DTH Policy Hearing: CRTC chair stunned to hear Bell nowhere close to MPEG4 transition

By Perry Hoffman

GATINEAU - The CRTC kicked off hearings into the Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite TV policy yesterday with chair Konrad von Finckenstein questioning why Bell TV hasn’t yet started to transition to MPEG4, a move that would add more capacity to the company’s satellite distribution offering. Under questioning from the chairman, Bell Canada acknowledged that it has yet to begin transitioning to the higher compression standard. “We’re evaluating methods by which we may be able to stage that migration obviously because of the limited number of MPEG4 boxes that are in our installed base,” said Heather Tulk, senior VP of residential products....