Source : CBC News

OTTAWA - The federal broadcast regulator signalled it will be looking for significant Canadian content in proposals to launch subscription radio services, as the first of three companies appeared at public hearings Monday.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is beginning to look at three pitches for the new kind of radio, two of them satellite based. 
 
Proponents of satellite radio call it the greatest improvement to radio since FM was developed. Already well established in the United States, it offers paying subscribers a wide range of programming, much of it not available on standard radio, with little or no advertising. You can listen to a channel that offers nothing but Elvis Presley songs and then switch over to an all-opera channel, for example.

The two proposals for satellite services now in front of the CRTC come from Canadians partnering with U.S. service providers already in business:

• Canadian Satellite Radio Inc., headed by Toronto businessman John Bitove, in partnership with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., the largest U.S. satellite radio firm. 
• Sirius Radio Canada, a partnership involving the CBC, Standard Radio Inc., and U.S. firm Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.
• Toronto-based Chum Ltd. is also looking for a licence for a subscription radio service that would distribute digital radio signals on land transmitters.

CRTC commissioner Joan Pennefather was clearly not pleased with the ratio of Canadian content in Bitove's presentation, which kicked off the hearings Monday.

Bitove told the hearings that Canadian Satellite Radio plans to offer a total of 100 channels showcasing different genres of music, only four of them all-Canadian, to customers who buy a satellite receiver and pay a subscription fee of about $13 a month.

We could come into this looking at the deal in front of us and say that's just not enough," Pennefather warned. "Four out of a hundred is not enough."

Technology leads to questioning of old rules

Technology is changing so quickly that some of the old rules governing Canadian broadcasting may need to be revised, Bitove replied.

He said Canadian Satellite Radio plans to expand Canadian content in the future if it wins a licence, but added that it's important to get in on the action now.

"Ultimately, as this becomes global and more countries become involved, the important thing for our country and our Broadcasting Act [is] to make sure that our piece of the turf is defended," Bitove said.

The Sirius consortium also plans to offer between 100 and 130 channels for a subscription fee of about $13 a month, but only five of them would be Canadian, a spokesman said.

Both the satellite applicants claim they'll be able to provide an outlet for Canadian music and other programming in the United States.

"Satellite radio is first of all about choice and diversity," said Steve Tapp of Canadian Satellite Radio Inc. "It's a complementary offering to the existing radio offerings in this country... It's really like cable was to television, when cable came out 20 years ago."

"This is a big opportunity for Canadian artists, for folks in the news and documentary business, and I think that's really the area of focus," said Kevin Shea of the Sirius Canada group.

Opponents of the satellite applications worry that Canadian content on the services will be buried under the avalanche of U.S. material, though.

The two satellite applications are offering almost nothing except the importation of huge quantities of American programming," said Ian Morrison of the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

The channel structures proposed by both satellite companies flout the 35-per-cent Canadian content rules that apply to traditional radio, according to the organization that distributes royalties to Canadian music publishers.

There's going to be more than a hundred channels of entertainment, and just a few channels of Canadian stuck onto the end," said David Basskin of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency.

"Looks to us like they've done the least they possibly have to in order to come to the CRTC."

If it's approved by the CRTC, Canadian Satellite Radio predicts its service would attract 1.5 million subscribers in the first seven years.

As many as 50,000 Canadians with access to U.S. mailing addresses already own the receivers and subscribe to a U.S. satellite service, demonstrating that there's a market for commercial-free music.

© CBC