content for their own service in order to make their service more attractive and less reliant on other content rights holders. In that sense, it's like any other web content provider. In Crave's case, they are buying the rights to content that is made for TV elsewhere, and just making it Internet/VOD-only here.

Though thinking about it further, I suppose that's a distinction that's only going to be increasingly blurred in the years to come. As it stands, I have cable but rarely watch it live, so it's already effectively a VOD service for me. I wonder if traditional broadcast on a schedule might just die out in favour of VOD channels in the way devices like Roku and Apple TV do it, which would make cable TV effectively just an optimized video delivery vehicle. I still think it would have a role to play in such a scenario, because streaming video over the Internet is still less than optimal a lot of the time. Though I also think you're kidding yourself if you think that all these services over the Internet will end up cheaper than cable TV.

As for right now, at least in the case of Happyish, it may actually be a better deal, given that it airs on a premium cable channel in the US, and it's just included in a much cheaper and more diverse service here.
 
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