Avoiding commercials on the Crave streaming service is about to get just a little costlier.
Bell Media has advised Crave subscribers who use its “premium ad-free” bundle that they’ll now should pay $22 monthly — a rise of $2.01.
The change impacts solely the costliest subscription tier that offers viewers commercial-free entry to a library of on-demand programming, in addition to feeds of Crave’s dwell TV channels.
A consultant for Bell Media says customers of Crave’s “standard with ads” subscription will proceed to pay $14.99. Its “basic with ads” plan will keep at $9.99 a month.
The value hike means Crave’s highest tier of service now ranks as costlier than Netflix’s prime stage, which prices $20.99 monthly.
All of the main streaming TV platforms have lately raised costs as they search methods to squeeze extra income out of their subscribers.
Some have carried out crackdowns on password sharing between households, in a bid to extend subscribers. Most have launched ad-supported packages for viewers prepared to take a seat by industrial breaks in trade for paying a bit much less.
Last yr, Crave adopted the lead of Netflix and Disney Plus, who each launched “opt-in” advert tiers that required subscribers to decide on to downgrade.
Amazon’s Prime Video will take a unique strategy subsequent month in Canada when it provides commercials to programming for all clients, with an “opt-out” possibility for viewers who need to escape the advertisements.
Some trade analysts predict an inflow of discounted streaming bundles within the United States will result in the same pattern in Canada over the approaching yr as corporations attempt to retain clients who really feel they’re paying an excessive amount of for too many companies.
On Thursday, telecommunications firm Telus launched Stream Plus, a two-level bundle its clients can join that mixes Netflix, Disney Plus and Prime Video at a reduced charge.
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