TORONTO – While Bell Canada announced it was the first TV distributor to pass the 100-HD channels mark Monday, the company was still mum on its most anticipated video move – the launch of its terrestrial IPTV platform.
Inside Bell TV’s Scarsdale Rd. HQ in Toronto sits the near decade-old network operations centre for its satellite (formerly ExpressVu) TV service. It’s well-worn and features numerous tiny SD monitors which show a number of the channels available to its 1.8 million satellite customers. They’re displaying MPEG-2 SD digital video for the most part, some with serious color display issues (the product of being on all the time, as they’re not color problems that are transmitted, of course).
Right across the hall from that NOC is the one which runs Bell’s IPTV service to a few thousand folks who have been testing it for the better part of two years. It’s a spiffier looking space whose monitors are much newer looking, brighter flat panels.
Now, given that Verizon (with FiOS) and AT&T (U-verse) have amassed millions of TV customers Stateside (about 5 million, together, according to numerous reports), Bell must be anxious to launch IPTV here in Canada, no?
Kevin Crull, president of Bell Residential Services wouldn’t bite. The company isn’t about to say just yet when it plans a mass rollout of terrestrial digital television. The company has been busy building and launching (this week) its new wireless network (with the iPhone), so resources were committed elsewhere.
That said, those IPTV test customers will be getting access to all that new HD programming, too, added Crull. “It’s not an exact side-by-side count, but substantially everything that’s available on satellite will be available on IPTV,” he told Cartt.ca.
While adding that yes, in order to compete in urban centres, IPTV will have to be the way to go (most Bell TV subs live beyond urban cores), Crull says the company won’t launch the service before they’re ready and it’s ready. “When we do launch, it will be perfect. That’s our big commitment,” he said.
And when that happens, Crull hopes Bell TV will be able to provide a seamless video experience for all customers who will be able to access their TV on any device, anywhere they are.
“When you access your Bell TV experience from anywhere, you should have the same user guide, the same interaction, the same subscription channels that you signed up for at home,” said Crull. “They should be available on line and on mobile.”
But with the different screen configurations, video standards (IP, MPEG2, MPEG4, RF) and networks, that’s not an easy thing to do.
Despite that, said Crull, “we will have, over the course of the next six months, some key announcements on our capabilities."
