{"id":136879,"date":"2017-12-06T04:50:45","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T09:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=136879"},"modified":"2017-12-06T04:50:45","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T09:50:45","slug":"cbc-says-new-paid-streaming-app-an-experiment-in-evolving-viewer-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/06\/cbc-says-new-paid-streaming-app-an-experiment-in-evolving-viewer-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"CBC says new paid streaming app an experiment in evolving viewer habits"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"For<\/a>
For $4.99 a month, consumers get a live stream of the CBC News Network and commercial-free access to the CBC’s TV library, including \u201cKim’s Convenience,\u201d \u201cBaroness Von Sketch Show\u201d and \u201cSchitt’s Creek.\u201d (Photo: CBC News\/Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2014 While Netflix and CraveTV boast about their arsenals of blockbuster series, the CBC’s new streaming app is hoping to find a niche with news junkies and hockey fans.<\/p>\n

The national broadcaster lobbed a uniquely Canadian offering into the streaming marketplace Tuesday that could appeal to cord cutters who have missed some homegrown content since giving up on their cable packages.<\/p>\n

For $4.99 a month, consumers get a live stream of the CBC News Network and commercial-free access to the CBC’s TV library, including \u201cKim’s Convenience,\u201d \u201cBaroness Von Sketch Show\u201d and \u201cSchitt’s Creek.\u201d<\/p>\n

But viewers don’t necessarily have to pony up the subscription fee to watch most of the content. A free version of the app doesn’t include access to CBC’s news channel but still streams the network’s TV shows with commercials.<\/p>\n

There’s also free access to live streams of CBC’s 14 regional local TV channels, no matter where you are in Canada, including Saturday night broadcasts of \u201cHockey Night in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throwing open the doors to its programming is part of an experiment to see how viewers will react, said Richard Kanee, the CBC’s executive director of digital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we’re doing at this stage is trying to learn with our audience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, this is all a starting point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Users can access the paid features on Apple smartphones and Apple TV boxes, though it won’t be available on Android devices until April 2018.<\/p>\n

The CBC has often been at the forefront of streaming major events such as the Olympics and last year’s farewell show performed by the Tragically Hip in Kingston, Ont.<\/p>\n

Those past experiences give the broadcaster an advantage as it pushes forward with viewership experiments, said Kaan Yigit, a technology analyst at Solutions Research Group. He suggested the CBC has plentiful resources versus its broadcast competitors, helped by annual funding contributions from the federal government, and owns rights to a notable chunk of its programming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat does help in terms of being able to commit to the scale of this kind of operation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

CBC News Network has already been offered as a standalone streaming service for years for $6.95 a month.<\/p>\n

Kanee said the CBC carefully considered the pricing of its new premium app by comparing against other streaming services such as Sportsnet Now ($24.99 a month), Netflix ($8.99 and up) and CraveTV ($7.99).<\/p>\n

He said the revamped CBC app is part of the broadcaster’s ongoing efforts to meet the requirements of its government-instituted mandate under the Broadcasting Act. The CBC is required to make its programming accessible throughout the country by the most appropriate and efficient means available.<\/p>\n

The CBC has also taken its marquee news program \u201cThe National\u201d online and streams it live, for free, across a number of platforms, including Facebook and YouTube.<\/p>\n

Brahm Eiley, president of Convergence Research Group, suggested the CBC’s new premium app will be especially attractive to the more than four million Canadian households that don’t have a traditional cable or satellite package.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s huge space for these types of products,\u201d Eiley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the long run it’s the right move. This is where things are going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 While Netflix and CraveTV boast about their arsenals of blockbuster series, the CBC’s new streaming app is hoping …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":136899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[37374,37375,2438],"class_list":["post-136879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","tag-cbc-news-network","tag-cravetv-boast","tag-netflix","mauthors-david-friend","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}