Thread: I just don

Correct. You said
I'll ask again: any links? "Feds" which side of the border?
Says who? Why is BCE's $32B debt brought up when talking about BeV? Is there any reasonable proof BeV is the loss leader?

BCE's market cap is around $30B. Debt to equity ratio of 1 isn't good but not unheard of. If BeV would come up with a workable business model (securing their signal would be a good first step), why can't a spinoff fetch $2-3B?

BTW, debt to equity for BCE is 0.66, i.e. about $20B debt. Also, companies are never taken private when they are considered a sh!tty investment.

IF EV is shut down, the transponder allocations go back to Telesat and/or the public domain for reassignment by Industry Canada. EV does not own them, they lease them for broadcast use. Telesat owns the satellites, Canada owns the frequencies. That makes EV totally worthless (probably bankrupt) if it is shut down. EV has permission to sublet 16 of it's leased N5 transponders at 72.7 to Dish. DTV has permission to use transponder space at 72.7 until they are required by EV in 2009. That has nothing to do with EV since permission was granted by Industry Canada and the FCC and DTV is using its own satellite.

If EV is sold (any sale is speculation at the moment) the purchaser will assume any debt. That lowers the value considerably but it will remove some debt load from the Bell portfolio. Purchase by Shaw would be a non-starter due to their ownership of *C and Shaw Cable already. (Ownership of all 3 would violate CRTC regulations for half of Canada.) Rogers appears to be a good fit but I doubt they want it. That leaves the possibility of Cogeco, a large broadcaster or, quite likely, a consortium of broadcasters.

All this talk of Bell moving to MPEG4 for all new HD channels. I just don

Bell will never sell BEV , most of BEV customers if it went out of business would take their phone and internet business with them to another provider so it would have been the end of Bell.

They wull probably go 8PSK once nimiq4 launches. The current satellites are too craptacular to be able to handle the extra power 8psk requires.

If you ask me, BCE doesn't really care about BEV. I think it will be sold off very soon.

In todays world...I would never say never but it would be highly unlikely that Evu will be sold by the new management. You notice that I said "management" not owners. This is a long term investment for the pension fund and as you may have noticed the triming of some of the fat has begun. It was made clear by the new CEO that Evu remains one of their core units. With two million subs it is not leaving. I do recollect comments made that any sale of Evu to Shaw would not be viewed in a positive manner by the current federal government or the CRTC when the sale was in limbo several months ago.

I remember reading in a previous post about a week or so ago that Dish or DTV have to vacate that 72.7 spot byt the end of 2009 because that is when Bell's lease begins.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/show...t=88974&page=3

Why not spin it off and sell a 49% stake in it?

It's my understanding DirecTV must move by the 31st December, 2009, but Dish has leased half the transponders of Nimiq 5, and if you believe it, wants to have the other 16 too!

I agree. Any acquisition by another telco would lead to a loss of bundle subscribers. The other aspect is that Bell takes advantage of vertical integration when determining costs. For example, a 10 $million purchase of telecom services by EV is bad for it's bottom line but it boosts other Bell divisions. Another owner could buy those services elsewhere. EV may be losing money but Bell's retail telephone and internet divisions make a good profit, in part due to Bell's ownership of EV. I also suspect that EV would make money if the signal pirating problem is solved.