Bell Satellite TV (; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada and ExpressVu Dish Network and not to be confused with Bell's IPTV Fibe TV service) is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite television service across Canada. It launched on September 10, 1997. As of April 2017, Bell Satellite TV provides over 700 channels (including over 430 SDTV, 200 HDTV and 80 audio channels) to over 1 million subscribers. Its major competitors include satellite service Shaw Direct, as well as various cable and communications companies across Canada. Bell Satellite TV for Condos () launched as Bell ExpressVu for Condos in 2004. It was a VDSL service for select multidwelling units (condominiums and apartments) in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. It later evolved into an IPTV service. Since 2010, this service operates as Bell Fibe TV and is delivered over FTTN or FTTH technology. By the end of the decade, Fibe TV became Bell's main television service offering, with over 75% more subscribers compared to satellite TV. Bell Satellite TV services were also repackaged and resold by Telus as Telus Satellite TV, in areas where the latter company's Optik IPTV services are unavailable. History 1990s: inception as ExpressVu ExpressVu was conceived in 1994, at the time of American DSS systems launch, as a consortium of Ontario-based Tee-Comm Electronics, Canadian Satellite Communications (Cancom), Vancouver-based Western International Communications (WIC) and Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE), with a projected startup date of late 1995. High technology development costs and delays placed Tee-Comm in a severe financial position, prompting the remaining partners to pull out in 1996. Instead, U.S. satellite-TV provider Echostar Dish Network was chosen to provide the receivers and uplink equipment. The Hughes DirecTV system had already been optioned to Power Broadcasting, in Canada; it has since been withdrawn. Tee-Comm on its own managed to launch the first DBS service in Canada, AlphaStar, in early 1997; however, in a matter of months the company went bankrupt and the service was discontinued, leaving thousands of consumers with useless receivers (although with some reconfiguration, could be used to receive unencrypted FTA channels). ExpressVu launched service in September 1997, initially as "Dish Network Canada", followed by "ExpressVu Dish Network", in both cases using the Echostar logo. 2000s: Bell purchases ExpressVu, later renames it Bell Satellite TV Bell took over full ownership of ExpressVu by 2000. The ExpressVu name was retired in August 2008 along with