Bell takes lid off Latte

Canada’s Bell Media has unveiled further details of its fledgling subscription VoD service, which will now be called CraveTV and cost nearly half as much as Netflix.

CraveTV (fka Project Latte) will charge C$4 (US$3.52) per month and launch on December 11. Netflix charges existing Canadian users C$7.99 and new subscribers C$8.99.

Bell said execs were also working on original content that could be developed into series for the new service, which will be available on set-top boxes, the Xbox One game console and mobile devices.

The firm, which earlier this week said it will air the broadcaster’s original series before their linear debut, has been busy adding shows from an array of networks including F/X, Channel 4, TNT, Bravo, The CW, and CTV ahead of its launch.

The service plans to eventually offer around 10,000 hours of shows and will initially offer a total of 90 dramas amounting to 3,500 hours.

The Canuck company has already agreed deals to include shows from Warner Bros International Television Distribution and will also air Amazon original series Bosch.

A pact has also been signed with HBO for shows including The Sopranos, The Wire, and Sex and the City, which will represent 16% of the SVoD service’s offering.

Plans for Project Latte were revealed last month and came after HBO said in October that it would launch an internet-based on-demand service in the US in 2015, followed two days later by a similar announcement from CBS.

Fellow Canuck operators Shaw and Rogers launched Shomi in November, which claims to have acquired more than 11,000 hours of content and costs C$8.99 per month.