Free HD boxes from Telus TV

[987654321]

Coming soon according to this report from the IPTV World Forum.

Time for Shaw to get off it's HD butt

http://www.telecommagazine.com/newsg...?HH_ID=AR_2996

[SensualPoet]

Excuse me? The article says Telus has 25 HD channels now and expects ot have 40 available soon. AFAIK, Telus is offering customers approximately 0 HD channels at the moment -- yup, zero.

A spokesperson for Canadian IPTV operator Telus was confident that HDTV – combined with low-cost set-top-boxes (sub US$100 levels) equipped with MPEG-4 encoders – would enable it to steal a march on rival cable operators’ offerings.

“We can afford to offer the set-top-boxes (STBs) [MPEG-4 equipped] for free and then charge a premium for HD channels,” he said. “By contrast, cable operators have to sell their STBs for around US$400 and don’t have as much HD content as we do.”

Certainly Shaw is a less aggressive HD and digital TV cable company than, say, Rogers, but at least they actually DO have HD content today. Shaw is a moving target, as well, and full of extra cash from its new phone business could well improve its TV offerings quickly.

Meanwhile, Telus TV remains in early roll-out. I saw an impressive live demo at a Telus store in Vancouver recently and it certainly qualifies as a "good enough" product. But there is no HD there yet and the SD pictures are noticeably soft on larger screens and the monthly savings not exactly compelling.

Longer term Telus TV could be a strong competitor for Shaw but this article is fantasy as far as today is concerned. Call us again in 18 months or 2 years and let us know how you're doing.

[paulpoco]

Yes TELUS has 25 HD channels but only available in trial testing.

[joshb]

Theres 25 channels for testing.

Supposedly there will be 40 channels at time of launch.

[SensualPoet]

OK, so fair enough: Telus has 25 HD channels in testing. Is this in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary? Can a regular customer order this today? (These are not rhetorical questions -- I'm keen to know the answers.)

Assuming for a moment Telus has limited HD testing to pre-selected customers/neighbourhood in Calgary, for example, what is the fee and what is the quality of the images? How does the HD service impact number of TVs in the house, the quality of the Internet service active at the same time?

SaskTel has HD over phone lines but you could argue it's in public beta. MTS has HD over phone lines, too, but there are quite a number of hoops to go through to get the 7 channels. This technology is evolving but not really ready for prime time. Hats off to Telus for having an advanced test in place because smooth delivery of quality HD is going to make or break telco-style TV.

[joshb]

As far as testing goes it is employee only testing right now. Telus tends to do 99% of there testing using employees. I doubt any of us non employees will see it until after roll out unless you happen to know some one house who is testing it. If you do you are one of the lucky few.

As for ordering no you can not get it right now. I have no idea when it is going to be available any more. They were suppose to do box upgrades last august that never happened. Since then things seem to moving slower than I what expected and from things I have been told even slower than Telus expected.

As far as pricing goes for the content I have no idea. I would be willing to bet it is going to probably be in line with how they are currently pricing the service. You will probably have 2, 3 or maybe even 4 different packages including 5 - 10 channels each. And probably some al-cart channels as well. I just got word from some one I know that even if you don't want HD there will a box upgrade for the current RCA 1000. So no matter what you do you are going to get a upgrade of some type.

[JohnnyCanuck]

I think an important aspect of potential success for Telus is in the quote in the first post.

“We can afford to offer the set-top-boxes (STBs) [MPEG-4 equipped] for free and then charge a premium for HD channels,”

I think Telus is going to loss leader the STB's at virtually no cost, but heavily charge for HD content. Definitely leads to an entry point advantage (assuming that the technology will actually work properly on Telus' platform), but probably not any cheaper over a hardware lifespan cycle for the consumer.

Considering the poor opinion that most consumers hold of Telus, I think they will have to have a price advantage on the channels to go with the hardware to make any real dent against the cablecos or satcos.

[joshb]

I agree with you that the over all general public has a negative point of view on Telus.

The question is how does Telus get people to put that image aside and give them a chance.

Price point alone isn't going to achieve that.

