In addition to the CBS Sports and USA Now channels added to the Apple TV in the U.S., Canadian users are getting a nice bonus with the addition of Bell’s CraveTV and Rogers and Shaw’s Shomi streaming TV services. Similar to Hulu in the U.S., CraveTV and Shomi are designed to provide domestic alternatives to Netflix, albeit with a stronger focus on television content than movies.
CraveTV is available to existing Bell subscribers for an additional $4/month while Shomi charges $9/month for non-Rogers and Shaw subscribers while including the service for free in most cable TV and Internet packages. Apple TV is one of the first third-party set-top boxes to get support for either of the new services; CraveTV was previously only available on Bell’s own Fibe receivers, while Shomi has up until now been limited to Rogers/Shaw cable boxes and the Xbox.
Both services also continue to provide web-based playback and iOS apps for portable device playback.