And all for $37?

And all for $37?

No *C vs Bell, their $34 package (soon to be $39) vs Bell at $37.

*C has TSNHD, Bell charges extra.

Bell Has ABC West, Citytv, Equator, Golbal, Oasis, Raptors, Rush, Treasure, WGN, 4 PPV (oh I forgot some) PBS west, CTV west, *C does not.

For $3 more today and $2 less starting Jan 1, 2007, Bell has 14 more HD channels.

If you buy the basic sports package on both , $8 more on Bell $5 more on *C, (assuming you just buy the sports), then total costs are $45 on Bell with 15 more total HD channels, $39 today $44 Jan 1st on *C.

So Jan 1st 2007, for 1 dollar more you can get at least 15 more HD channels on Bell. Also if you live in TO you can get LeafsTVHD.

Instead of adding the pay for views and channels that you need to sub a theme, or what you get for $3 more or $2 less, not what you get for $45 or not what you get for $1 more in jan.Those are all things you add to cloud the original issue.What HD do you get now for $37.
Starchoice looks like 11 for$33.99
I'm sure bell has lots of HDchannels that you pay lots of money for but that was not the point. Thats it for me.

Bell $37:

ABC West
ABC East
NBC West
NBC East
PBS West
PBS East
Fox West
Fox East
CTV East
CTV west
Citytv
Equator
Golbal
Oasis
Raptors
Rush
Treasure
WGN
4 PPV

22 Channels, double.

Hmmm should bring up this fact: more is not always better, quality over quantity in my opinion.

Anbody can upconvert, compress whatever you wanna call it and have one hundred channels. Almost like watching SD in 16:9 format. :rolleyes:

Is quality a consideration in this discussion? Ok, bell has more channels now but are they compressing them more than *C? How many HD channels do bev load on each transponder compared to *C?

At least the BEV receivers have OTA tuners integrated in them, so if you're in a border area, you can get your HD networks for free (save $10/month) and benefit from the lower basic package rate.

I get at least 10 HD and a total of 20 digital OTA channels free on the Bell box. (Buffalo and Toronto)

Is quality a consideration in this discussion? Ok, bell has more channels now but are they compressing them more than *C? How many HD channels do bev load on each transponder compared to *C?

Read the recent Marketnews article, the picture on Bell is the best HD in Canada, no matter what the companies who don't carry as much HD try to say.

Read the recent Marketnews article, the picture on Bell is the best HD in Canada, no matter what the companies who don't carry as much HD try to say.

How about a link? I can't find anything on marketnews.ca

I would like to see this article too. I couldn't find it on their web site.

EquatorHD? OasisHD? RushHD? TreasureHD? Sounds like Bell adds some very questionable HD channels as well.

Sorry never heard of any of these.

[QUOTE=trellaine;439568]EquatorHD? OasisHD? RushHD? TreasureHD? Sounds like Bell adds some very questionable HD channels as well./QUOTE]

They're new, and it's hard not to agree with the argument that they're a "land grab"
to tie up bandwidth. But - there's value there. For anyone who enjoys scenic eye
candy on Discovery HD, Equator and Oasis are both pretty nice. Rave is crap even
when I can figure out what they're showing, and the whole idea of Treasure is weird
enough to just stop me cold, but that's still two channels I gained (and all of them can
at least get their frigging aspect ratios right, unlike A&E HD, sheesh).

Rob

EquatorHD? OasisHD? RushHD? TreasureHD? Sounds like Bell adds some very questionable HD channels

I like Oasis and Equator. There are lots of repeats, which is ok by me because I don't have time to tune in every day. I watch these two channels probably more than Discovery (another good channel).

