Bell proposes new "freesat" service

[Mr Tony]

addition to my post and this ties in with Claude's

if they do a 0$ service then they could open up the stations in the province of CBC, CTV, SRC, APTN & the Educational

BC would get from Vancouver (CBC, CTV, APTN, SRC, Knowledge)

Alberta would be from Calgary (ExpressVu doesnt have any Edmonton stations on it) and Access for the educational

Saskatchewan would be from Regina/Saskatoon...only problem is two fold...no CBC Regina and they dont change the clocks. I guess give them CBC Winnpeg, CTV, Global, SRC & SCN

Manitoba would be from Winnipeg but they dont have a educational channel

Ontario would be Toronto with TVO....Ottawa could be the Ottawa CBC...Thunder Bay could get fiesty and demand their 2 stations get on there instead of TO so they could do CKPR (CBC), CHFD (CTV), SRC, TVO, APTN

Quebec is odd as they have both English & French...so what do you do there? CBC, APTN, SRC, TVA, TeleQuebec (Educational)??

Maritimes would be the 4 + ?? (no educational there...ASN maybe)

it all depends on address

 

[Larobpra]

Let's throw in the Omni channels, CityTV and SunTV too!

 

[stone phillips420]

all nice and good ice.
but you forgot about Saskatchewan.
harding would not be happy.

 

[Mr Tony]

most people try to forget about SK

added

 

[Pepper]

Im pretty sure they are going to encrypt the channels and require you to open up an account with a $0 monthly bill and purchase the equipment to view the free channels.

The point of free service is to get the equipment in the homes so the customer can later subscribe since the equipment is already in place!

Yeah, I know it's been suggested here a few times that Dish should do the exact same thing, make locals free for anyone who wants to buy and install the equipment. Not just locals, at least one more free channel where they run ads that explain the benefits of upgrading to a paid service.

 

[Tron]

If Dish did this you can bet it would be encrypted, and would require their equipment to receive. Charlie wants to totally destroy any manufacturer or seller of receivers other than his own ...

 

[avg1joe]

I'd been thinking the same thing as well. Seems like dish should have a handful of channels free to air with many, many dish network commercials encouraging people to upgrade to their pay service.

 

[Davage]

Yeah, I know it's been suggested here a few times that Dish should do the exact same thing, make locals free for anyone who wants to buy and install the equipment. Not just locals, at least one more free channel where they run ads that explain the benefits of upgrading to a paid service.

I think that the difference between Charlie Ergen providing free broadcast stations vs Bell providing free broadcast stations is that Bell currently are not paying the Canadian stations a single penny for their service. There are currently no "Fees for Carriage" in Canada for Bell, Starchoice or any of the cable companies - they are re-transmitting the over-the-air channels to their subscribers and not reimbursing the stations a penny. Right now the broadcasters are petitioning the CRTC (FCC of Canada) to allow them to charge the satellite and cable companies for their signals.

Bell offering 'freesat' is an attempt to avoid having to pay those carriage fees, which would tap into their bottom line.. It should be interesting to see how the fees for carriage and freesat play out.. Otherwise, what would stop Bell from starting this service tomorrow? It isn't a crime to give away free service, is it?

 

[Islandguy43]

I think that the difference between Charlie Ergen providing free broadcast stations vs Bell providing free broadcast stations is that Bell currently are not paying the Canadian stations a single penny for their service. There are currently no "Fees for Carriage" in Canada for Bell, Starchoice or any of the cable companies - they are re-transmitting the over-the-air channels to their subscribers and not reimbursing the stations a penny. Right now the broadcasters are petitioning the CRTC (FCC of Canada) to allow them to charge the satellite and cable companies for their signals.

Bell offering 'freesat' is an attempt to avoid having to pay those carriage fees, which would tap into their bottom line.. It should be interesting to see how the fees for carriage and freesat play out.. Otherwise, what would stop Bell from starting this service tomorrow? It isn't a crime to give away free service, is it?

Hey, I would drive over the to the Falls Ontario Side tonight to pick up a system, if they did. Once you have watch Hockey Night in Canada, you don't ever want to watch the NBC or Versus crap.

Last night, was a prime example. That is why I still keep basic broadcast TWC so I watch HNIC for the Chicago/Canucks, rather be forced to watch VS and their constant talk over of the action on the ice.

Wait until, Saturday, with NBC doing the game 1 between Washington/Pittsburgh. If the game goes into a second overtime, they will have to move the broadcast to VS, because of NBC's committtment to the Kentucky Derby.

Perhaps, Dish with their cozy relationship with Bell, will pick the same package and add it as a package here in the States.

 

[Frenchophile]

One thing to note, though, a lot of people in Canada have illegally hacked Bell systems in a way that they pay for the basic package but get all the channels.

If Bell were to follow through with a "five free channels" plan, would people hack the Free service to get all the channels? I'm sure they will try.

NOTE: I do NOT steal, nor do I endorse stealing or hacking, which is illegal. Just stating what people are known to do.

 

[Islandguy43]

One thing to note, though, a lot of people in Canada have illegally hacked Bell systems in a way that they pay for the basic package but get all the channels.

If Bell were to follow through with a "five free channels" plan, would people hack the Free service to get all the channels? I'm sure they will try.

NOTE: I do NOT steal, nor do I endorse stealing or hacking, which is illegal. Just stating what people are known to do.

