CRTC approves subscription radio in Canada
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved all three license applications for subscription-based digital radio services yesterday. Both XM and Sirius have entered into partnerships with Canadian enterprises to apply. Canadian Satellite Radio is a consortium involving former Toronto Raptors owner John Bitove Jr. and XM Satellite Radio. The CBC and Standard Radio partnered with Sirius Satellite Radio for Sirius Canada. And CHUM Ltd. and Montreal-based Astral Media, would forego satellite delivery for the time being and proposed to deliver pay radio to consumers via a series of broadcast towers.
"These decisions foster the objectives of the Broadcasting Act and balance the interests of Canadian consumers, the radio industry and the music industry," said CRTC Chairman, Charles Dalfen.
The services will offer between 60 and 100 commercial-free channels of music of various formats for a monthly fee, probably between 10 to 15 dollars Canadian. The two satellite services would cover all of North America, including remote under-populated regions of Canada, while CHUM's land-based option promises much more Canadian content but, for now, only to about 75% of the population via major urban markets (a satellite option is expected to be available by 2010).
Because XM's satellite signal hits Canada at a sharp angle, though, they would have to add a significant number of terrestrial repeaters.
CRTC is requiring that the satellite subscription radio licensees offer:
* 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.
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