If you’re a sports fan who also happens
to be a videophile, 2006 has been a banner
year. Last winter, CBC had weekly
high-def Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts;
and a sizable proportion of playoff
games on CBC and TSN were offered in
high-definition. In February, NBC and
CBC carried the Winter Olympics in
HDTV. All home games of the Toronto
Blue Jays have been available in high-def
on Rogers SportsNet and TSN. To my
eyes, one of the most effective TV sports
presentations ever was this year’s World
Cup of Soccer from Germany on TSN; all
64 games were available in HDTV.
It’s not just sports that have gone highdef.
Virtually all scripted prime-time series
are now shown in high-definition, as are
popular late-night talk shows like Leno
and Letterman. Canada’s two movie
services have HDTV channels.
Newsrooms are starting to go high-def.
But how many people are actually
watching this programming in all its digital
high-definition glory? Not as many as
Pat Button would like. About 1.7 million
Canadian households have HD-capable
displays, estimates Button, Vice
President Sales and Marketing for Bell
Video Group, which operates the Bell
ExpressVu direct-to-home satellite-TV
service. According to Ottawa-based
Decima Research, the household penetration
of HDTV-capable set-top boxes
was about 440,000 at the end of
February 2006. Put another way, 75% of
Canadian households with HD-capable
displays do not receive HDTV via cable or
satellite. They’re using their high-definition
displays to watch standard-definition
programming, and nothing else.
What’s stopping them from going highdef?
Three years ago, Button believed
the problem lay with carriers like Bell
ExpressVu. At that time, the entry price
for widescreen, high-def rear projectors
had fallen below $2,000; but set-top
boxes retailed for $500 to $700. “When
someone who has just bought a television
has to spend another 35 to 40% of
the price on a set-top box, that’s an invitation
to buyer’s remorse,” Button commented
in an interview with Marketnews
in late 2003, when he was Vice President
Sales and Marketing for Samsung
Electronics of Canada Inc. He had come
to that position after spending a decade
with Sony of Canada Ltd. in various sales
and marketing roles.
Button went on to issue a challenge to
the high-def content delivery sector of
the market. “I’m asking Bell, Shaw and
Rogers to push digital TV forward by
reducing the cost of set-top boxes,” he
intoned. “Wireless companies sell a
phone that costs them $600 for $100,
and get their payback through subscriptions.
Cable and satellite companies
should be more aggressive with set-top
boxes. Now that we’ve got Canadian
content, let’s get more boxes out there.”
The following summer, Button joined
Bell ExpressVu, in much the same role he
had at Samsung. “Having an opportunity
to manage the high-definition and television-
viewing experience from a serviceprovider
point-of-view after having spent
15 years doing it from a consumer-electronics
point-of-view was very intriguing,”
Button says. “I have different levers to
make television exciting for customers.
That opportunity is very different compared
to CE, where you’re selling a global
product locally. You may not be able to
modify it for Canadian needs. At
ExpressVu, we absolutely do whatever
we can to deliver the best service for
Canadians.”
Moving to a carrier with an extensive
high-def offering gave Button a chance to
“get more boxes out there.” The problem
Button cited while at Samsung, the high
cost of entry, has been addressed in part
by moving to a rental model for set-top
boxes. In 2006, the majority of new Bell
ExpressVu subscribers are renting rather
than buying boxes, Button says.
In the second quarter, a Bell ExpressVu
campaign waived the HDTV box rental
and monthly fee for HDTV channels for a
year. “That campaign was tremendously
successful for us,” Button states. “We’ll
continue to make HDTV more affordable
when people are buying televisions. We
have had three massively successful
high-definition campaigns in a row.
Combined with the growth in flat-panel
HDTV sales, we have seen a substantial
interest arise in high-definition.”
Besides eliminating a capital outlay,
rental has other advantages, Button
notes. Bell ExpressVu’s rental agreements
include a “Tech-Ready” provision
that lets customers upgrade one of the
receivers in their home at no charge after
two years. A customer could move from
a standard-definition to a high-definition
receiver, or from a basic model to a PVRequipped
unit.
Rick Nadeau, Vice President of
Telecommunications and Cultural Affairs
for Decima Research, says fear of obsolescence
is a factor in the digital-TV services
market, just as it is in other consumer-
technology categories, such as
computers and mobile phones.
“Canadians are tired of their technology
becoming obsolete,” he notes. Button
says Bell’s Tech-Ready provision
addresses that concern. “You might want
to make sure you can always upgrade to
a receiver with a new interface like HDMI
or i.LINK,” Button elaborates. “By showing
customers that they can upgrade at
the end of their two-year contract commitment,
we have a better relationship
right from the beginning.”
ONE-STOP
SHOPPING
The primary reason for slow HDTV
adoption remains consumer confusion,
Nadeau believes. “Many people who buy
HD-ready displays think any channel they
watch will be high-definition, whether or
not they have a high-definition box,” he
says. “If they have a high-definition box,
they may not know which channels are
high-definition. Not many consumers
who buy HDTV sets are familiar with the
leap that has to be made.”
Button agrees that there’s still a lot of
confusion among consumers about what
HDTV is, and what you need to get it.
Educating customers on these matters
involves “a shared role” among carriers,
hardware companies and retailers, he
says. “Without a doubt, the onus is on
us, but our retail partners are also working
diligently on this. We’re also working
very closely with major CE brands in trying
to communicate a single approach.”
It helps that Bell ExpressVu has used
the retail channel from day one, Button
notes. “Our strategy has always been
wide distribution. Our competition sold
directly, until they found that customers
buying these cool TV sets needed digital
service. They saw the opportunity after
the fact; but retail wasn’t their primary
strategy, as it was with ExpressVu.”
Bell ExpressVu offers four hardware
packages: a basic receiver, a standarddef
receiver with built-in PVR, a high-def
receiver, and a high-def receiver with
PVR. Button says the hardware lineup “is
set for this year and for the foreseeable
future,” but adds that receivers may benefit
from software upgrades, which are
automatically performed in the background.
“For instance, customers with
older set-top boxes have been able to
get interactive TV applications that they
didn’t have when they initially purchased
or rented the product, because we’re
automatically actually upgrading their
product,” he explains.
Button says simplicity is the driving
force behind the All-in-One program,
which Bell ExpressVu launched nationally
in mid-July. The program lets consumers
select programming and hardware packages
on the retail floor, rather than stewing
over programming options at home.
A floor associate walks consumers
through the process of choosing hardware
and programming. All-in-One does
not present every programming option
offered by Bell ExpressVu, but it covers
the options favoured by most consumers.
Hardware, programming, installation,
and a lifetime warranty are covered
by one monthly fee.
“The All-in-One package starts with the
qualification of whether I’m an HD customer
or an SD customer,” Button
explains. “The next path is whether you
want a PVR. We have found that the
majority of customers get movies when
they get a PVR, so we’ve tied a special
package where you can get two together.
There are different packages for different
customers. The program helps customers
match the hardware and programming.
The 90/10 rule applies: 10%
of our packages appeal to 90% of our
customers. It’s only been one month, but
so far All-in-One has been a glorious success.”
Glenn Ladd, General Manager for
Consumer Electronics at Fredericton,
NB-based Cox Electronics and
Communications, says the All-in-One
program “makes it tremendously easier
to guide customers through the process
of choosing a receiver and programming
package. Customers can still build their
own packages, but this program lets
them make all their decisions in the
store.” Ladd says Bell used the Maritimes
as a testing ground for the program
because people in that part of the country
tend to watch more TV. Most of Cox’s
installations involve multiple receivers,
and Ladd appreciates the fact that All-in-
One makes it easy to add extra receivers
for a nominal cost: a second standarddef
receiver rents for $3 a month.
Retailers and salespeople earn compensation
based on both hardware and
programming. “We’ve invested in some
very strong point-of-sale displays,”
Button says, “and we have changed the
compensation for the stores. It goes
right down to the floor associates. If they
spend time with the customers explaining
programming packaging and hardware,
they get compensated accordingly.
Ultimately, the way retail works is pay
per performance. Better retailers who
can explain who has the best service
and the best hardware, get better compensation.
So do retailers who can
explain the benefit of an HD PVR versus
just an HD receiver. They get increased
compensation if the customer takes
more programming.”
There’s an indirect benefit to making
sure purchasers of high-def displays get
high-def programming, Button adds.
“Buyers’ remorse is a real problem for
customers who purchase a fixed-pixel
display, and then go home and hook it up

