Satellite Radio Merger not so friendly in Canada

While the merger of XM and Sirius is being described as a "merger of equals," it doesn't seem that their Canadian counterparts share the same mentality.

Sirius Canada (which is a private company owned by the CBC, Standard Broadcasting and Sirius), feels that with 300,000 paying subscribers they're the larger entity, and should get a larger piece.

"It's not a business of equals in Canada, we're significantly ahead of them," Sirius Canada CEO Mark Redmond said.

"I'm not saying what a potential Canadian deal would look like because we're not even remotely close to that yet. But we are the market leader in Canada by a significant margin and we have no plan of letting up. You can't use the same equation.”

But XM Canada feels they bring a key asset to the table: the $69-million deal with the National Hockey League for the rights to broadcast thousands of games over the next eight years. The NHL contract represents more than one-fifth of the present market value of Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., the publicly traded company operating XM Canada.

"We paid a lot," said John Bitove, CEO of Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. "These are some of the ramifications that we'll have to take into account if we decide to pursue the road as they are in the U.S.... If we even have a choice."

If the merger goes ahead in the US, there may be little Canadian regulators can do to block the consolidation, since one company will likely relinquish its licence as the assets are combined.

[Globe and Mail]