VANCOUVER – Telus Satellite TV is now available across British Columbia and Alberta, the western-based telco announced this morning.
Cartt.ca originally had this story announcing the launch was coming back in May.
Telus Satellite TV is available to more than 90% of homes in the two provinces and residents can now add it to their suite of services from Telus. “Bundling Telus TV with Internet, home phone or long distance services helps consumers simplify their lives – and save money at the same time,” says the press release.
Telus Satellite TV will help the company more quickly compete with Shaw Communications out west on the television leg of the entertainment bundle. Telus has been building out a terrestrial digital television option (using IPTV technology) and has about 100,000 customers clustered primarily in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver (but also in Whistler, Vernon, Kelowna, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie and Rimouski, Que.). However, this new TV option lets the company provide TV to just about everyone in its western market.
The service Telus has contracted is Bell TV’s (formerly Bell ExpressVu), while the program guide and other branding will be all Telus. While Bell has never publicly broken out where its subscribers are based, the majority are in Eastern Canada.
Terms of the Telus-Bell satellite partnership were not disclosed, but Telus has been readying itself for the satellite launch since the beginning of 2009. Telus Satellite TV will only be offered in Alberta and B.C.
(Ed note: It will be interesting to see how Shaw responds since Telus now offers a market-wide four-leg bundle with wireless, broadband, TV and home phone. Shaw offers three of those and purchased wireless spectrum in the last auction, but has so far been taking a wait-and-see approach to wireless and has not yet moved towards a wireless network build.)
"Satellite TV is a natural addition to the range of great services we already offer our customers, enabling Telus to offer one-stop-shopping for home phone, Internet, wireless and entertainment services to the vast majority of our clients in B.C. and Alberta," said Joe Natale, president of Telus Consumer Solutions, in the release. "Telus Satellite TV expands the range of TV services we offer in urban areas while allowing us to immediately extend our TV service coverage into most rural areas."
Telus Satellite TV is an all digital service which includes features such as onscreen call display and more than 500 digital channels including over 80 in HD.
Much like they can with Telus’ existing all digital TV service, Telus Satellite TV clients can customize their TV experience with theme packs for added flexibility (e.g. news, sports, family), international channels, premium sports packages, and premium movie packages that include the latest blockbuster films.
