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TMN rebrands as Crave

41K views 112 replies 33 participants last post by  Dr.Dave 
#1 · (Edited)
Bell Media's The Movie Network, HBO Canada and CraveTV Come Together as the All-New Crave
(Full Press Release follows)

– HBO programming now also available directly to Canadians for the first time ever –
– New Crave features acclaimed programming from SHOWTIME, STARZ, and VICE, WOW! children's content, Hollywood hit movies, and more –
– TMN rebrands as Crave across all platforms –

TORONTO, Nov. 1, 2018 /CNW/ - Bell Media announced today the all-new Crave, featuring a catalogue of some of the most sought-after content in the world and more Emmy Award-winning programming than any other service in Canada. For the first time ever, current HBO programming, including new episodes of GAME OF THRONES, as well as box-office hits such as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Wonder Woman, are available directly to all Canadians with access to the Internet. Additionally, Pay TV service The Movie Network (TMN) rebrands as Crave today, making the brand ubiquitous across all platforms.

The all-new Crave is available through participating television providers today and directly to consumers as of Monday, November 5 on Crave.ca, iOS, and Android. Crave becomes available on additional platforms in the coming weeks, including the ability to subscribe directly via the Crave app on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.

Crave's exceptional entertainment offering is home to HBO, SHOWTIME, Hollywood hit movies, VICE programming, a superior collection of kids' content including movies as well as programs from WOW! Unlimited Media, and thousands of hours of acclaimed television series and original programming not found anywhere else.

The new Crave is an unrivalled value proposition offered in two packages – Crave and Crave + Movies + HBO – giving Canadians flexibility to choose the programming that best suits their needs.

"We're excited to present one of the best entertainment offerings in North America, delivering thousands of hours of prestige programming at an unbeatable value," said Randy Lennox, President, Bell Media. "Crave is immediately positioning itself as the leading option in Canada's increasingly competitive streaming and SVOD market."

"As HBO continues to create ground-breaking content, movies are bringing in record-breaking Pay TV audiences, and family-friendly titles continue to be some of the most popular On Demand and SVOD selections," said Tracey Pearce, President, Distribution and Pay, Bell Media. "This is the content Canadians crave, and we're delivering it on whatever platform they want."

The Platforms

  • Crave is available today through participating television providers across Canada. This gives consumers the added opportunity to access the Crave linear channels on traditional set-top boxes, as well as via On Demand channels, through the Crave app (iOS and Android), and online at Crave.ca. Customers should contact their television provider for pricing and details on how to subscribe.
  • Crave is available as of Monday, November 5 directly to all Canadians with access to the Internet at Crave.ca, and via the Crave app on iOS and Android. Over the coming weeks, Crave will become available on all other partner platforms such as Apple TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TVs, and Amazon Fire TV.

Direct Packages

  • Offered at $9.99/month (plus applicable taxes), an Internet-only subscription to Crave includes exclusive access to more than 11,000 hours of content such as Crave Originals, current SHOWTIME programming, select HBO library content and previous seasons of some current HBO hits, a collection of VICE programming, acclaimed TV series, kids' programming from WOW! Unlimited Media, and much more. Visit Crave.ca/subscribe for more information.
  • For an additional $9.99/month ($19.98 total plus applicable taxes), Crave + Movies + HBO includes all the great content mentioned above, plus HBO's current lineup of ground-breaking series, movies, documentaries and specials, and some of the best Hollywood-hit movies, spanning all genres. Visit Crave.ca/subscribe for more information.

Television Service Provider Packages
Crave packages are available across Canada through participating television service providers. TV subscribers should contact their provider for pricing details and availability.

