Only in Canada (en francais)

Industry blasts new review of digital radio

Suckers bet on this issue. The Liberal cabinet will send it back for review, in the "interest of protecting Canadian programming".

We have CHUM, who wants to operate a land-based system, which will most likely start in the major cities only and maybe, eventually expand to other areas. The service will only be offered by them, with no competition. Yup -that's the Canadian way.

Meanwhile, consumers will vote with their feet and continue to buy grey market systems. The XM and Sirius satellite footprints currently cover the majority of Canada. These companies will already be fighting an uphill battle to get many Canadians to subscribe to the Canadian version and not the US one. Further delays by the Liberals only guarantee that we will end up with a sub-standard, overpriced 'made in Canada' solution.

The efforts to protect Canadian content will end up having the exact opposite effect, driving more and more people away. This is 2005 and government efforts to restrict what Canadians watch and listen to are becoming more and more irrelevant with each and every passing day.