Bell touts 2023 as Crave's best year while it lays off thousands

Alongside announcing that it is laying off 9 percent of its workforce, amounting to 4,800 jobs, Bell also revealed positive growth statistics tied to its Crave streaming platform, including that 2023 was the most watched year in the service’s history.

According to Bell, streams on Crave were up 8 percent year-over-year overall and increased 18 percent year-over-year in Québec in 2023. In total, Bell says Crave now has 3.1 million subscribers as of the end of 2023, with “direct-to-consumer” numbers (those that subscribe directly through the Crave app) growing 14 percent year-over-year.

However, overall subscriber growth appears to have stagnated on the platform with only a 1 percent increase between Q3 and Q4, which is likely why Bell is highlighting “usage” in its earnings over user growth in its latest earnings report. Further, Bell’s earnings reports have consistently listed Crave’s subscriber number at around 3.1 to 3.2 million since Q3 2022.

In other Crave-related news, Bell launched an Amazon Prime Video channel for the streaming platform. The telecom giant also recently increased the cost of its ‘Premium’ subscription tier that doesn’t feature ads to $22 from $19.99.

In Bell’s Q4, 2023 financial report, the company revealed that its profits dropped 23 percent year-over-year to $435 million from $576 million.

Source: Newswire