The Crave app is seen on a phone in Toronto on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. Crave is introducing two ad-supported tiers that each shave $5 or $10 off the monthly subscription fee. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy
TORONTO – Crave is introducing two ad-supported tiers that each shave $5 or $10 off the monthly subscription fee.
Bell Media says its new Crave Basic with Ads costs $9.99/month, while Crave Standard with Ads costs $14.99/month. An unchanged ad-free option remains at $19.99/month, and is renamed Crave Premium Ad-Free.
Viewers can watch most shows and movies, including HBO and Max originals, on the ad-supported plans. About one per cent of titles won’t be available due to licensing restrictions.
Ads will be 15 or 30 seconds long, totalling about five minutes per hour, and appear before and during some episodes and films.
The lowest tier allows just one stream at a time at 720p video quality, compared to four concurrent streams and 4K video quality in the next tier.
Neither of the ad-supported tiers allows downloads, live streams, nor casting with AirPlay but they do allow casting with Chromecast.
The top, ad-free tier permits four concurrent streams and supports 4K video quality, live streams, downloads and casting with both Chromecast and AirPlay.
Crave subscribers also have access to the DC universe, movies and Crave originals including “Canada’s Drag Race,” “Letterkenny” and “Little Bird.”
Starz remains ad-free, and available through participating service providers and directly to subscribers as a separate add-on.
Netflix introduced an ad tier last November with a “basic with ads” plan that cost $5.99 per month – $15 cheaper than its most expensive plan. The option included a smaller selection of films and TV shows with occasional commercial breaks.
Other ad-supported streaming options in Canada include the free video-on-demand platform Tubi and Pluto TV, which offers more than 100 channels of free TV series, movies and sports.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 25, 2023.
