Canada

One of the compelling things about satellite radio in the early years was the passion that satellite radio subscribers and investors had for one company or the other. Epic debates of playlists, commercials vs. no commercials, sports vs. music, having the NFL vs. having MLB, and that was just the content debate. Anything and everything SDARS was debated. Which company was performing better, which had more potential, and on and on.

With the merger, all of those people now find themselves on the same team, and wondering exactly what the merged company will do on the content front as well as the business front. Many have accepted the merger, and are moving forward with cautious optimism.

There is still a satellite war happening though in Canada. Sirius Canada and XM Canada have not merged. They are still separate companies with XM Canada being publicly held, and Sirius Canada being a private company. The debate and barbs that used to be commonplace in the states still exist north of the border. A simple look at the press releases from the Canadian counterparts on the day of the merger tells everyone that Sirius Canada and XM Canada are still sparring.

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Sirius Canada announced today that they have eclipsed the 500,000 subscriber mark. In a press release this morning the satellite operator noted several key statistics as they continue to grow:

• The first satellite radio company in Canada to reach the 500,000 mark
• Canadians are adopting satellite radio faster than cable, wireless and satellite television were adopted
• Sirius Canada leads the sector with 82% retail market share in 2007
• More than 100,000 vehicles built with factory installed Sirius in 2007

In February of this year Sirius Canada announced that they had passed the 300,000 mark in subscribers. In the last 7 months the company has added more than 200,000 subscribers. It took the company 22 months to get to the half million mark. It was one month ago that XM Canada announced that they had surpassed the 300,000 subscriber mark with a total of 306,000.

Today’s announcement means that satellite radio penetration in Canada has reached over 800,000 thus far, and will surpass the 1,000,000 mark in under two years.

Position – Long Sirius, XM. No Position XM Canada.

SIRIUS Canada Inc. announced today that it has surpassed 300,000 subscribers nationwide, with more than 100,000 of those coming on board after November 22, 2006. According to independent retail tracking research provided by the NPD Group, SIRIUS was the preferred choice for satellite radio this holiday season with nearly 8 out of 10 satellite radio shoppers choosing SIRIUS in December.

We all know that SIRIUS is gaining some major group here in the state where XM was in the market far ahead of them. Yet in Canada where both providers were rolled out around the same time SIRIUS is destroying the competition with 75% of the total market share at this point in time. In the coming year SIRIUS plans to widen that gap even more through their inked deals with Audi, Aston Martin, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Jaguar, Jeep, Land Rover, Lincoln, Subaru, Volkswagen and Volvo to add factory installed head units in their newer model automobiles.

Today SIRIUS Canada announced that they officially added 200,000 paying subscribers nationwide during its first year of operation. Since its launch on December 1, 2005, SIRIUS Canada has maintained its position as Canada’s most popular satellite radio provider. This is well ahead of XM Canada’s 120,000 subscribers. It looks like the Canadians are a little bit ahead of Americans when it comes to recognizing the “best radio on radio.”

There is just nothing but good news for SIRIUS in the Canadian Satellite market with the launch of the Howard Stern channels and the SIRIUS Stiletto coupled with the fact that SIRIUS will be available in more than 150 Canadian vehicles by year end 2007.