to their analog cable. In some cases, they
are actually getting a worse picture then
they had before, and they immediately
return the TV. We found that with one
major retailer, the return rate on flat panels
goes down from as high as 30% to
single digits.”
Manny Kang, General Manager of
Vancouver-based Audio Video Unlimited,
says returns of flat panels aren’t much of
a problem anymore. “We saw more of
that two years ago,” he says. “Now
salespeople explain right at the beginning
that a customer’s old TV might look better
on basic cable. That helps sales of
satellite and DVD. We’re doing better at
educating consumers now.”
In a similar vein, Ladd says Cox
Electronics and Communications
demonstrates televisions using both
high- and standard-definition sources.
“We don’t run HD sources continually as
some stores do,” he explains. “We make
sure the customer sees both standardand
high-definition. That helps create
realistic expectations, and also exposes
consumers to the benefits of a high-definition
service.” High-definition accounts
for 20% of Cox’s ExpressVu receiver
installations, Ladd says.
THE COMPETITION
Kang says AVU’s corporate stores have
more success marketing Star Choice to
HDTV customers than they do with Bell
ExpressVu. While Star Choice has fewer
high-definition channels, it does not
charge extra for those channels. Bell
ExpressVu charges $10 for basic highdef
channels. “Our customers think those
channels should be free if they’re already
buying the box,” Kang states.
However, Button says more customers
nationally are opting for Bell ExpressVu
than for Star Choice. Bell ExpressVu now
has 1.7 million subscribers, about twice
as many as Star Choice. And Button
says his company had net growth of “a
couple of hundred thousand subscribers
last year.”
What about cable? Button says cable
companies’ “Ditch-the-Dish” campaigns
have “helped us tremendously. What
happens is that customers re-address
the value that we are delivering to them.
The number of customers who leave is
almost immeasurable. In our surveys, we
found that customers have reviewed the
campaign, and in many cases they are
calling us and we are giving them a really
good opportunity to get a PVR.”
Something cable can do that a satellite
service can’t, is true video-on-demand.
But Button says ExpressVu can offer a
pseudo-VOD service to customers who
own PVRs by partitioning the PVR’s drive
and using a partition for VOD content
that’s pushed to the box in the background.
“While our competition has
2,000 titles available through video-ondemand,
the reality is that only about
seven titles represent 90% of the actual
demand,” Button states. “That’s very
easy to get around with a PVR. PVR has
a much higher satisfaction rate than
VOD, because it covers the whole 500-
plus-channel universe. So that’s our
strategy going forward.”
Button wouldn’t say how many of Bell
ExpressVu’s current subscribers have
high-definition receivers, or what proportion
of its new subscribers are opting for
high-def. Entry-level receivers remain the
most popular choice, he confirms. But
the take-up rate of HDTV and PVRequipped
receivers is “doubling year over
year.” However, Button won’t divulge
actual numbers.
While they’re a small part of total digital
television subscriptions, HDTV and PVR
are both enjoying strong growth,
Decima’s Nadeau says. In late February,
the installed base of PVR boxes was
334,000, about 6% of the total number
of digital TV subscribers. It might seem
disappointing that the HDTV glass is
three-quarters empty, i.e. that about 75%
of Canadian homes with an HD-capable
display do not have an HD set-top box.
But the number of HDTV subscribers is
growing rapidly. According to Decima,
there were 300,000 Canadian HDTV
subscribers in May 2005. By late winter
2006, 440,000 Canadian households
had HDTV set-top boxes. Clearly,
Button’s desire “to get more boxes out
there” is being fulfilled.
Building the HDTV subscriber base
isn’t the only, or even the primary challenge
that service providers like Bell
ExpressVu face. More fundamentally,
they have to deliver a reliable, high-quality
service. Bell monitors every channel
coming off its two satellites in two separate
control centres. There’s an individual
display monitor for every channel. In
addition, automated systems check signal
levels, and sound alarms if levels fall
below a pre-determined threshold.
Bell ExpressVu is in a neck-and-neck
race with Rogers Cable in terms of number
of HDTV channels. But Button maintains
that Bell offers better picture quality
than any Canadian HDTV carrier. “We
have always been the HD leader in
Canada,” Button maintains. “Not only do
we have the most high-def channels,
we’re very confident that we are the best
