For those who think the layers of federal regulation have hindered the progress of the broadcast media in Canada, the 13-months-and-counting wait for approval of a merger of satellite-radio companies Sirius and XM has shown that the Americans can play that game, too. Mel Karmazin, the Sirius chief executive due to run the combined companies said this week he hopes US regulators would rule on the deal by the end of March — leading to a jump in share prices of both.

Then again, the result of the ruling by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice may not be favourable. Not until that decision is made will the companies licensed to sell Sirius and XM across Canada consider going forward with an application to operate under the same umbrella up here.

When and if that happens, it may be too late for the marketplace to even notice.

Also, this week’s departure of Lee Abrams, the “Chief Creative Officer” of XM, suggests the original ambitions of the satellite platform are now winding down.

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) took their own sweet time in deciding how satellite radio — rolled out stateside during 2001-02 — could be formally sold in Canada. While they dithered, a mobile device made its way into every pocket, and high-speed internet became de rigeur for niche media consumers, along with widespread wireless. What chance did a subscription service, one requiring a whole other media appliance, really have?

The would-be licensees put across the alarmist argument that cross-border truckers were already buying satellite radio receivers in droves, along with a burgeoning domestic grey market. Here was a chance to formally approve the technology, and work a couple channels of Canadian Content into the equation.

Fast-food mogul John Bitove hoped to do the same for the then-prevailing XM in Canada as he did for KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell via his public company. Then privately-held Standard Broadcasting and the CBC teamed up in conjunction with Sirius — a belated also-ran entry until they signed Howard Stern in October 2004.

CRTC hearings on satellite radio were taking place around the same time. Yet, despite letters of support from struggling Canadian musicians buying the line that this was their chance to reach an American audience — and, in the case of XM Canada, a raft of comedians were promised their own channel — those hopefuls had to contend with an application from CHUM Limited, who claimed to want to launch a digital radio service that promised a full menu of made-in-Canada programming.

When a decision was rendered in mid-2005, the CRTC ended up approving all three. And, in the face of protectionist hysteria, a laundry list of requirements: one out of every 10 channels on the service had to be Canadian, with an emphasis on new music, and half those offerings had to be in French. Canadian Content minimums for music were a once-insurmountable 85 per cent. Specific requirements for new Canadian talent projects were also a condition of license.

For example, those wondering how last weekend’s Canadian Independent Music Awards ended up being a fairly indulgent affair at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel would partly have XM Canada commitments to the CRTC to thank — or blame. Sirius threw their requirement money at a Songwriters Café event at the Mod Club, and a Bloc Du Rock showcase featuring French bands at the El Mocambo.

What kind of Canadiana are satellite subscribers hearing, two years after the launch? While the services launched with several American channels blocked off to retain the 9-to-1 balance — Stern wasn’t audible to Sirius Canada sign-ups until a month after his January 2006 debut, as they wanted to make sure the content wasn’t going to get their license revoked — new additions expanded that menu.

So, along with originally proposed Canadian channels The Verge for indie-rock, Laugh Attack for stand-up routines and NHL Home Ice for hockey talk, the Canada 360 and XM Scoreboard channels just feature a loop of pre-existing Broadcast News feeds. A channel given to ATN-Asian Radio is apparently dominated by Bollywood tunes. Traffic surveillance channels pad out the quota.

An attempt to give XM Canada a famous face was made by signing Mike Bullard for a daily show on Laugh Attack — first in mornings then moved to afternoons — broadcast live from the pedestrian-unfriendly corner of Avenue and Davenport where XM is headquartered in a former bank branch. He lasted just four months.

The parallel set of French channels are headlined by Jeff Fillion — the Quebec City shock jock whose on-air tirades led to the CRTC revoking the license of CHOI-FM, the station he broadcast on with talk host-turned-MP André Arthur. Fillion licensed his internet radio show to XM as a marketing hook for Quebec.

