Canada's Bell has become the latest major North American telecom to deliver an over-the-top video service, offering an app-based mobile platform starting at $14.95 a month.
Running on iOS and Android mobile devices, as well as fourth-generation Apple TV devices, Fibe Alt TV offers up to 500 channels. A base tier is also offered at $14.95 that features 30 channels, including all the major Canadian and U.S. broadcast networks.
The service is available only to “qualifying” subscribers of Bell’s Fibe wireline high-speed internet service in Ontario and Quebec. But it will be coming to Manitoba and Atlantic Canada, Bell added.
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According to Multichannel News, Alt TV doesn’t support a number of features found in Bell’s linear Fibe TV service, including 4K delivery and DVR functionality. The OTT product does, however, support pay-per-view and has access to the telecom’s VOD library.
Bell added 22,402 Fibe TV customers in the first quarter and ended the period with 2.83 million video subscribers.
"In terms of the target demographic that we're going after, they tend to be what I would call heavy internet users, and hence the perfect bundle for them would be an unlimited internet package as well as Alt TV, in our mind," Rizwan Jamal, president of residential and small business services at Bell, told the Canadian Broadcasting Company.