in high-definition network quality.”
To assess this claim, Bell ExpressVu
has a special room in its network operations
centre in Toronto where it can conduct
side-by-side comparisons of different
carriers’ HD services. The room has
two ISF-calibrated Pioneer plasma displays,
as well as a sound system featuring
a premium Denon A/V receiver and
5.1-channel speaker system from PSB.
PVR equipped set-top boxes from different
carriers can feed either of the Pioneer
displays.
When I visited, Bell ExpressVu was
comparing a high-def program from
Discovery Canada’s HD channel. One of
the plasma sets was showing Bell
ExpressVu’s feed, the other was showing
a high-def feed from Rogers Cable. There
was no doubt that the ExpressVu version
had visibly better detail and colour. I
asked to see a broadcast channel, and
we switched to the two services feed of
PBS, which was showing a documentary
with a good detail of archival film footage.
The grainy program material was clearly a
torture test for the MPEG decoders all
along the chain. This was an apples-andoranges
test, Button maintained,
because the Rogers feed was coming
from a Buffalo PBS affiliate, while the
ExpressVu feed was coming from
Boston. Nonetheless, Rogers had the
advantage. It had fewer artifacts and
looked generally cleaner. Viewing a PVR
recording of CSI from Star Choice and
ExpressVu, ExpressVu had better detail
in dark areas.
What about off-air? Some critics maintain
that all carriers compress their HDTV
channels heavily and reduce resolution,
and that picture quality is better on terrestrial
channels if you simply receive
them over-the-air, rather than by satellite
or cable. Responds Button: “There’s
probably a handful of people who are
actually doing this properly, who would
actually be able to make that claim. I
would argue against the fact that they
could guarantee superior picture quality
on a 24/7 365-day-a year basis. Part of
the benefit of our service is that we manage
the quality of the content and the signal
strength of the content.”
CREATING CONTENT
Bell ExpressVu’s principal function is to
deliver content from broadcasters and
specialty channels. Some of these channels
and networks, such as CTV, TSN
and Discovery, are owned by Bell
Globemedia. ExpressVu’s relationship to
these networks is entirely arms-length,
Button says. It’s exactly the same relationship
as it has with networks like
Rogers SportsNet (and as Rogers Cable
has with Bell Globemedia’s channels).
But Bell ExpressVu also creates HDTV
content. Its Toronto operations centre
has HDTV post-production suites, a surround-
sound editing suite, and an HDTV
graphics room, as well as an HDTV truck
for use at off-site events. ExpressVu is
currently running two shifts in its HDTV
facilities, and could move to three shifts.
These facilities are used for HDTV production
and post-production work for
outside clients, such as High-Fidelity
HDTV, which operates the Treasure and
Oasis high-def channels offered on
ExpressVu. Treasure HD focuses on art
and collectables, while OasisHD offers
nature programming. High Fidelity is
developing two new high-def channels,
which ExpressVu will carry (and help produce).
Equator will have travel programming,
and Rush will feature extreme
sports.
Bell ExpressVu also creates its own
content, such as a live concert by
Coldplay that is being offered on
ExpressVu’s Vu! pay-per-view service. In
addition to editing an HDTV version of the
concert, ExpressVu also created a version
for streaming over the Web to Bell
Sympatico subscribers.
Button says he works closely with his
counterparts in Bell’s other consumer
groups: Bell Mobility and Bell Sympatico.
“There is lots of programming becoming
available on handsets,” he notes, “and
Sympatico has a very robust portal for
programming as well. So we’re in a very
enviable position of making our television
business part of the three-prong strategy
for delivering entertainment to different
devices.”
Those synergies will keep on multiplying.
Earlier this year, Bell bought the
Puretracks online music store. Bell plans
to integrate this service in its other offerings.
Comments Button: “Starting in
2007, we have very aggressive plans for
our DTH product to have new entertainment
services, such as photo-sharing
and music-sharing; part of which will
involve Puretracks.” Bell is conducting an
employee trial of IPTV (Internet TV), for
delivering video entertainment over its
phone network; but Button would not
comment on this venture.
While the services may change, the
end product is the same as it is now:
entertainment. “Our product sells itself
because it’s fun,” Button says. “It’s exciting,
it’s Hollywood, it’s NHL, it’s Major
League Baseball. And we’re the delivery
mechanism.”