The Content

On Crave:
  • The SHOWTIME Collection, which includes current programming like RAY DONOVAN, KIDDING, BILLIONS, THE AFFAIR, ESCAPE AT DANNEMORA, PATRICK MELROSE, WHO IS AMERICA?, THE CHI, as well as past SHOWTIME hits such as DEXTER, TWIN PEAKS, EPISODES, CALIFORNICATION, and PENNY DREADFUL.
  • The extensive HBO Collection, featuring HBO's vast off-air library with classics such as THE SOPRANOS, THE WIRE, SEX AND THE CITY, ENTOURAGE, GIRLS, and more, plus select past seasons of HBO hits like GAME OF THRONES, BALLERS, INSECURE, and BIG LITTLE LIES.
  • Recent watercooler hits such as THE HANDMAID'S TALE, STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, KILLING EVE, CASTLE ROCK, and more.
  • The VICE Collection, featuring buzz-worthy titles like THE HUNT FOR THE TRUMP TAPES WITH TOM ARNOLD, the Emmy-nominated GAYCATION with Ellen Page, MOST EXPENSIVEST, F*CK THAT'S DELICIOUS, and THE TRIXIE & KATYA SHOW. Additional titles will join the collection early next year.
  • Complete libraries of some of TV's most iconic series like SEINFELD, CHEERS, FRASIER, and more.
  • The Comedy Central Collection, featuring Seasons 1-21 of SOUTH PARK, NATHAN FOR YOU, BROAD CITY, and more.
  • Two Kid's Collections from WOW! Unlimited Media featuring THE ADVENTURES OF PADDINGTON BEAR, LEAGUE OF SUPER EVIL, THE PALS, and all four original seasons of REBOOT, plus the upcoming PEPPA PIG, WORLD OF QUEST, DOODLEBOPS ROADSHOW, and more.
  • A limited-time offering of Starz content, such as COUNTERPART, VIDA, and SWEETBITTER, plus select previous seasons of POWER and PARTY DOWN.
  • Crave Originals like the award-winning comedy LETTERKENNY, Crave Original stand-up specials created in partnership with Just For Laughs, the upcoming in-depth interview series MUCH STUDIOS PRESENTS: MIKE ON MUCH, and upcoming satirical dramedy NEW EDEN.

On Crave + Movies + HBO:
The thousands of hours of unrivalled television programming mentioned above, PLUS:

  • HBO's current lineup of ground-breaking series, movies, documentaries and specials such as GAME OF THRONES, WESTWORLD, SHARP OBJECTS, LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER, REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER, CAMPING, THE DEUCE, THE SHOP, the upcoming miniseries MY BRILLIANT FRIEND, and all-new seasons of TRUE DETECTIVE and VEEP.
  • Hollywood-hit movies from most major movie studios spanning all genres, such as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Wonder Woman, Pitch Perfect 3, Fifty Shades Freed, The Greatest Showman, Pacific Rim Uprising, Rampage, Red Sparrow, and countless others.
  • An expanded Crave Kids Collection, featuring family-friendly movies like Despicable Me 3, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Ferdinand, The Boss Baby, and Paddington 2.

TMN and TMN Encore Rebrand

  • The former TMN Pay TV linear channels are now rebranded as Crave 1, Crave 2, Crave 3, Crave 4, HBO Canada 1, and HBO Canada 2.
  • TMN Encore Pay TV channels are now Encore 1 and Encore 2. As was previously announced, Starz and Bell Media have entered into an exclusive, long-term alliance to bring Starz to Canada, with TMN Encore rebranding in 2019.
  • Former TMN subscribers now have access to thousands of hours of additional content through Crave.ca and the Crave app not available to them before, such as the award-winning Canadian comedy series LETTERKENNY, plus watercooler TV hits like THE HANDMAID'S TALE, KILLING EVE, STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, and CASTLE ROCK.
  • TMN GO will be decommissioned and users will now access their on-demand content through the all-new Crave app, or by logging into Crave.ca with credentials from their television service provider.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
@ CraveCanada
@ CraveCanadaPR
@ HBOCanada
Facebook/HBOCanada
Instagram/HBOCanada

About Crave:
Delivering more Emmy Award-winning programming than any other service, Crave is Canada's prestige entertainment offering, with HBO, SHOWTIME, Starz, Hollywood-hit movies, a superior collection of kid's movies and programs, and thousands of hours of acclaimed television series, specials, factual programming, and originals that can't be found anywhere else. Crave is the exclusive home of HBO in Canada, delivering HBO's current slate of signature dramatic and comedic programs, documentaries, films, and live specials, as well as titles from HBO's extensive off-air library. Crave is also home to current SHOWTIME series and specials, and past SHOWTIME hits. Crave is available directly to all Canadians with access to the Internet via iOS and Android, and other platforms. It's also available through participating television providers across six 24-hour High Definition linear and on demand channels. Crave is from Bell Media, Canada's leading content company, providing Canada's most-watched and most-acclaimed television programming on network, specialty, pay and digital platforms. Visit our website at Crave.ca.
 