As far as cost goes I think in the end it is going to work out to be cheaper for the consumer renting the boxes at little to no charge over dishing out $500 for a box and then 2 months after the warranty is over having Shaw or Bell make you a buy a new one for another $500.

But the big hurdle as you mentioned is getting the general public to change there point of view of Telus.

It's also a very hard thing to occomplish and from looking back at history of other companies Telus doesn't stand the best odd's

[JohnnyCanuck]

I can't speak for Bell but Shaw has pretty generous buy back and trade up plans. Where Shaw and some other cablecos were really vulnerable was on the HD content front. Had Telus made it to market a year ago they would have a much better chance.

By the time they roll it out, the competition will be pretty much at 20 HD channels or more each and the kind of niche channels that may be available on Telus are not going to be of enough real interest to differentiate the product.

Where Telus might be able to make some inroads is with really innovative bundling. They have a huge Mobility advantage that they could try and leverage but I doubt they're imaginative enough to do it.

[SensualPoet]

I agree that every day that goes by the telco (potential) advantage of HD over VDSL/IPTV lessens. But it's probably not too smart to roll out a product in HD which isn't ready for prime time -- I believe that is why Bell ExpressVu TV for Condos is so long delayed (ie. it doesn't work well enough to introduce).

Bell ExpressVu satellite charges $20/mth for HD -- $10 for the box rental, $10 for programming. Outright purchase of an HD box is $300 (or less).

Rogers, as an example, charges $20.90/mth for HD -- $12.95 for the box rental, $7.95 for programming. Outright purchase of an HD box is $300 (or less).

As I recall, Shaw charges $450 for the box (no rental) and $9/mth for programming.

If Telus pursues a "programming only" fee and comes in around $15/mth that will make some noise. They probably can't afford to go as low as $10 without some hardware recovery.

Telus, like every other provider, is paying the programmers for HD signals so even out of the $15 I am proposing they still hand over some of it ($5? $8?) to programmers. Telus is in the game to make a profit; that will ultimately drive pricng.

[CR123]

But HD decoding equipment is cheap, wholesale.

We're talking less than $100 - that $300-400 HD box has a lot of markup on it.

[bigsugar14]

There seems to be a lot of questions here. As a regualr customer (not an employee) of their HD for 2 months, I can help clear up some questions.

First - Telus HD is not still in employee testing phase. They have been rolling out the service as a soft launch. All you have to do is phone Telus, ask for the HD package and they will come and do they install within a couple of weeks. I had mine installed in early Feb.

The service rep that did my install informed me word-of-mouth was keeping them quite busy.

Second - Price for all the HD channels is $15 per month, $6 more than Shaw. But once you add up all your packages Telus is cheaper - at least in my case (And I'm not even adding the $450 Shaw receiver into the equation).

I'll be choosing Telus's TV Lovers Plus package $53 (the basics plus 11 theme packs), Movie Central ($12 for all 6), More Movies theme ($4.50), and HD ($15). A comparable Shaw package is $12 more.

Telus - $85 (+Tax)
Shaw - $97 (+Tax)

Third - The picture is stunning. It makes Shaw HD look like widescreen SD.

I also don't think Telus's reputation will hurt their chances of achieving a decent marketshare. Shaw's reputation as an HD provider is terrible and will give instant goodwill towards Telus.

Overall,
Telus HD - Superior picture, better pricing, 2 free HD receivers

Shaw HD - Poor picture, expensive, $400+ for a receiver

[Nanuuk]

bigsugar14, where are you located? Are you renting the box? Is it a PVR?
Also, I thought Telus TV allowed only one HD signal and 1 SD signal.

[bigsugar14]

Nanuuk: I live in Surrey, BC.

- The boxes are free, so there is no rental charge.

- You're correct, one HD signal and one SD signal. But both boxes are the same SA330 HD receivers.

- Telus does not offer a PVR yet. But the installer told me that they might roll them out in the summer.

[merve04]

Originally Posted by bigsugar14

- Telus does not offer a PVR yet. But the installer told me that they might roll them out in the summer.

Wonder if ill be dual stream PVR?