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Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Broadcasting |
Founded | June 16, 2005 |
Defunct | June 21, 2011 |
Fate | Merged with XM Radio Canada |
Successor | Sirius XM Canada |
Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Key people | Mark Redmond, president and CEO |
Products | Satellite radio |
Website | Sirius Canada |
Sirius Canada was a Canadian company, a partnership between Slaight Communications, 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.
On November 24, 2010, following the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio in the United States, Sirius Canada and XM Radio Canada announced their own merger deal, subject to approval by shareholders and the CRTC. The CRTC approved the merger in April 2011, and thus paved the way for both services to take the name SiriusXM Canada. [1] The merger was subsequently completed on June 21, 2011. [2]
Canadian Satellite Radio, the former licensee of XM, would hold 30 percent of the merged company, while Slaight Communications and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the owners of Sirius Canada, would each hold 20 percent and the American Sirius XM Radio would hold 25 percent. [1] Mark Redmond, the president and CEO of Sirius Canada, would retain an executive role in the new merged company.
Unlike XM Radio Canada, Sirius Canada was a private company, and was therefore not required to release quarterly financial result data.
The initial lineup was announced on November 2, 2005, [3] and included 100 channels, including 10 Canadian services. Ten more services, nine American and one Canadian, were added to the package in 2006.
The service's conditions of licence provide for a minimum of eight Canadian-produced channels, and a maximum distribution of nine American services per Canadian channel. Although Astral Media produced two French-language music channels for the service, Slaight's share in Sirius Canada was not part of Astral's 2007 takeover of Slaight's terrestrial radio assets.
In June 2006, Sirius also added an audio simulcast of The Weather Network, now found on Channel 138.
Initially, only five of these channels (Radio One, Radio 3, Première Plus, Bande à part and Iceberg) were also offered on the US Sirius network, although as of late 2006 all of the Canadian channels are now available in the United States (although not on all Sirius receivers).
Contrary to some initial expectations, CBC Radio 2 and Espace musique were not included, at least in part because, as their terrestrial CRTC licences [4] 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 licence 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 110 channels includes the 11 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.
On April 24, 2006, it was announced that Sirius would become the exclusive satellite radio broadcaster for Canadian Football League games, beginning with the launch of the 2006 CFL season on June 16. [5]
In addition to the differences in programming there are some other minor differences between Sirius Canada and the US.
When Sirius Canada launched, it did not offer signup over the internet; instead, new customers had to activate over the phone. Currently Sirius Canada offers activation over the phone, and internet activation with a reduced activation fee. As of October 2006, Sirius Canada allows internet streaming of material to subscribers.
The selection of Sirius-compatible radios sold in Canadian retail channels is limited to only the Sirius One, the Sirius Starmate, the Sirius Starmate Replay, the Sirius XACT XTR3CK, the Stiletto and the Sirius Sportster Replay. However, people report that Sirius Canada will allow receivers purchased in the US to be activated on the Sirius Canada system.
Recently on Sirius Canada's homepage, it started to offer the Stiletto 100 SL100 to its Canadian subscribers.
Also, it has been reported that receivers purchased in Canada can be activated on the US network. However, due to firmware differences, some Canadian channels may be missing from the line-up.
On September 2, 1997, Canadian radio stations Q107 (Toronto) and CHOM (Montreal) began airing the Howard Stern Show. That day, Stern called the French "peckerheads" and said that "the French should bend over for me the way they did for Hitler". That broadcast, and others, led to thousands of complaints to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. As a result of the complaints Q107 continued to air the Stern show but with an eight-minute tape delay and some bleeping. CHOM stopped airing Stern in August 1998, and Q107 did the same in November 2001. Corus Entertainment's newly appointed program director John Hayes dropped Stern because he wanted to return Q107 to an all music, classic rock format. It was also problematic that Stern had been available since early 2001 on WBUF, Buffalo without the twenty-minute delay or onerous editing that was taking place on Q107. Stern later announced his move to Sirius, effective January 2006, as the U. S. Federal Communications Commission has no jurisdiction over content on subscription-based services such as cable television or satellite radio. However, the CRTC has always held content jurisdiction over content on cable services and is apparently able to regulate satellite radio content as well.
Sirius Canada's licence decision [6] made no explicit reference to Stern but does obligate the company to maintain the same standards (i.e. the CAB's Sex-role Portrayal Code) as for conventional stations. The decision also recognizes Sirius's ability to air "adult" programming in separate packages, but even these must comply with the Code. (By way of comparison, even adult content from Canadian pay-per-view providers is subject to review prior to broadcast, to ensure compliance with the Code.)
Sirius Canada later announced that Howard Stern's two channels, Howard 100 and Howard 101, would not be available to its Canadian customers. Naturally this has generated negative response from Canadian fans of Stern, some of whom have claimed that they would not subscribe to any service absent the two Stern channels. According to Gary Slaight, CEO of Standard Broadcasting:
The CRTC, who we are licensed to, would eventually force us to take Stern down, because we have standards we have to abide by in this country when you own a broadcasting licence. [7]
Nonetheless, pressure from fans, many of whom were reportedly continuing to purchase grey-market American Sirius receivers, continued to build. For instance, Josef Radomski, a Canadian writer, announced on the January 11, 2006 Howard Stern Show that he had started an online petition to bring Stern to Sirius Canada.
However, the CRTC had not in fact banned Stern's broadcast in Canada — Sirius Canada instead chose not to risk provoking an issue with the broadcast regulator. Nonetheless, there is some ambiguity in the licence conditions. Some media commentators suggested that Sirius Canada's reluctance to carry Stern had less to do with regulatory concerns and more to do with unwillingness to pay the American company's syndication fees for the program. Others might argue that Sirius Canada was simply trying to avoid the public relations and regulatory battle that would likely follow if it decided to carry Stern.
