The streaming revolution did not arrive in Canada overnight; it crept in through the broadband lines, gradually upending decades of broadcast tradition. When Netflix launched its first international expansion into Canada in 2010, the country’s major telecom and media conglomerates largely viewed the platform as a mild digital curiosity. They owned the physical internet infrastructure, and they held the ironclad domestic broadcast rights to the most lucrative American television shows. The traditional cable model seemed invincible.
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However, by 2014, the novelty had morphed into an existential threat. Cord-cutting—the consumer practice of abandoning expensive, traditional television packages in favor of on-demand internet video—was accelerating at an alarming rate. Canadian broadcasters realized that simply licensing their exclusive content to Netflix was a self-defeating strategy that only strengthened their primary competitor. They needed to build their own digital fortresses. For Bell Media, Canada’s largest multimedia company, this realization sparked a massive internal initiative that would fundamentally alter the country’s television landscape.
Project Latte: Brewing a Digital Defense
In the fall of 2014, rumors began to swirl about a massive Bell Media initiative operating under the internal codename “Project Latte.” The codename was a cheeky reference to the platform’s planned introductory price point: roughly the cost of a premium coffee.
On October 30, 2014, Bell Media officially unveiled the project, announcing it to the public as CraveTV. Slated for a December launch and priced at an astonishingly low $4.00 CAD per month—exactly half the cost of a standard Netflix Canada subscription at the time—CraveTV was positioned as a TV addict’s ultimate streaming destination.
Content is the lifeblood of any streaming service, and Bell Media leveraged its massive purchasing power to secure an unparalleled launch library. By its debut, CraveTV boasted over 10,000 hours of premium television programming. Its crown jewel was the exclusive Canadian streaming rights to the entire off-air library of HBO. For the first time, Canadians had on-demand access to the complete runs of legendary series like The Sopranos, The Wire, and Sex and the City. Bell supplemented this premium drama with a formidable comedy slate, securing the streaming rights to syndication heavyweights like Seinfeld, South Park, and The Big Bang Theory.
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The Walled Garden Strategy
Despite its robust content library, the initial launch of CraveTV was defined by a highly controversial distribution model. When the service officially went live on December 11, 2014, it was not a true over-the-top (OTT) competitor to Netflix. Instead, Bell engineered it as a “walled garden.”
To subscribe to CraveTV, a consumer could not simply visit a website and enter a credit card number. Access was strictly gated; you had to already be a paying subscriber to a participating traditional television provider, such as Bell Fibe, Bell Satellite, Telus Optik TV, or Eastlink. If you were a cord-cutter who only paid for an internet connection, CraveTV was completely inaccessible to you.
The business logic behind this decision was entirely defensive. Bell Media did not build CraveTV to destroy traditional cable; they built it to save it. By offering an incredibly cheap, content-rich digital platform exclusive to cable subscribers, Bell hoped to provide a powerful incentive for Canadians to retain their legacy television packages. They explicitly designed the platform to “enhance the value of the subscription television ecosystem.”
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A 91-Hour Stunt: Marketing the CraveTV Launch
To generate buzz for this unprecedented launch, Bell Media’s marketing agency orchestrated a massive promotional campaign anchored by a highly public stunt. Embracing the tagline “All You Can Watch,” the company decided to literally demonstrate the appeal of binge-watching.
In early December 2014, Bell constructed a fully functional, transparent pop-up living room in the parking lot of its iconic 299 Queen Street West headquarters in downtown Toronto. Six television fans, dubbed “Cravers,” moved into the glass box to attempt a Guinness World Record for the longest continuous television-watching marathon.
For 91 consecutive hours, the participants consumed a relentless diet of CraveTV programming, visible to thousands of daily pedestrians and streamed live online. The stunt successfully dominated the domestic entertainment news cycle, effectively cementing the CraveTV brand in the public consciousness just days before the platform’s official rollout.
Project Latte Revealed
October 2014
Bell Media announces its new television-focused streaming service, initially using a codename referencing its planned $4 monthly price point.
CraveTV Launches
December 11, 2014
The service officially goes live with the entire off-air HBO library, but restricts access solely to existing subscribers of participating traditional television providers.
Direct-to-Consumer Pivot
January 14, 2016
Responding to regulatory pressure and the cord-cutting trend, CraveTV launches over-the-top, allowing any Canadian with an internet connection to subscribe for $7.99/month.
The Rebranding
November 2018
CraveTV merges with the linear pay-TV channel The Movie Network (TMN), rebrands simply as “Crave,” and begins offering day-and-date premieres of current-season HBO series.
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Tearing Down the Walls: The “Stream On!” Era
The walled garden strategy, while financially logical for a telecom giant, was ultimately unsustainable in the face of shifting consumer habits. Cord-cutters were deeply frustrated that they were locked out of a domestic platform rich with Canadian and American cultural touchstones. Consumer advocacy groups raised concerns regarding anti-competitive behavior, arguing that tying a digital streaming service to a legacy cable subscription stifled market innovation.
Sensing shifting regulatory winds from the CRTC and recognizing the sheer volume of revenue being left on the table by ignoring cord-cutters, Bell Media executed a massive strategic pivot. On January 14, 2016, CraveTV officially transitioned to a direct-to-consumer, over-the-top service.
Any Canadian with an internet connection could now bypass the cable box entirely and subscribe to CraveTV for $7.99 per month. To herald this new era, Bell launched a nationwide marketing blitz centered on the tagline “Stream On!” The campaign debuted during the NFL playoffs, featuring high-energy television spots set to Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” The marketing explicitly aimed to redefine CraveTV—shifting its public perception from a restricted specialty channel to a ubiquitous, universally accessible streaming platform.
The timing of this pivot was critical. While CraveTV expanded its reach, its primary domestic rival—Shomi, a joint venture launched by Rogers and Shaw—was bleeding capital. Unable to sustain profitability in a market dominated by Netflix, Shomi abruptly shut down in late 2016. CraveTV was left standing as the sole Canadian-owned streaming survivor.
The Ultimate Evolution: From Archive to Premium Juggernaut
By 2018, CraveTV had secured millions of subscribers, bolstered by an expanded library and hit original Canadian programming like the breakout rural comedy Letterkenny. However, it still suffered from a major structural limitation: it was primarily an archive.
While subscribers could binge past seasons of Game of Thrones or Billions, they could not watch current episodes as they aired. To get day-and-date premieres of contemporary premium television, Canadians still had to pay a steep fee for Bell’s traditional linear pay-TV channel, The Movie Network (TMN).
In November 2018, Bell Media finally erased the artificial boundary between its legacy broadcasting arm and its digital future. The company dissolved the TMN brand entirely, merging its current-season premium content directly into the streaming platform. Reflecting this massive expansion in scope, the “TV” was dropped from the name, and the service was relaunched simply as Crave.
With the introduction of a new tiered pricing model, Canadians could finally pay a premium to stream new episodes of flagship HBO and Showtime series at the exact moment they aired on live television.
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The birth and evolution of Crave represents a masterclass in corporate adaptation. What began as “Project Latte”—a highly restricted, defensive experiment designed to protect an aging business model—was eventually allowed to adapt and cannibalize the very model it was built to defend. In doing so, Bell Media successfully engineered a permanent, premium Canadian footprint in a digital arena otherwise ruled by global tech giants.
