Satellite Radio

Canada was once at the vanguard of the next generation of radio. Remember DAB? Toronto radio listeners have been able to listen to many of their radio stations in digital for years, assuming they dropped the coin for a new digital radio. (The skinny on DAB when it was launched was that Canadian radio had adopted the cutting edge technology, Eureka 147, while the US chose the inferior IBOC.) Problem was, nobody seemed to bother buying a DAB radio. Aside from price, another reason for this was the fact that Toronto's DAB radio broadcasts had a limited range: only about a 30-kilometre radius from the CN Tower (site of the terrestrial transmitter), if I recall correctly. Who wants to pay for a radio that only works within the city limits?

XM Radio and Sirius, satellite radio services in the US, side-stepped the shortcomings of DAB by offering coast-to-coast coverage, commercial-free specialty programming. The satellite receivers were installed in rental cars, which ended up being a terrific way of introducing the subscription service to a captive audience. This tended to work, because there was bound to be at least a few channels out of the hundred that you liked.

Today, years after satellite radio made its mark in the US, the CRTC approved all three proposed Canadian satellite services under certain conditions, including

• At least eight original channels produced in Canada. A maximum of nine foreign channels may be offered for each Canadian channel;
• At least 85% of the musical selections and spoken word programming broadcast on the Canadian channels must be Canadian;
• At least 25% of the Canadian channels must be in the French language;
• At least 25% of the musical selections on the Canadian channels must be new Canadian musical selections;
• A further 25% of the selections must be by emerging Canadian artists.
• The licensees must also contribute at least 5% of their gross annual revenues to initiatives for the development of Canadian talent, such as FACTOR or MusicAction funds which assist the development of new musical artists. These contributions will be contributed equally to the development of English and French-language talent.

The Canadian content rules are unsurprising and I suppose they could have been more draconian. I doubt very much, however, that Canada has the population to support two services, let alone three. My bet is on Sirius Canada being the last one standing, the partnership of Sirius, Standard Radio and CBC, if only due to the CBC's high tolerance for burning through money.