XM Radio Canada was the operating name of Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (or CSR), a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

communications and media company, which was incorporated in 2002 to broadcast

satellite radio 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 te ...

in Canada. Following the merger of

Sirius XM Radio 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 ...

in the United States, XM Canada and its competitor

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 r ...

reached a deal in late 2010 to merge into SiriusXM Canada, which was approved by the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

on April 11, 2011CRTC Decision 2011-240
and completed on June 21, 2011."Sirius Canada and XM Canada Complete Merger"
''Broadcaster'', June 21, 2011.

History

On August 19, 2003, Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., the parent company of CSR, filed its initial application to the

(CRTC) for a broadcast licence to provide subscription based digital radio service in Canada. In June 2005, the CRTC awarded the company a six-year licence to commence broadcasting in Canada. XM Radio Canada started transmissions across Canada on November 22, 2005, and launched officially on December 1, 2005. Clear Channel's channels were eliminated from XM Radio Canada on April 17, 2006. On April 1, 2007, XM Radio Canada began simulcasting the U.S. service, with the exception of Clear Channel's channels. On November 30, 2007, XM Radio Canada announced that they have over 350,000 subscribers. The Best Of Sirius package (

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

Howard 100 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 ...

Howard 101 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 ...

) was not included on XM Radio Canada's offerings in September

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, even though the

Sirius Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word (Latin script: ), meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated Canis Majoris, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbr ...

channels were poured to XM Radio Canada during the merger of XM and Sirius channels on November 12, 2008. On November 24, 2010, CSR announced that it has proposed an all-stock merger with its competitor,

, subject to approval by shareholders and the CRTC. The CRTC approved the merger on April 11, 2011.

Corporate Structure

XM Radio Canada is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (CSR Holdings). CSR Holdings is a publicly traded company on the TSX Exchange. The executive chairman and founder is John Bitove, a Canadian businessman, who owns 58% of CSR Holdings, while the American company

Sirius XM 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 merge ...

owns 23% of CSR Holdings. The remaining 19% forms the publicly traded float on the TSX stock exchange. XMSR granted an exclusive 15 year licence (including a 5-year renewal) to XM Radio Canada to broadcast and distribute its content and to use its XM brand name. XM Radio Canada has strategic alliances with

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. (often simply known as Corus) is a Canadian mass media and television production company. The company was founded in 1987 as Shaw Radio Ltd. as a subsidiary of Shaw Communications and was spun-off from Shaw in 1999. It h ...

Telesat Canada Telesat, formerly Telesat Canada, is a Canadian satellite communications company founded on May 2, 1969. The company is headquartered in Ottawa. History Founding and privatization (1969-2005) Telesat began in 1969 as Telesat Canada, a Canad ...

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

Telus Telus may refer to: * Telus Corporation, a Canadian publicly traded holding company ** Telus Communications, a telecommunications company ** Telus Digital, a technology company ** Telus Health, a health technology provider ** Telus Mobility T ...

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet, with significant additional telecommunications and mass media ass ...

and

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada, by size and passengers carried. Air Canada is headquartered in the borough of Saint-Laurent in the city of Montreal. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and cha ...

XM Radio Canada Content

XM Radio Canada offers listeners 130 channels, including 100% commercial-free music as well as news, talk, sports and children's programming across Canada via satellite. XM Radio Canada also offers every NHL hockey game, as it is the exclusive broadcaster of the NHL games starting in the 2007-2008 season. As of September 2007, XM Radio Canada now offers every Major League Baseball game, the IRL, select college sports, and the PGA Tour Network along with the NHL. The company programs, produces, and distributes thirteen new Canadian channels (eight in English and five in French) with formats such as music, sports, comedy, and news, in addition to the existing XM service. XM Radio Canada uses the existing 2 XM satellites: Rhythm and Blues, as well as a system of ground repeaters across Canada to broadcast a subscription radio service to Canadians. For a complete list of channels, please visit List of XM Satellite Radio channels. XM Radio Canada currently programs the following on-air channels for XM Satellite Radio. *

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American Technology journalism, technology news website headquarters, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, cons ...

(XM87) - New and emerging Canadian rock music. This channel sticks to the up-and-coming talent and does not play the more established Canadian rock artists. Broadcast in . * Air Musique (XM88) - New and emerging music. Broadcast in . * Sur La Route (XM89) - Pop hits. Broadcast in . *

XM Scoreboard 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 t ...

(XM95) - Channel for sports news, scores and schedules on a tightly structured 10-minute newswheel. Broadcast in . *

Canada 360 Canada 360 was a Canadian 24-hour news radio station, which aired on Sirius XM. Operated by Accessible Media (AMI), the channel provided the latest news, sports, weather and border-crossing information. The channel was formerly programmed by Ra ...

(XM96) - Looping news and information reel that covers news, business, and other forms of information for Canada. Broadcast in . *

Calendrier Sportif Calendrier Sportif was a 24-hour, French-language sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and ...

(XM97) - Sports information channel. Broadcast in . *

Quoi de Neuf Quoi de Neuf ("What's New") is a Canadian 24-hour news and information radio station, which airs on XM Satellite Radio channel 125. The station is primarily a loop of news programming, much of which was originally sourced from Corus Quebec's t ...

(XM125) - Looping reel that covers art and entertainment news and information as well as news, business, and other forms of information for Canada. Broadcast in . * Laugh Attack (XM153) - Canadian stand-up and comedy routines. Like XM's now-defunct XM Comedy and the succeeding Raw Dog Comedy, this channel is completely uncensored. Broadcast in . *

ATN-Asian Radio ATN-Asian Radio is an SiriusXM Satellite Radio channel featuring programming dedicated South Asian community in North America. This channel's content is produced by Asian Television Network. The channel features: talk and phone-in shows, music ...

(XM159) -

South Asian South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

Programming produced by

ATN ATN is the Sydney Flagship (broadcasting), flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of Fairfax Media, John Fairfax & Sons, was one of the ...

. Broadcast majority in . * Radio Parallèle (XM172) - News, talk, information and entertainment channel that features

Jeff Fillion Jeff Fillion (born Jean-François Fillion), is a radio host and businessman in Quebec, Canada. He is often associated with a politically incorrect radio style known as trash radio (). Media – radio career Fillion began his career in his home ...

's show. Broadcast in . * MLB Home Plate Info (XM179) -

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

information, scores, updates and short specials are produced for this channel, and loop on the other MLB play-by-play channels occasionally when out of service. Broadcast in . * NHL Home Ice (XM204) -

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

talk and play by play. Features hockey talk and programming in the daytime hours and games in the nighttime hours. XM Radio is the exclusive broadcaster of the NHL. Broadcast in . * NHL Play-by-Play (XM205-209) -

play by play. These channels are programmed and scheduled by XM Radio Canada. XM Radio Canada also produces special content for the channels during their downtime, as well as sports updates, known as NHL Home Ice Info. All broadcast in .

XM NavTraffic

XM Radio announced on 2007-07-30 that their XM NavTraffic added Montreal and Toronto to their list of cities that now have traffic data. Unfortunately, as of September 29, 2007, no data seems to appear for those users who have subscribed to this added feature. By calling XM Radio, you can leave a contact phone number to be notified when service is available.

References

{{Reflist

External links

XM Radio Canada
XM Satellite Radio Canadian companies established in 2002 Canadian companies disestablished in 2011 Companies based in Toronto Defunct radio broadcasting companies of Canada Defunct Canadian radio networks Defunct companies of Ontario Telecommunications companies established in 2002 Telecommunications companies disestablished in 2011