Bell TV / Shaw Direct Missing Channel Comparison

[CDN Viewer]

Updated list,

Shaw Direct has added NFL Network HD, MeteoMedia HD, The Weather Network HD and WPIX New York HD.

[LOSat]

List needs to be updated. Shaw Direct has added:
Animal Planet HD
BNN HD
CMT Canada HD
Crime + investigation HD
Dtour HD
Gusto HD
OWN HD
The Cooking Channel HD
Travel & Escape HD
Max HD
MusiquePlus HD
RDS Info HD
Super Ecran 4 HD
Teletoon HD

[CDN Viewer]

Thanks for the info, the list has been updated.

Good start for Shaw Direct but there are still a lot of HD channels they still need to add. I noticed that they do not carry Treehouse HD- why wouldn't they add this channel which is more popular then some of the channels they recently added like Crime + Investigation HD or CMT Canada HD?!

[LOSat]

Treehouse HD will be added next year. Here is their next phase. I suppose their rationale for Treehouse would be the target market for this channel probably doesn't really care about SD vs HD.
The rest will convert in 2019. All subject to change.

Channel Name - ClasCh# - AdvCh# - Date to be added
PBS West HD 067 567 Wednesday, June 6, 2018
DIY HD 174 474 Tuesday, August 7, 2018
FOX News HD 194 494 Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Treehouse HD 068 568 Tuesday, August 7, 2018
HLN HD 196 496 Tuesday, August 7, 2018
MSNBC HD 197 497 Tuesday, August 7, 2018
FYI HD 165 465 Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Cottage Life HD 173 473 Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Out TV HD 169 469 Tuesday, September 25, 2018
OLN HD 176 476 Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Peach Tree HD 167 467 Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Game TV HD 168 468 Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Cosmo HD 166 466 Tuesday, September 25, 2018
BET HD 188 488 Tuesday, September 25, 2018
BBC World HD 193 493 Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Channels converting to MPEG 4 - SD and HD channels
Shaw Direct - HD network upgrade: conversion schedule

[Test Pattern]

On April 2nd 2018 Shaw direct announced that Bloomberg will be dropped from their Lineup. Its my guess because BNN is partnering with Bloomberg to become BNN Bloomberg this stands the reason for its removal. I got the bill saying that.

[PokerFace]

Hmm, BNN Bloomberg has 3 B's ... BBB: Big Baller Brand.
Bell is on the ball.

[TvAntenna]

It seems They ended up putting it back on. I just turned to that Channel last Night and it was back on again. On that lighter note Shaw Direct just added MAVTV HD Yesterday to their lineup.

[TvAntenna]

Now This Time Shaw Direct officially pulled the Other Bloomberg Channel after BNN Bloomberg launched as of this Morning. Yesterday following the launch of BNN Bloomberg I did notice on the main Bloomberg Channel that all there was was a Black screen with only voices behind it but no picture and I tuned in this Morning on Channel 510 and the Main Bloomberg Channel was removed.

[LOSat]

Shaw Direct has added
PBS West HD
Wild TV HD

Remove from missing list
Bloomberg TV Canada ceased operation replaced by BNN Bloomberg which they have in HD
Sundance Channel Canada HD - channel shutdown.

OMNI.2 is there if you count Omni East.

With the exception of West feeds. Shaw will add, by this fall, most of the English language HD channels they carry in Std Def

[TOM_T]

By DEC 2018 Shaw Direct TV will have way more HD Channels then BTV. At this point I dought Bell really cares about BTV any more.

[LOSat]

Shaw Direct has recently added the following:

DIY Network HD
Fox News HD
Discovery Science HD
Treehouse HD
Headline News HD
MSNBC HD
fyi HD
Cottage Life HD
American Hero's HD

Frisson HD ( A French Horror channel)
AMI Tele HD

And some time ago Wild TV HD

[CDN Viewer]

Thanks for the updates.

[bigoranget]

By DEC 2018 Shaw Direct TV will have way more HD Channels then BTV. At this point I dought Bell really cares about BTV any more

Is it possible that is already the case now? They carry most of the French specialty channels. Plus I believe they have more locals too. I'm curious if Bell will continue to operate their residential service. They do have a commercial SRDU service similar to Shaw Broadcast. They haven't had new consumer equipment in quite some time. I'd imagine many of the older SD equipment is approaching end-of-life. It will be interesting to see if Bell has a long term plan for residential satellite delivery.

[LOSat]

Aug 28th Shaw Direct has added:

Moi & Cie HD
Yoopa HD
Unis HD (which I don't think was on the list)

Sep 25th and Oct 16th will be big HD addition days with a final day for 2018 of speciality HD additions Nov 20th
Next year it will be mostly local HD additions and SD deletions.

[LOSat]

In addition to the channels in post 114 the following HD channels have been added to Shaw Direct today
Channel #'s are ADVANCED - CLASSIC Most of them differ from the Shaw Direct had indicated on their HD launch page.

OUTtv HD	469 - 169
OLN HD	622 - 122
Peachtree HD	661 - 201
Game TV HD	470 - 170
Cosmo TV HD	465 - 165
BET HD	488 - 188
BBC World HD	497 - 197

[CDN Viewer]

Channel list has been updated, thanks for continuing to post updates.

It looks like Shaw Direct will soon overtake Bell in number of HD channels although I don't think Bell cares as it appears they favour quality over quantity. Bell TV carries HD feeds of all the popular channels, those that they don't carry the HD feed of are the more niche ones that likely don't have a large number of viewers. I still don't understand why broadcasters continue to operate 2 feeds in this day and age and why providers (it looks like Shaw Direct might be the first) don't drop the SD feed and carry only the HD feed?!

[LOSat]

By this time next year Shaw Direct will have dropped most of their SD feeds, by the end of 2019 other then some of the ethnic channels I believe they will almost 100% HD. Most of the specialties will HD by November 20th this year. The remaining locals and a few specialties will convert in 2019. The October and November 2018 scheduled changes are actually accelerated from the original schedule.

[CDN Viewer]

By this time next year Shaw Direct will have dropped most of their SD feeds, by the end of 2019 other then some of the ethnic channels I believe they will almost 100% HD. Most of the specialties will HD by November 20th this year. The remaining locals and a few specialties will convert in 2019. The October and November 2018 scheduled changes are actually accelerated from the original schedule.

I wonder if Bell will follow suit?! It looks like they are more focused on their IPTV service although I believe satellite TV still has a place especially in rural areas where they can't get high speed internet. Perhaps we will see a merger at some point between Bell & Shaw?!

[LOSat]

I guess it depends on how many SD only receivers Bell has out in the field. They would need to swap those out to accommodate the change. Are all Bell receivers capable of handling Mpeg4?

[bigoranget]

I wonder if Bell will follow suit?! It looks like they are more focused on their IPTV service although I believe satellite TV still has a place especially in rural areas where they can't get high speed internet. Perhaps we will see a merger at some point between Bell & Shaw?!

Not sure if that would happen or not. If it did, I doubt all 4 current orbital locations would be utilized by the single company since 82 and 91 are high powered DBS and 107 and 111 are FSS.

One of the reasons Shaw Broadcast went to MPEG-4 transmission is likely due to the fact that F2 is approaching the end of life in a few years. You'll notice that F2 will only have a handful of transponders in-service post change. My guess is Telesat is going to power down some of the transponders in order to extend the life of F2. I'll be curious if we hear an announcement from Telesat soon on a replacement for F2.