Budget cuts at XM Canada led to the departure of most of the broadcasting veterans brought on to help make an impact — the new CEO and sales and marketing VP came from Palm Canada, suggesting bottom-line ambitions closer to hardware than audio content. John Bitove, still at the helm of XM here, stepped down yesterday as CEO of his fast-food income trust, Priszm, as he bids for a license for a national high-definition television network. The arguments to the CRTC — that the Americans will end up dominating the HDTV medium unless a Canadian licensee is allowed to enter the scene — sound awfully familiar, too.

While no official moves are going to be made until the satellite radio merger is ruled on stateside — it’s business as usual in the meantime — that Sirius Canada will hastily snap up XM Canada, and holders of its sunken stock won’t complain. Nor will the CRTC, who will be forced to approve the merger as a consequence of their earlier precedent-setting decision.

Whether the 350,000 subscribers to XM Canada will lose the nuances of specific music channels is a lament shared with 9 million American customers. Sirius still lags behind with 8.5-million, but passed 500,000 in Canada last fall. How’d that happen?

MAKING SENSE OF THE SIRIUS RADIO ADVANTAGE
CBC Radio One relentlessly identified on-air as Sirius 137 was a contributing factor, as the decision to rebroadcast its national programming via a shuffled schedule made it the most popular Canadian offering amongst subscribers. Goodwill enthusiasm CBC Radio 3 couldn’t have hurt, either — even if the CanCon indie-rock service’s priorities have shifted online, the model benefits from money Sirius is obligated to invest. CBC also produces an afternoon drive Hockey Night in Canada show on a sports channel that’s not Canadian per se.

Sirius also carries four CBC channels in French, and non-CBC music channels include two French services and Iceberg Radio — an all-CanCon adult alternative outlet whose claims of reaching American ears haven’t really been borne out. Hardcore Sports Radio, dominated by talk in the jackass genre, does appear to click across the border. A simulcast of The Weather Network is slightly more suspect. Still, there’s less obvious flouting of the obligations than XM — even if Sirius had their CRTC request to reduce Canadian talent payments turned down.

And then there’s the Stern factor, even though Howard 100 was added too late for the initial Sirius promotion blitz in late 2005, and secondary channel Howard 101 not included the Canadian service until later that spring. But the show has driven enough subscriptions for a gang of Stern lackeys, the Killers of Comedy, to perform two shows at the Republik nightclub next Friday and Saturday nights (March 21 and 22).

That booking would appear to eclipse XM Canada claims of having the clout to increase momentum for Canadian stand-ups, under the direction of Mark Breslin, although comedy channels have proven inexplicably popular with the trucker set.

Whatever the programming strategy, the main challenge for Sirius and XM has been to justify the mammoth investment of floating satellites in space — even as Wi-Fi and other methods of accessing audio have rendered them obsolete. This has meant compelling people to pay $14.99/month for radio, even though tens of thousands of alternatives are free online, including XM channels offered via AOL.

Whatever the CRTC were worried about, little of it proved a threat to companies aspiring to market mobile content — or FM stations worried about keeping their transmitters on — based on industry conference panels at Canadian Music Week.

Clear Channel, the lumbering corporate behemoth initially opposed to a stateside satellite merger, just outlined Sirius and XM merger concessions, requesting broadcast capacity be made available to a competitor, with allocations for public access programming and — sure to be fodder for the Stern show — indecency regulations that place satellite and terrestrial radio on a more level playing field.

A request by Clear Channel to make satellite receivers compatible with digital high-definition technology is also an effort to reach critical mass with HD Radio — a new way for local broadcasters to offer secondary programming streams.

Reaching a more eclectic audience through an expanded digital radio receiver was touted for Canada through most of the 1990s. CHUM were at the forefront of pushing that technology and, in 2005, put up a last-ditch argument that their subscription service would be superior in cultural resonance than Sirius or XM, despite only accessible in urban centres, requiring an entirely different device.

Not wanting to favour American technology, the CRTC approved the scheme — and it was never discussed again as threats of satellite radio being a category killer proved a whole lotta hot air. CTVglobemedia, which bought CHUM, nonetheless requested an extension of the Dec. 31, 2007 launch deadline.

Quietly, the reprieve was denied.

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