Satellite Radio Finally Coming to Canada?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.betanews.com/article/Satellite_Radio_to_Expand_into_Canada/1119019995' target='_blank'>http://www.betanews.com/article/Satellite_Radio_to_Expand_into_Canada/1119019995</a><br /><br /></div><i>"XM and Sirius both received approval this week to market their satellite radio services directly to Canadians, thanks to a ruling handed down by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission - Canada's equivalent of the FCC....As part of the deal, both services must produce 1 out of every 10 channels in Canada, with a quarter of the content on those channels in French."</i><br /><br />I'm happy to see this happening, but I have to roll my eyes at that last part. :roll: Instead of letting market forces dictate content, as a free-market economy should, our slothful government instead slaps limitations on XM and Sirius. I've heard mixed reviews about the quality of the signal though - specifically that the bit rate of the radio is brutally low and sound hideous. Any input from you satellite radio users?

[James Fee]

I'm pretty touchy about sound quality and at least with my wifes Delphi MyFi (http://www.xmradio.com/myfi/index.jsp), its good enough for me. I'm sure some receivers are bad, but the one I'm listening to is fine. The user interface is wacky, but the sound is good.

[ctmagnus]

:confused totally: Satellite radio has been available here for years if you know which channels to go through to get it. So the only difference is that our wonderful government now feels the need to stick their finger in it?

[Mr. MacinTiger]

I've had Xm for over a year now and use the original Roady in my car. The sound on some channels is not that great, but overall I have no complaints. It's definently worth 12.95 a month IMO, and I am NOT a rich guy either :)

[Mike Temporale]

Ah, you gotta love the CRTC. :roll:

[Mike Temporale]

:confused totally: Satellite radio has been available here for years if you know which channels to go through to get it. So the only difference is that our wonderful government now feels the need to stick their finger in it?

True, if you know where to get it, it's available. The limitation is that you can't currently get it factory installed on your new car like you can in the US. That is, until the CRTC gets their greedy paws into it. :evil:

[bikeman]

I've had Sirius for over a year. I realy like the sound quality, but, it all depends on your audio equipment. I tried the FM transmitter setup - it was horrible because there were local stations using close frequencies. So I upgraded the head unit to a Kenwood Excelon uit with built in Sirius (and the car already had upgraded speakers). Now the sound is great - I really cannot tell the difference between Sirius and CDs, except if I get any dropouts. Streaming Sirius online sounds decent with an Audigy 2 soundcard and studio headphones. Not as good as CD though.

Try before you buy. Listen to both Sirius and XM online first to decide which service you prefer. XM seems to have a deeper playlist and will play more obscure songs by artists. Sirius seems to play mostly the more popular songs by artists. The channels also are not exactly equal, even for the same genre. Either way, I love it.
Dan

[boeman]

Using the FM transmitter on my SkyFi2 the quality is not the best... the XM reciever built into my truck has CD quality sound with few dropouts!

I really hope XM does not make any changes so they can go into Canada... I've already lost 3 of my favorite channels...

[Neil Enns]

The sound quality complaints are typically around the talk radio stations, at least on XM. The music channels are fine, but if you're listening to a baseball game, one of the news channels, or the traffic channels, the quality is pretty bad (better than AM, much worse than FM).

I still love my XM Radio though :)

Neil

[rubberdemon]

Although the CRTC seems dinosaur-like, I really shudder to think about what the Canadian music scene would be like if there hadn't been any Cancon rules a few decades back - would there be any Canadian labels? Would we have produced global rock stars like we did? It is demonstrable that they provided a huge boost to a domestic industry that might not have existed.

Look at the movie industry; there are no real Cancon regulations there, and the major Canadian film industry is involved with making US movie-of-the weeks and tv series in Toronto and Vancouver and pretending they are US cities. There's pretty much nothing in the way of indigenous movies showing in theatres, and no global hits like the Australians and Brits manage to sometimes create.

And the magazine industry is another example - US magazines dominated until the 60s when new laws prevented them from scooping up all the domestic advertising revenue and a Canadian industry grew enormously from that.

It is people like the RIAA and MPAA who keep pushing the idea that all industries, including culture, should be on the table for complete competition... and we know how much they have our best interests in mind, don't we???

[Phoenix]

Move to America.

[ctmagnus]

That does not compute.

;)

[Phoenix]

:P :)