Satellite Sirius

Canadian channels available on Sirius Canada will include the CBC’s English and French radio networks (CBC Radio One, CBC Radio Two, La Première Chaîne, Espace musique) and new channels built from the CBC’s web services CBC Radio Three and Bandeapart. Sirius Radio has rights to a number of major college sports conferences, including the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference as well as schools like Notre Dame. With the launch of Sirius Canada in December 2005, American listeners gained five Canadian-produced stations including CBC Radio One, CBC Radio Three, and Iceberg Radio in English and Première Plus and Bandeapart in French.

To get in the satellite game, you'll need to buy a Sirius or XM Radio tuner. The Sirius Radio business model is to provide pay-for-service radio, music channels being free of commercials, analogous to the business model for premium cable television. Cadillac is including XM enabled receivers in their high-end cars starting next year.

XM Satellite Radio produces the majority of its channels, as well as a few others that are not available via satellite, available on the Internet. Certain third-party channels may not be available over the Internet through XM Radio Online. XM Canada said it will have shipped 100,000 receivers to Canadian retailers before Christmas.

On September 13, 2005, XM Radio announced a multi-year deal to carry National Hockey League broadcasts beginning with the 2005-06 season, initially sharing the coverage with Sirius but gaining satellite-radio exclusivity from 2007 onward. The satellite radio tuner must match the brand of in-dash stereo you own. Plug-and-play satellite radios are the most popular options on the market for getting XM or SIRIUS.

If you want to listen to satellite radio content in places where you can't receive a live satellite signal, then a portable satellite radio is the ideal solution. Currently most satellite tuners are ultracompact units designed for transport between car and home. Hybrid portable satellite radios will let you save up to 50 hours of content, and let you store and play back your MP3s. Each satellite service offers close to 70 commercial-free music channels.