Digital Home Canada put together a comparison between XM Canada and SIRIUS Canada, declaring winners in different characters. Here's the final breakdown:

Station Selection Winner: Slight edge to Sirius
Reception Winner: Slight edge XM Canada
Sound Quality Winner: XM Radio
Hardware Winner: Tie
Pricing Winner: Slight edge to Sirius

The final conclusion? Neither really:

Consider XM Radio - if you want the best sound quality, you spend a lot of time in downtown urban centres or you must have NHL hockey.
Consider Sirius - if you want more stations, you need three or four receivers or live well north of the 49th parallel.

Agree? Disagree? Read the article and feel free to comment about it here. Something tells me some people may disagree...

[Digital Home Canada]

A few days ago, Decima Research released its findings that Sirius Canada appears to be leading XM Canada in market awareness for the Canadian satellite radio race. XM Canada disputed these findings, citing theWilcox Group's market research that shows most Canucks want XM Canada over Sirius Canada.

An interesting twist in the whole debate, and one that I didn't realize: Sirius Canada won't be required to release their subscriber numbers. Since XM Canada is a public company, they're required to release this data, but Sirius Canada has no obligation to do so. XM Canada's guidance numbers have XM Canada subscribers at 75,000 by YE 2006 and 1 Million by 2010.

[Cable Caster] 

That's what Canadian research firm Decima Research says. According to one of their latest studies conducted last month, 6% of Canadians - equalling up to 2 million Canadians - said they would likely subscribe to satellite radio within the next year at the current price point. Another 14% said they might or might not subscribe within the next year.

77% said they are aware of satellite radio, led by men (87%), those 25-34 (86%), and households with $100K annual income or more (87%).

Sirius Canada appears to holds the market share lead over XM Canada with those likely to buy a satellite radio within the next year. 27% of respondants are leaning towards Sirius Canada versus 12% for XM Canada.

[Cable Caster]