When Sirius Canada finally announced on February 1, 2006 — three months after the Canadian service's launch — that the Howard 100 channel would be made available to all subscribers effective February 6, [8] the announcement was covered by most media outlets but did not generate any significant backlash.
In May 2006, Sirius Canada announced that it would add Howard 101 to its lineup. The channel was made available to listeners on June 19, 2006, as part of a 10-channel addition to Sirius Canada's channel lineup.
On November 17, 2009, Sirius Canada announced that the company launched the first official satellite radio application for the iPhone and iPod touch users in the country. The application is free from Apple's App store. Subscribers can now have access to SIRUS Canada's programming content, and commercial-free music channels.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasting and telecommunications. It was created in 1976 when it took over responsibility for regulating telecommunication carriers. Prior to 1976, it was known as the Canadian Radio and Television Commission, which was established in 1968 by the Parliament of Canada to replace the Board of Broadcast Governors. Its headquarters is located in the Central Building of Les Terrasses de la Chaudière in Gatineau, Quebec.
Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a broadcasting-satellite service. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than terrestrial radio stations, and the service is primarily intended for the occupants of motor vehicles. It is available by subscription, mostly commercial free, and offers subscribers more stations and a wider variety of programming options than terrestrial radio.
XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (XM) was one of the three satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its service included 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional traffic and weather channels, and 23 play-by-play sports channels. XM channels were identified by Arbitron with the label "XM".
CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of Canadians and overseas over the Internet, and through mobile apps. CBC Radio One is simulcast across Canada on Bell Satellite TV satellite channels 956 and 953, and Shaw Direct satellite channel 870. A modified version of Radio One, with local content replaced by additional airings of national programming, is available on Sirius XM channel 169. It is downlinked to subscribers via SiriusXM Canada and its U.S.-based counterpart, Sirius XM Satellite Radio.
Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requirements, derived from the Broadcasting Act of Canada, that radio and television broadcasters must produce and broadcast a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from Canada. CanCon also refers to that content itself, and, more generally, to cultural and creative content that is Canadian in nature.
Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. was a satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings.
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Super Écran is a Canadian French-language premium television network owned by Bell Media. It airs a mix of commercial-free films and television series. Films are primarily sourced from the United States and Canada, while the television series mostly consist of original series and programs from HBO and Showtime in the United States.
Slaight Communications is a Canadian radio broadcasting company. The company was formed as Slaight Broadcasting in 1971, when owner J. Allan Slaight acquired CFGM in Richmond Hill. Slaight later also acquired CFOX in Montreal and CHOK in Sarnia, and launched CILQ in Toronto.
CILQ-FM is a commercial radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, known as Q107. The station broadcasts a mainstream rock format and is owned by Corus Entertainment. CILQ's studios are in the Corus Quay building on Dockside Drive at Toronto's Harbourfront neighbourhood.
XM Radio Canada was the operating name of Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., a Canadian communications and media company, which was incorporated in 2002 to broadcast satellite radio in Canada. Following the merger of Sirius XM Radio in the United States, XM Canada and its competitor Sirius Canada reached a deal in late 2010 to merge into SiriusXM Canada, which was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on April 11, 2011 and completed on June 21, 2011.
Playboy Radio was an internet radio station originally launched on XM Satellite Radio on September 1, 2002. Its programming was dedicated to similar topics and celebrity personalities found in its parent publication, Playboy Magazine. It was XM's first premium station — offered à la carte on top of the base XM subscription price. Playboy Radio gained a healthy following, including a dedicated group of Night Calls fans that established a strong online presence, although some complained the station offered too little content for the monthly premium.
CBF-FM is a French-language radio station licensed to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Howard 100 and Howard 101 are two uncensored channels on SiriusXM, a satellite radio service that broadcasts programming affiliated with Howard Stern and The Howard Stern Show. Though the channels were first broadcast on September 29, 2005 with the former company Sirius Satellite Radio, Stern could not officially broadcast until January 1, 2006, as Stern was still at WXRK, the terrestrial radio station where he had to finish his FM radio contract. A merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio occurred in the summer of 2008.
'60s Gold, formerly known as The '60s on 6 or The '60s, is a commercial-free, satellite radio station on the Sirius XM Radio platform. It plays music from the 1960s. Airing on XM since 2001, the channel became available to Sirius subscribers replacing '60s Vibrations on November 12, 2008, following the merger of the two companies. The station currently broadcasts on channel 73 of both services, as well as on Dish Network channel 6073.
SiriusXM Comedy Club is a Sirius XM Radio channel featuring uncensored comedy from Canada. It was created in November 2005 as a result of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's (CRTC) regulations for Canadian content on the XM Radio Canada platform, originally as Laugh Attack until 2013 and then as Canada Laughs from 2013 to 2019.
Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, merging them into SiriusXM Radio. The company also has a 70% equity interest in Sirius XM Canada, an affiliate company that provides Sirius and XM service in Canada. On May 21, 2013, Sirius XM Holdings, Inc. was incorporated, and in January 2020, SiriusXM reorganized their corporate structure, which made Sirius XM Radio Inc. a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Sirius XM Holdings, Inc.
This is a timeline of the history of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Howard Stern is an American radio personality who is best known for his radio show The Howard Stern Show. Stern describes himself as the "King of All Media" for his successes in the radio, television, film, music and publishing industries.
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. is a Canadian broadcasting company which distributes the services of American satellite radio provider Sirius XM in Canada.