Bell Media says 2.9 million Canadians tuned in to the final season premiere of Game of Thrones across Crave’s linear, on demand, and streaming platforms. The premiere episode smashed all Canadian Entertainment Specialty and Pay TV linear viewership records, attracting a preliminary average audience of 2.1 million viewers. Additionally, it was the largest night of streaming activity ever for Crave digital platforms. Bell says GOT also helped drive the biggest spike in Crave direct-to-consumer subscriptions ever with a 1000% increase in the week leading up to the final season premiere, spiking to over 3000% on Sunday. The series consistently ranks as the most-streamed title on Crave.ca and the Crave app week-over-week.
Netflix added its highest quarterly paid net adds in the history of the streaming service in Q1 2019, up 9.6 million – a year over year increase of 16% – bringing its total number of subscribers worldwide to 148.9 million. Revenue surpassed 4.5 billion in Q1, with total revenue growth year over year at 22%, compared against 40% in Q1’18. With recent announcements surrounding the coming launch of both the Apple+and Disney+streaming services, Netflix says it’s “excited to compete; the clear beneficiaries will be content creators and consumers who will reap the rewards of many companies vying to provide a great video experience for audiences.” Read the full story here.
Disney+ will launch in the U.S. on Nov. 12 with an initial subscription price of $6.99 USD/ month or $69.99 per year. A full North American launch is expected in the first quarter of 2020. The service will feature content from all of Disney’s major properties, including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and Fox, aiming to offer 7,500 television episodes and 500 films from the Disney library in its first year.
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