Bell TV
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Formerly called
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Bell ExpressVu |
|---|---|
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Satellite television |
| Founded | September 10, 1997 |
| Headquarters | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
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Area served
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Canada |
| Products |
Direct broadcast satellite Pay television Pay-per-view |
| Parent | BCE Inc. |
| Website | bell |
Bell TV (French: Bell Télé; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada, ExpressVu Dish Network, and now sometimes known as Bell Satellite TV to distinguish the service from Bell's IPTV Fibe TV service), is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite television service across Canada. It launched on September 10, 1997 and as of 2004 it has been providing "Bell TV for Condos", a VDSL service provided to select multidwelling units (condominiums and apartments) in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. Bell TV provides over 500 digital video and 100 HD and audio channels to, as of May 2010, over 1.8 million subscribers. Its major competitors include satellite service Shaw Direct, as well as various cable and communications companies across Canada, such as Rogers Cable, EastLink, Shaw Communications, Vidéotron and Cogeco.
Bell TV services are also repackaged and resold by Telus as Telus Satellite TV, in areas where the latter company's Optik IPTV services are unavailable.
ExpressVu was conceived in 1994, at the time of American DSS systems launch, as a consortium of Ontario-based Tee-Comm Electronics, Canadian Satellite Communications (Cancom), Vancouver-based Western International Communications (WIC) and Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE), with a projected startup date of late 1995. High technology development costs and delays placed Tee-Comm in a severe financial position, prompting the remaining partners to pull out in 1996. Instead, U.S. satellite-TV provider Echostar Dish Network was chosen to provide the receivers and uplink equipment. The Hughes DirecTV system had already been optioned to Power Broadcasting, in Canada; it has since been withdrawn. Tee-Comm on its own managed to launch the first DBS service in Canada, AlphaStar, in early 1997; however, in a matter of months the company went bankrupt and the service was discontinued, leaving thousands of consumers with useless receivers (although with some reconfiguration, could be used to receive unencrypted FTA channels). ExpressVu launched service in September 1997, initially as "Dish Network Canada", followed by "ExpressVu Dish Network", in both cases using the Echostar logo.
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