Bell Media SVOD Crave is banking on the exclusivity strategy that brought a deluge of Game of Thrones fans to the streaming service, securing the exclusive broadcast of the eighth and final season of Homeland.
The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning drama series will premiere exclusively on the platform on Feb. 9 at 9 p.m. as part of Crave’s ongoing strategy with programs from U.S. cable network Showtime.
Crave has previously had the SVOD rights to Homeland, but they were not exclusive, as the series also showed on pay TV channel Superchannel. Last year, Homeland‘s seventh season premiered exclusively on Superchannel.
In addition to Homeland, Showtime programs coming exclusively to Crave include On Becoming a God in Central Florida (a dark comedy starring Kirsten Dunst), docuseries Couples Therapy, comedy series Back to Life (from the producers of hit series Fleabag), new seasons of Shameless and Ray Donovan, a sequel series to The L Word, legal thriller Your Honor (starring Bryan Cranston) among other titles.
The final season of Homeland will include 12 episodes and will follow lead character Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) recovering from months of confinement in a Russian gulag.
The OTT service has had a strong year following its late 2018 rebrand, with 2.3 million subscribers as of February. Thanks to its upgraded HBO offering, prestige series such as Game of Thrones and the Showtime offering have become a key part of its audience strategy.
In April, Game of Thrones set a streaming record, pulling in an AMA of 2.1 million and a reach of 2.9 million, while driving a record number of subscriber signups to the service (with day-of signup rates 3000% higher than an average day).