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#85 ·
It sounds like they might be having problems with certain models. An Apple TV 3 user also had the new logo and the old app and found they had to delete the app and reinstall it.

I know it's a different platform, but it might be worth a try. On the other hand if it doesn't reinstall, you might not be able to access even the old Crave from that TV.

You could tweet them with the year and model of your TV - they seem to respond, but I'm not sure they have a fix.
 
#86 ·
On Samsung TVs, we don't have the option of uninstalling the Crave TV app. Only thing we can do is "reinstall" the app, which I think just clears the cache. Anyways, I tried it and I still get the old app.

I contacted their support on Twitter and they are looking into it.
 
#89 ·
I have a 2013 Samsung UN55F9000 TV, and the latest Crave has been present on that TV for several days now. However, this TV was updated with an updated Evolution Kit in early 2016, which completely updated the software and operating system. I'm not sure whether the App would be available for non updated 2013 models.
 
#90 ·
ehhhhh, CraveTV was terrible before re-branding and TMN used to be much better when it was TMN Action, TMN FUN ....

I am going to cancel it soon and get it back next year by end of game of thrones season 8. Being able to get Crave TV without Cable and having SHOWTIME contents are good improvements though.
 
#91 ·
I emailed Crave inquiring when/if my 2012 Samsung Smart TV (UN55ES6100) would be getting the Crave app (note that it did not have Crave prior to the TMN change but it did have TMN Go). This is the response I received:

We apologize for any inconvenience that you ay be experiencing with Crave. As of November 15th, we have started rolling out the updates for supported devices. Updates are being rolled out in stages to work on each platform that we support. We don’t have a specific time frame of when the update would be available on your Samsung Smart TV but rest assured that it will be available soon. We suggest that you check our FAQs for the latest updates on the app release.
To me that sounds like my older TV WILL be getting the new Crave app, eventually. Hopefully if anyone else reading this has a TV from that year/model, this will be a little more comfort to them, I guess we just have to be patient.
 
#93 ·
As an update to my previous post, I had contacted Cravehelp via Twitter direct message. After a back and forth they finally answered my question and the Crave Smart TV app will only function on 2014 and newer TVs.
I subsequently asked if older TVs will ever be supported and have as yet to receive a reply.
 
#95 · (Edited)
One thing i have noticed about the "Live" movies. If i check Zapt2it and the Samsung TV Crave, what is showing as playing is different and not accurate.
When i look at Crave from a Win10 computer or an iOS device (iPhone or Apple TV) they show what is actually playing. I will check later to see if the listings in
the Optik TV guide is different from the Crave app.

seems strange that what is "live" would be different.

ok. just checked the Telus guide for Crave. (cant actually watch Crave on Telus but can see guide listing) There is a difference of 2 hrs btwn the Crave Win10 app and Telus.
For example, on Crave 2 "A Bad Moms Christmas" shows it playing from 1510 to 1700. On Telus Bad moms not starting until 1710. In the Win10 app the movie is playing. Cant see anyplace to check and set timezone. How can Telus and Crave app "live" tv be so different?
 
#96 ·
Blintok for some reason your movie channels East and West in Canada are diff. by 2 hrs. Here in the States its 3 hrs. I don't know why its 2 hrs. in Canada. If anything I think it would be 4 hrs. b'cuz you have more time zones than we do! (well except for Ak and HI but the TV ppl don't think about them much.) You are in BC so you see the West feed but the Crave website would be Eastern time I guess.
 