I thought that situation was pretty well shut down. I have relatives (wife is Canadian and all her family lives there) with a dish on the roof, but are forced to sub to Cogeco or Rogers Cable, because their system where zapped.

 

[Davage]

I thought that situation was pretty well shut down. I have relatives (wife is Canadian and all her family lives there) with a dish on the roof, but are forced to sub to Cogeco or Rogers Cable, because their system where zapped.

Why wouldn't they subscribe to BELL? If they stole the service, it must have been worth watching..

Bell does still have some security issues, but only at a fraction of what they used to have.

If they decide to go ahead with this "freesat", I don't think that there will be any way that the people with the free systems will be able to get additional programming without paying.

 

[Stargazer]

The satellite company would have overhead in having people call in to activate these receivers with a $0 balance. I think what they would do is just authorize all receivers to receive those channels like what happens with Dish Network receivers that receive Sky Angel and NASA when the service is not activated. Seeing how there is an upgrade from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 being done there would be a lot of receivers that could be made available for sale to do this with but then again if they want to subscribe to the service then they may not get many other channels if they are converting most of them to MPEG-4 without an upgrade. They would want to make it as easy as possible for someone to call in to subscribe to channels to already have the proper equipment in place.

The only reason why it is possible to make that work is due to the fact that they are not charging for the channels. There is no way that would work in the U.S. unless they put up stations that did not charge for the signal or they may make a stipulation to only make it free to those that do not subscribe to the satellite service but if you subscribe then you must pay.
Other stations that also would make themselves available for free may be offered but nothing that interests too many people and not too much content or it would prevent some subscribers from subscribing to a regular package. They could make some money on the hardware and require their hardware to be purchased which could be older models in order to receive these stations.

 

[Islandguy43]

Why wouldn't they subscribe to BELL? If they stole the service, it must have been worth watching..

Bell does still have some security issues, but only at a fraction of what they used to have.

If they decide to go ahead with this "freesat", I don't think that there will be any way that the people with the free systems will be able to get additional programming without paying.

If you drive around in the border cities and towns, the majority of dishes upon the canadian roofs are D* or E* dishes. That is why the don't pay to sub.

 

[amc1]

im from canada i would like to see something like that.who knows?

 

[Mr Tony]

Hey, I would drive over the to the Falls Ontario Side tonight to pick up a system, if they did. Once you have watch Hockey Night in Canada, you don't ever want to watch the NBC or Versus crap.

Last night, was a prime example. That is why I still keep basic broadcast TWC so I watch HNIC for the Chicago/Canucks, rather be forced to watch VS and their constant talk over of the action on the ice.

Wait until, Saturday, with NBC doing the game 1 between Washington/Pittsburgh. If the game goes into a second overtime, they will have to move the broadcast to VS, because of NBC's committtment to the Kentucky Derby.

AMEN to that! That is one of the main reasons I have Starchoice is because of HNIC on CBC and hockey on TSN/TSN2

 

[Cadsulfide]

This certainly be a foot in the door for FTA'ers everywhere in North America.

Posted by Iceberg:
Manitoba would be from Winnipeg but they dont have a educational channel

Winnipeg gets Prarie Public from ND, but only on cable.

I really like the Winnipeg OTA channels, even the French one. It would be great to get the national feeds via satellite, Canadian world news is so much better than the networks, no filters from Washington.

From the traffic on the web, Nagra3 has pretty much stopped the eyepatch crowd in it's tracks from bootlegging Bell programming. A few free channels would be a real godsend to the extreme rural folks.....about 80% of the country.....but less than 10% of the population.

 

[Mr Tony]

Posted by Iceberg:
Manitoba would be from Winnipeg but they dont have a educational channel

Winnipeg gets Prarie Public from ND, but only on cable.

That I knew. But I was using the satellite channels.
(Interesting note that Winnipeg gets 5 network channels from 3 markets...
NBC & CBS from Minneapolis, ABC & PBS from Grand Forks, Fox from Rochester, NY)

I wonder in the cases where there is no educational channel what would they use? TVO?

 

[Mr Tony]

if they do a 0$ service then they could open up the stations in the province of CBC, CTV, SRC, APTN & the Educational

Alberta would be from Calgary (ExpressVu doesnt have any Edmonton stations on it) and Access for the educational

addition....Lloydminster would probably want their CBC & CTV (locally owned) stations on there. So it would trump the national CBC/CTV

 

[funkypc]

Just got a few more details.
They are proposing a system using Ka band on Nimiq 4. They will use existing Bell receivers, and they will carry every local station into every local community.
More details can be found from the CRTC hearing.
CPAC - Video on Demand
you have to skip past CBC and Telus. Bell is the third clip.

Right near the beginning it mentions Ka band as the technology. Existing bell customers would need a new antenna to 'downgrade' to the Ka system, or to receive it in addition to there existing Bell programing.
11:00 - every local station into every local community. (somewhere they mention the back haul cost for the local station to get there signal to Bell is paid for by the local station, and would use terrestrial back haul.
31:50 - use an existing Bell STB - cost to new customer would be $350-$400CDN + installation. The proposed date for freesat to be available is Q3-2010.
37:00 - alluded that the satellite used would be Nimiq 4
1:00:00 - In order for the Q3-2010 release date they would need a decision from the CRTC in Q2 - 2009.