Sirius Canada went out and commissioned a study of Canadians to find out the level of support from the public, and guess what? 76% of Canadian respondants support the CRTC’s decision to grant satellite radio licenses to Sirus Canada and Canadian Satellite Radio.

The majority of lobbying opposition has been from French-language arts groups in Quebec, but yet only 21% of Quebecers feel the federal cabinet should overturn the CRTC’s decision. 69% of Quebecers actually support the ruling. 27% of Quebec respondents strong feel that the prospect of having Quebec artists heard all over North America outweigh the prospect of American/English channels threatening Quebec culture.

There’s also a very strong interest in satellite radio in Canada coming from younger Canadians, with 1/3 (yes, 33%) of Canadians under the age of 35 interested in becoming subscribers to one of the two satellite radio services.

One recent Orbitcast comment had the genius idea to just give them French-language Hockey and they’ll be happy. Genius!

In response to the possibility of the Canadian Feds overturning the CRTC’s decision, Sirius Canada has said it will up it’s French-language offering. No specifics yet but this is definitely an attempt to prevent the rescinding of the Canadian satellite radio broadcast licenses granted back in June.

Well, it looks like a bunch of groups (largely of the French-speaking type - go figure) have been lobbying the Canadian government to rescind the CRTC licenses granted to Canadian Satellite Radio and Sirius Canada, and it might just pay off.

The government has until September 14th to announce its decision, but their minds are pretty much made up already. The cabinet can let the CRTC decision stand, cancel the licenses, or refer the issue back to the commission for further consideration. Rumor has it that they’re going to ask the CRTC to rescind the licenses.

The funny thing is that this is all because of the “lack of” French-speaking channels - which the CRTC is “only” requiring 3 of. But there’s of course plans to create more French channels (it’s that whole supply and demand thing). If these lobbyists could be just a little patient rather than go crying to mommy, they would be able to have their cake and eat it too. But it looks like now everyone is going to lose. Great jobs guys.

Thanks Lil’ Conner! (haha)