Bell TV getting out of the Satellite Business

[DialgaChampion]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but satellite tv is now pretty much dead in Canada.

Bell to Scrap TV Set-Top Boxes for Streamlined Viewing

Key changes:
On June 1, 2025, on-demand and pay-per-view content will no longer be available on the satellite receiver; these services will move to the Fibe TV app.

For new customers:
Starting in January 2026, Bell will stop providing set-top boxes for new customers, pushing them towards streaming services like the Fibe TV app.

Future of the service:
While it's not a complete shutdown, the long-term trend is towards ending satellite services, with plans to decommission older satellite equipment and transition customers to fiber-optic services.

What this means for current customers:
Existing customers will be encouraged to switch to streaming options or Fibe TV, and future repairs might require a transfer to the fiber network.

For those who didn't know, in Canada, there were two main satellite tv providers: Bell TV and Shaw Direct (formerly Star Choice).

A few years ago, Rogers Communications (cable company, as bad as Comcast in terms of reputation) bought out Shaw and as a result, Shaw Direct's service went downhill. They eliminated the option to buy receivers outright, only allowing a monthly rental, and no new hardware has been released since.

Bell did release new hardware a few years ago, in the form of a refurbished Hopper Duo with stripped down functionality called the Bell 9500.

But with Bell now ending sales of their satellite receivers and Rogers not having done anything with the Shaw Direct service ever since taking them over, it seems like the end of satellite tv in Canada is fast approaching. I wonder how much longer Bell will keep their existing satellite tv service active before they try to force everyone to their internet-based streaming service. Definitely will hurt people in rural areas, who don't have access to reliable high-speed internet or have monthly bandwidth limits. A lot of people still don't realize how much data is used when watching videos in 1080p HD.

An end of an era, that's for sure.

 

[John2021]

sounds like bell tv is getting out of the sat tv business!!! with everyone going to streaming the cost of launching sats and maintaining things like ground stations isn't cheap.. people in rual areas will more than likely flock to starlink or amazons sat internet when and if that ever comes out.. a dual tuner dvr box is far from reality in todays world. how's the broadband situation up there will bell be able to serve everyone???

 

[harshness]

Is terrestrial broadband so prevalent that Bell can serve most of its customers without DBS?

 

[John2021]

sky in the UK is doing the same thing shoving everyone over to streaming there trying to figure out if keeping freesat is still worth it as well. i know sky charges and activation fee to activate one of there streaming boxes i think it's close to 40.00 smackers rip off!!!

 

[DialgaChampion]

sounds like bell tv is getting out of the sat tv business!!! with everyone going to streaming the cost of launching sats and maintaining things like ground stations isn't cheap.. people in rual areas will more than likely flock to starlink or amazons sat internet when and if that ever comes out.. a dual tuner dvr box is far from reality in todays world

Bell only seems interested in their Fibe TV service these days, but of course that's limited to large cities where it's available.

The really frustrating part is that from a technology standpoint, when Bell launched their Hopper Duo / 4K Joey knockoff just a few years ago, it was the first time a satellite service in Canada offered whole-home DVR capabilities. Up until that point, Bell's satellite receivers were standalone single-tuner or dual-tuner only. Shaw Direct never had a whole-home option either, and still doesn't. So this was a major advancement and incentive to stay with Bell.

I remember back in 2012 when Dish launched the original Hopper, there was talk all over the place that within a few years tops, Bell would strike some kind of agreement with Dish/Echostar to bring a Hopper-like setup to Canada, which would've been a technological leap at the time. But it never happened. I don't know why they even bothered refurbishing the Hopper Duo and 4K Joey to begin with, if they were going to scrap the whole sat service 3 to 5 years later anyway.

Is terrestrial broadband so prevalent that Bell can serve most of its customers without DBS?

Bell must think the cost of maintaining the existing satellite system is still more than the money they'll lose from existing customers being written off entirely. It reminds me of when AT&T bought over DirecTV and took the same kind of approach, basically ignoring the satellite side of their customer base and only caring about pushing them towards fiber.

Maybe one thing that played into this decision was Bell losing the rights to some basic channel staples like HGTV, Food Network and Discovery, as a result of the Corus fiasco last year. It's possible they lost a bunch of subscribers who jumped ship to Shaw Direct, or just decided to give up and go with an OTA digital antenna instead.

Either way, it's sad. Satellite still has its advantages. I mean, if the power goes out and you have a backup generator, satellite will still work. But if the nearby tower with the wireless antenna loses power, you have no internet, and also no tv if streaming is the only option, cause there's no cable or fiber in your area.

 

[telstar_1]

That's why people DVR stuff. Can ride out long signal outages

 

[Foxbat]

Sounds like Canadian rural customers will need to investigate the two U.S. LEO Satellite Internet solutions from the two tech billionaires…

That's why people DVR stuff. Can ride out long signal outages

As long as their power holds out, and the DVR doesn't need to be tethered to Home Base.

 

[harshness]

Sounds like Canadian rural customers will need to investigate the two U.S. LEO Satellite Internet solutions from the two tech billionaires…

Starlink is available throughout Canada. It appears that Rogers is reselling Starlink cellular service.

The other tech billionaire is still saying late 2025 for "rudimentary service" with 153 of their planned 3,200+ satellite mesh.

One site says that the Amazon network is looking to be fully operational in 2027. JetBlue has announced that they plan to offer in-flight service in 2027.

When Will Amazon's Project Kuiper Be Available?

Project Kuiper’s satellite internet service has no official launch date but should be at least partially operational by 2027.

www.highspeedinternet.com