workforbell,

do you get paid by the number of times one has to press Page-Down to go through your posts?

Diogen.

Shameless irrelevant salesman's dribble.

workforbell,

do you get paid by the number of times one has to press Page-Down to go through your posts?

Diogen.

Only had it in PDF form, and wasn't about to re-edit it.

Haystack, people asked for it, I posted it. The only part I care about is where the writer from Marketnews says he can see a difference between Rogers/*C's HD and Bell, and Bell looks better.

Only had it in PDF form, and wasn't about to re-edit it.

Haystack, people asked for it, I posted it. The only part I care about is where the writer from Marketnews says he can see a difference between Rogers/*C's HD and Bell, and Bell looks better.

Would have been more appropriate if you had identified it as a quote and put in the relevant info on where the quote came from.

Only had it in PDF form, and wasn't about to re-edit it.
A pasting to a decent editor will allow a reformat in about 5 keystrokes.

... the writer from Marketnews says he can see a difference between Rogers/*C's HD and Bell, and Bell looks better.
That's BS. I have seen many reports of HD being indistinguishable between Canadian providers, *C being better or Rogers being better. Certain programs might look different, depending on the station, but EV would have the disadvantage due to the 1080i->720p conversions on Canadian channels and simsubs. The only other consideration is equipment. Some older HD receivers have significantly poorer pictures than newer models but, again, most newer receivers are indistinguishable with HD, using the same type of connection.