Well, 3 months ago, when the CRTC issued its Decision about Mobile TV, I suggested that XM and Sirius should be nervous about the new, unregulated competition.
Sure enough, TELUS and XM Canada announced TELUS Mobile Radio yesterday, Canada’s first streaming mobile radio service, “including 100 per cent commercial-free music and the best in comedy, talk and entertainment – all from their mobile phones.”
According to Stephen Tapp (President and COO of XM Canada):
This is another fantastic ‘first’ for XM Canada. The launch today represents the first time that satellite radio will be distributed in partnership with a wireless provider in Canada
As we noted in April, this service should fall under the CRTC’s blanket exemption for New Media.
Rogers has applied to put Sirius onto its cable network. It must go through a regulatory process to get permission to make these changes (and counter opposition from groups such as the Canadian Independent Record Producers).
For mobile services using IP delivery of the content, the CRTC has already ruled that these are new media, exempt from its oversight. Content could be available from all over the world and be targetting micro-markets.
Will Virgin tie in a suite of services to go with its Virgin Fest concert in September?
Update: A blog-shy colleague of mine writes that he does not think Rogers or Bell will need CRTC approval to include XM or Sirius services bundled with their high speed internet services, despite the need to apply for permission to carry the same services over conventional broadcast distribution technology.
One might ask what this means for technical neutrality and why voice over broadband is treated differently.