Crave, Bell Media’s streaming platform, celebrated its five years of existence in French on Tuesday during an event in Montreal. Management reiterated its commitment to the production of original Quebec content, presenting around twenty shows to come in 2025 and 2026.
More than 60 French-language productions have been produced for Crave in five years. “In Quebec, as soon as we put a quality original production on the platform, it ranks first, ahead of big American productions,” rejoiced Suzane Landry, vice-president of content development, programming and information at Bell Media.
She cited in particular the success of the broadcasts Dream Life et The return of Anna Brodeurwhile the platform hosts international series like The Dragon House, The white lotus et The last of Us. Mme Landry also notes that several Quebec series are watched by an English-speaking audience thanks to subtitling.
In December, reality TV OD: temptations in the sun even shattered a record, becoming Crave’s most viewed series in the first days of its launch, for all of Canada. Bell Media took advantage of Crave’s anniversary to confirm the upcoming filming of a second season ofOD: temptations in the sun. The host, Marie-Pier Morin, will also be featured in a new show. The cameras will accompany him in his quest to build a multi-generational house so that his children can grow up with their grandparents. The name and broadcast date of the series have not yet been defined.
Profusion of reality shows
Crave relied more on fiction in its beginnings, but reality TV will take more and more space. “We are good at reality TV and it works well,” said Mélanie Bhéré, general director of the variety, lifestyle, documentary and digital component. She also points out that 40% of the offering on the Noovo channel, which belongs to Bell Media, is made up of reality shows.
Among the new products presented on Tuesday, we also find One wayinspired by the fictional series of the same name. For this competition hosted by Jean-Nicolas Verreault, ten competitors will arrive by helicopter to go to a somewhat gloomy chalet and try to survive a daily elimination. Straddling documentary and reality TV, Luc the billionaire will follow the rich businessman Luc Poirier, renowned for being without filter. Through his exchanges with host Pierre-Yves McSween, the public must discover how he accumulated such a large fortune despite his modest origins.
In fiction, Crave continues to explore very diverse genres, from comedy to drama, including psychological thrillers. One of the most anticipated series of 2025 is Empathyby the author and actress Florence Longpré (Do you hear me, Raspberry time). Broadcast from April, it takes place in a psychiatric hospital reserved for people considered dangerous to themselves or others. On Tuesday, actor Benoît Brière, who is part of the cast, classified the series in the “ top 2” of her career, saying she found “humor through human tragedy.”
Other intriguing new series were highlighted on Tuesday, including the comedy Spoiled Rotten. Pascale Renaud-Hébert, Suzie Bouchard and Anne-Élisabeth Bossé play three friends in their late thirties. In 2026, the public will be able to discover a series adapted from the films Good cop, bad copin which Patrick Huard and Colm Feore will be there. Several series will return in 2025, including After the flood, Completely high school, Inhale exhale et Bellefleur.
Modest, but growing
The year seems to have been good for Crave, which claims a 25% growth in its subscriptions in 2024. Management also claims to be in a leading position among Canadian streaming platforms, ahead of its competitors Tou.tv and Illico. However, its market shares in the French-speaking Canadian market (15%) are lower than those of Netflix (52%), Amazon Prime Video (37%) and Disney+ (23%), according to data from Observateur des media technologies. Furthermore, the average age of Crave’s audience is 46 years old, which is younger than that of Noovo (50 years old).
Sophie Parizeau, general director of fiction, believes that part of Crave’s success comes from “bold choices”. “We create an event when we offer things that conventional television does not offer. Inhale exhale, In MemoryI don’t think it would have been on traditional television,” she said.
Despite everything, it’s not anytime soon that Bell will pull the plug on Noovo to bet everything on Crave, even if it generates more revenue. Suzane Landry points out that the majority of Quebecers still subscribe to cable and that they watch many hours of content per week, which represents significant advertising revenue.
“The strength of TV is that it remains an evening event, during which we are part of a group watching content at the same time,” she said.
As for prices, Mme Landry points out that the basic plan, at $9.99 per month, has not increased since 2018. What has changed is that more expensive plans, without ads and allowing multiple readings at once, have been added in 2023. Is this stability here to last? Mme Landry did not want to commit to maintaining or increasing prices.
