Recently in Sirius Canada Category

Sirius Canada now has their own app for the iPhone or iPod Touch, but much like the Sirius XM iPhone App offered in the States, there are some limitations.

Namely, no Howard Stern.

Just when everyone was wondering whether Sirius Canada and XM Canada would merge, word comes out from the investment banking community that "the door is now open."

Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. left the door open for a merger between its XM Canada operation and Sirius Canada yesterday at its investor meeting, but there was no clear signal that one is in the works.

"Are there synergies? Sure there are synergies," said CEO Michael Moskowitz after the meeting.

Sirius Canada has exceeded 750,000 paying subscribers, adding more than 250,000 subscribers in the 8 months since October 2007, according to an announcement made this morning.

The last 8 months were the company's strongest period of subscriber growth since inception and Sirius expects the growth to continue through the Father's Day sales period and beyond.

"Sirius has experienced a surge of growth in the past 8 months from both the automotive and retail channel and its subscriber base is now in excess of 750,000 paying customers," said Mark Redmond, President and CEO, Sirius Canada Inc. "The last 8 months were the strongest period of subscriber growth since launch and our success to-date has surpassed the expectations of the company's management and shareholders.

"We'd like to thank Sirius' employees, subscribers as well as our automotive and retail partners for helping achieve this important milestone."

Sirius Canada also said it will increase their programming line-up to 120 full time channels later this month.

Sirius Canada has snagged themselves a long-term exclusive agreement with Kia Canada.

Kia and Sirius are have already had a long-term agreement here in the States. It runs through 2014 with an option to extend to 2017. The terms of the Sirius Canada agreement were not announced.

The partnership, which begins next month, will make Sirius Satellite Radio a factory-installed option for most Kia vehicles sold in Canada, including the all-new 2009 Kia Borrego mid-size SUV.

All Sirius-equipped Kia vehicles will include a 3-month Sirius subscription.

Subaru will be offering Sirius Satellite Radio exclusively in the majority of its vehicles sold in Canada, starting in June. It's a clear sign that the battle for exclusive OEM deals is as hot as ever with our neighbors up North.

The exclusive deal is for the Subaru Legacy, Outback and Impreza (pictured) models. Additional Sirius-exclusive Subaru models will be announced in the coming months.

"Sirius is the leading satellite radio brand in Canada and we are very pleased to expand our satellite radio offering on our volume vehicles," said Katsuhiro Yokoyama, president, chairman and chief executive officer of Subaru Canada, "We are excited about providing even more Subaru drivers with an enhanced in-vehicle entertainment experience from Sirius Satellite Radio."

Bonus: Click the jump to watch one of the coolest Subaru commercials made. It has nothing to do with Sirius, but it's mighty fun to watch.

While the U.S. versions of Sirius and XM are happily skipping along holding hands, our neighbors up North may not be sharing the same sentiment.

Following the Justice Department's greenlight of the Sirius-XM merger, XM Canada announced that they'll have no part of such shenanigans - at this time.

"We have a strong business model in Canada and are committed to an aggressive growth strategy aimed at increasing our subscriber base and delivering outstanding programming right across the country," said Michael Moskowitz, the newly minted President and CEO of XM Canada.

"We are excited about XM Canada's prospects as 60 per cent of all new vehicles made by Canada's automotive manufacturers are equipped with XM satellite radios, we now have exclusive NHL satellite radio broadcast rights and we now have 400,000 subscribers," added Moskowitz. "We will diligently review any opportunity that arises from this decision and evaluate the impact on our economic positioning and the benefit derived for our customers and shareholders."

So while some analysts opine on the prospects of a reverse takeover - where XM Canada would issue shares to buy Sirius Canada - this statement by Moskowitz clearly indicates that's not in the cards. Yet.

[Broadcaster Magazine]