#101 ·
ExDilbert why would one HBO be in Alberta??
There were two regional movie services with HBO Canada as an add-on. HBO Canada was a joint venture between two. One movie service was based in Alberta for western Canada and one in Ontario for eastern Canada. Most BDUs carry both HBO channels to provide time shifting. Why Alberta? Why do companies locate anywhere?
 
#102 ·
so from the comments, as i understand it now. Before the change from TMN to Crave Telus TMN chennels were always on mountain time? Why just TMN? all the other channels are correct for me at Pacific Time.

It just seems odd that Crave on Win10 and iPhone and AppleTV are correct but the same app on my Samsung TV and the Telus listing are off by 2hrs. Also same for the Zap2it listings. ONLY the former TMN channels are off by 2hrs.

also none of the LIVE Crave channels work on my Samsung TV app. Selecting a Live channel nothing happens. But Crave works fine on Win10 and the Apple TV. I can find nothing in the settings for Crave to set timezone.
 
#105 · (Edited)
Let me try to clarify the time zone issue. Crave is streaming the live eastern feeds of Crave 1-4 and HBO 1-2, which are all shown in Eastern Time. If you use the schedule on Crave.ca or in the Crave app, you should see the correct schedule times because the web site and apps adjust the times based on the computer's or device's time zone. If those times don't match your local time, check that your device's time zone and time is correct, because the apps use that and don't ask you what time zone you want.

If you live west of Ontario, the feeds you receive for TV are 2 hours later, so they won't match the Crave app live schedule. Your PVR schedule and Zap2it are all set up to show you the correct time for your location for the TV feed and will be different than the app live feed which is the eastern feed.

The TV feed has the Crave 1 and Crave 4 names switched around, so that Crave 1 is the primary feed for your time zone and Crave 4 is the eastern feed. The same may be true for HBO if your provider carries both HBO channels. Some providers like Shaw Cable only carry Crave 1-3 and one HBO - they don't carry the eastern time-shifted feeds.

The 2 hour shift for Movie Central goes back over a decade and was continued through all the transitions. There's a lengthy thread: Bell's TMN & HBO will be national; Corus winds down 'Movie Central' that was announced in 2015.

Movie Central was the regional premium movie channel for the 4 western provinces and covered Pacific, Mountain and Central time zones, so it made sense to use the Mountain Time Zone as the most convenient time. Movie Central's licence was restricted to the west and TMN's was previously restricted to the east. Both were independent channels and didn't always have similar schedules or even the same series and movies. They shared operation of HBO Canada when that became a separate channel and MC renamed one of their channels to be HBO in the west and TMN renamed one of their channels to be HBO in the east.

EDIT: That explanation wasn't quite as good as I wanted, so I can answer questions if anyone still has any.
 
#106 ·
I contacted crave about their lack of schedule and here is their response.

Thank you for your email. Here at Crave it is always a pleasure to hear from our subscribers and to address any comments or concerns you may have.

We apologize for the delayed response. We apologize for the inconvenience that you are experiencing with the new Crave. To check the schedule for Crave please go to www.crave.ca/live .

If there would be further inquiries you may contact us or you may check our website.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.


So other then apologizing for their slow response they are not acknowledging or apologizing for taking away the whole months schedule etc.
 
#108 ·
I decided to check if they had implemented a full On-Air schedule yet and it looks like they did. Unfortunately, the interactive grid only shows programming for the next 2 weeks. However, there is a "print schedule" link at the bottom that shows Crave 1-4 and HBO 1-2 for January and February. The page numbering indicates it is probably part of a print-style magazine. Does anyone know how often the print magazine is published and about what time of the month it is released? Hopefully, they will be prompt in updating the print schedule to give us a better view of upcoming programming.
 
#109 ·
Does anyone know how often the print magazine is published and about what time of the month it is released?
Once a month. I get mine in the mail around the 20th-23rd of the month. That pdf looks like those pages from the magazine. Although the print schedule is fairly accurate, there are occasional last minute changes when a movie is not available as expected, or the start/end times change a bit.
 
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