Sirius in Canada

Sirius Canada is a Canadian partnership between Standard Broadcasting, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Sirius Satellite Radio, which was one of three services licensed by the CRTC on June 16, 2005 to introduce satellite radio service to Canada.

The service's conditions of license provide for a minimum of eight Canadian-produced channels, and a maximum distribution of nine American services per Canadian channel.

Unlike its competitor, XM Radio Canada (TSX: XSR.SV), Sirius Canada is a private company, and therefore not required to release quarterly financial result data.

Subscription package The initial lineup was announced on November 2, 2005, and will include 100 channels, including 10 Canadian services.

The CBC programs six channels for the Canadian service:

* CBC Radio One, news/information (Channel 137)
* CBC Radio Three, independent music (Channel 94)
* Première Plus, French language news/information (Channel 138)
* Bandeapart, French language independent music (Channel 93)
* Infoplus, French language news/information (Channel 187)
* RCI Plus, multilingual news/information (Channel 188)

Standard Broadcasting programs one channel:

* Iceberg Radio, adult album alternative music (Channel 95)

In addition, through partnership agreements, Astral Media and Score Media also program channels for Sirius Canada:

* Rock Velours, French language adult contemporary pop (Channel 192)
* Énergie2, French language pop/rock (Channel 193)
* Hardcore Sports, sports talk (Channel 186)

Five of these channels (Radio One, Radio 3, Première Plus, Bandeapart and iceberg) are also offered on the US Sirius network.

Contrary to some initial expectations, CBC Radio Two and Espace musique are not included, at least in part because, as their terrestrial CRTC licences allow nearly 80% of "special interest" (i.e. classical, jazz) music to be foreign, they would not be in compliance with the CRTC's mandate that Canadian-produced satellite radio channels carry 85 per cent Canadian content.

Sirius Canada's license prohibits them from broadcasting "localized" content such as local or regional newscasts, weather forecasts or traffic reports. As a result the Radio One feed does not include local programs or weather forecasts. Instead, the network's local programming blocks are filled with repeat airings of other CBC programming.

The Canadian subscription package of 100 channels includes the 10 Canadian channels listed above and most, but not all of the US channels. List of Sirius Satellite Radio stations includes a graphic notation of which services are and are not available in Canada.

Other differences

In addition to the differences in programming there are some other minor differences between Sirius Canada and the US.

Sirius Canada does not offer signup over the internet; instead, new customers must activate over the phone. Sirius Canada does not currently offer its subscribers access to the Sirius channels streamed on the Internet, although apparently this will change soon.

The selection of Sirius-compatible radios sold in Canadian retail channels is limited to only the Sirius One, the Sirius Starmate and the Sirius Sportster Replay. In particular no battery powered portable reciever is currently being sold. However, people report that Sirius Canada will allow receivers purchased in the US to be activated on the Sirius Canada system.

It is possible to activate receivers purchased in Canada on the US network but the receiver's firmware is different and if you do this you will still get the Canadian channel lineup.

-- info from wikipedia --