By Ahmad Hathout
Bell’s Crave added more than one million subscribers in 2025, the telco said Thursday, pushing the streaming service to 4.6 million subscribers by the end of the fourth quarter.
The last three months of 2025 was the most watched single quarter in the history of the streaming service in a year that also includes its most hours viewed. Bell attributed the success in part to more premium, original and diverse content.
In November, Bell Media announced the largest ever expansion of its content library — more than 10,000 additional hours with integrated live programming from CTV, Noovo, news and major sports as well as an expanded kids collection. Recently, Bell’s Heated Rivalry series has seen global success, selling to HBO Max and getting an early renewal for a second season.
“Heated Rivalry has emerged as a global sensation, generating significant media attention and cultural impact, and underscoring the strength of our investment in premium Canadian storytelling,” Bell CEO Mirko Bibic said on a fourth quarter earnings conference call Thursday.
On Thursday, Crave also announced the acquisition of the newly-created six-episode series Saturday Night Live UK, which debuts on March 21.
“From a strategic standpoint, our focus is on delivering premium content to customers through digital platforms and extending its value by monetizing that content more effectively across the full value chain.”
Bibic noted that the media segment has seen strong viewership for the NFL playoffs so far in the first quarter and is looking toward the FIFA World Cup this summer as a “significant audience and monetization opportunity.”
Crave subscriptions were up 26 per cent in the fourth quarter and sports direct-to-consumer streaming subscribers increased 30 per cent. Bell Media’s total subscriber revenue increased 1.5 per cent thanks to Crave and sports streaming. But those gains were offset by an 11-per-cent dip in total advertising revenue compared to the same period in the previous year, thanks to lower traditional advertising, demand for non-sports programming and the impact of the divestiture of 45 radio stations. Bell Media revenue was, therefore, set back 3.4 per cent over the year for a total of $804 million for the quarter.
Bell has viewed its content portfolio as a weapon to bundle with its wireless and internet offerings to keep customers loyal. “Taken together, Bell Media is contributing meaningfully to growth, churn reduction, and customer lifetime value across the Bell ecosystem,” Bibic said.
Content bundling is the strategy for western Canada, but Bell has accused Telus of obstructing its internet launch there by allegedly not providing the systems to scale the launch.
“Some of the service windows or install windows are, frankly, weeks long, significantly longer than what we provide to resellers on our fibre network in the east,” Bibic added Thursday about the conflict with Telus.
He claimed competition in the west is lacking compared to the east, where access to Bell’s and Telus’s fibre network had been mandated for about a year before the CRTC expanded it nationwide with its final wholesale internet framework.
Total revenue across Bell was $6.4 billion, down 0.3 per cent, which was attributed to a decline in product revenue but offset by higher service revenue. Net earnings were $632 million, up 25 per cent compared to the same period the previous year, partly attributed to the sale of its home security and monitored alarm assets.
In the fourth quarter, wireless revenue was $1.77 billion, down 0.2 per cent, including $806 million in service revenue – down nearly 10 per cent, year-over-year.
Bell added 56,124 postpaid wireless subscribers in the fourth quarter, down 0.8 per cent compared to the same quarter in the previous year. Gross additions in the quarter were 631,520, down 7.2 per cent. The total base at the end of the year was approximately 9.6 million, up 0.5 per cent year-over-year.
Postpaid churn improved 1.49 per cent, down 17 basis points.
On the prepaid side, Bell lost 3,474 subscribers, 36.6 per cent lower than what it lost in the comparable period. It added 170,195 gross prepaid subscribers, which was up 0.3 per cent, for a total base of 870,105 – up 14.8 per cent against the equivalent quarter.
Prepaid churn also improved to 5.93 per cent, down 22 basis points.
Total monthly average revenue per user, however, was down 0.8 per cent to $56.72.
Wireline data revenue was $2.04 billion, up 0.5 per cent, including $159 million in service revenue – down 34 per cent.
On internet, Bell added 12,073 net new subscribers, down about 65 per cent over the year for a total base that was down 0.8 per cent to 4.45 million.
In the United States, Bell’s Ziply Fiber, acquired in August 2025, added 1,261 internet customers in the quarter. The total base down south was 435,142 after a reduction in the base by roughly 13,000 to align with Bell’s methodology for customer deactivations.
On IPTV, Bell lost 4,738 net subscribers in the quarter, compared to a loss of 444 in the equivalent period, for a total base of approximately 2.08 million – down 2.5 per cent. Ziply Fiber lost 193 subscribers for a total base of about 5,839.
On mobile connected device subscribers, Bell added 107,011 subscribers in the quarter, up 6.6 per cent over the year, for a total base of 3.36 million – up 10.4 per cent.
Bell CEO Mirko Bibic at the company’s Investor Day conference in October
