Groups want CRTC pay-radio ruling nixed
OTTAWA (CP) – The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has approved three subscription radio licences allowing satellite broadcast operators to bring pay-radio services into the country.
Sirius Canada Inc., Canadian Satellite Radio Inc. and CHUM Ltd. were granted the licences for satellite and conventional radio services Tuesday following the CRTC’s June 16 decision to admit pay radio.
The move comes a day after a coalition of media and labour groups called on the federal cabinet to overturn the CRTC’s ruling.
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and eight other groups said the Liberal government must overturn the ruling if it wants to preserve years of effort to protect and promote Canadian programming that would be threatened by the satellite pay-radio services.
The ruling cleared the way for Canadian Satellite Radio and Sirius to provide pay-radio service – already operating in the United States – to the Canadian market via satellite.
It also gave an all-Canadian entry, made up of CHUM Ltd. (TSX:CHM) and Astral Media Inc. (TSX:ACM.SV.B), permission to deliver pay radio. But that programming would be distributed via a ground-based digital network, rather than by satellite.
The coalition had no objection to the CHUM-Astral project.
“These decisions foster the objectives of the Broadcasting Act and balance the interests of Canadian consumers, the radio industry and the music industry,” CRTC chairman Charles Dalfen said Tuesday in a release.
“These licences will harness new technologies for Canadians and give Canadian talent exposure to listeners across Canada and indeed, North America – both through new Canadian channels and air-play on U.S. channels.”
Canadian Satellite Radio is a partnership between Toronto businessman John Bitove and Washington-based XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.
Sirius Canada is a joint venture of the CBC, Standard Radio and U.S.-based Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.
Under the rules laid out by the CRTC, each group must provide at least eight Canadian channels, two of them in French. But they could carry nine foreign channels for every Canadian one they deliver.
The CHUM-Astral team is planning 50 Canadian channels that will be follow standard Canadian-content rules of 35 per cent for popular music and, for French stations, 65 per cent of musical selections in French.
In addition to those conditions, at least 25 per cent of the music on the Canadian channels must be “new Canadian musical selections” and another 25 per cent must be by “emerging Canadian artists,” the CRTC said.
The licensees must also contribute at least five per cent of their gross annual revenues to “initiatives for the development of Canadian talent,” such as FACTOR or MusicAction funds, which helps new artists.
Both Sirius and XM posted net losses last year, although both reported revenues in the hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.
The new services will provide choice and diversity to Canadian consumers, particularly in rural and remote areas, the CRTC said.
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