Bell adds 12,000 video subscribers in Q1

MONTREAL — BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE), Canada’s largest communications company, today reported BCE and Bell results for the first quarter of 2009.

Bell also announced today a new agreement with TELUS Communications Company under which TELUS will distribute satellite TV service in Alberta and British Columbia under the TELUS brand. This agreement supports Bell’s imperative to Leverage Wireline Momentum by expanding distribution channels for Bell’s digital TV service in Western Canada.

Video – Bell TV direct-to-home satellite (formerly Bell ExpressVu) and VDSL television

Bell Canada added 12,000 net new video subscribers in the first quarter of 2009, compared with 1,000 in the same period last year. The year-over-year improvement can be attributed mainly to higher sales through our direct channels largely as a result of our integrated household strategy campaigns, improved performance of our independent retail channels driven mainly by promotional offers and increased customer subscriptions from MDUs. At March 31, 2009, our video subscriber base totalled 1,864,000.

                                  Q1'08  Q1'09
                                  -----  -----
HD box subs as % of total base      19%    29%

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