In a decision issued today, the CRTC has upheld an earlier ruling that prevents ExpressVu and Star Choice from offering Sirius satellite radio or XM radio channels along with their satellite television offerings.
The government agency ruled that Sirius and XM satellite were not traditional program offerings therefore the direct-to-home (DTH) satellite providers are not authorized to distribute them.
The issue began in March when the Commission received a letter from the CBC seeking clarification regarding carriage of satellite subscription radio (SSR) services by broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs). BDU’s are the term used in the industry to describe cable, satellite and IPTV companies such as SaskTel and MTS.
In the letter, the CBC stated that it had learned that one or both of the satellite television companies were considering distributing SSR services to their subscribers. The CBC argued that such distribution was not permissible under current rules.
The CRTC sent a letter to ExpressVu and Star Choice. Star Choice responded that it had no plans to distribute an SSR service as part of its DTH service and that it was aware of its regulatory obligations.
ExpressVu confirmed that it had not yet begun to distribute SSR services, but expressed the view that the current rules did not rule out the possibility of them doing so.
In April, the commission issued a staff opinion which suggested that satellite subscription radio (SSR) was licensed as a new type of broadcasting undertaking, namely a satellite subscription radio undertaking, and that they were not licensed as “programming undertakings”. Therefore, because SSR was not a programming undertaking, ExpressVu could not distribute it.
In May, ExpressVu appealed saying that after examining the definition of a “programming undertaking”, the CSR and Sirius services were indeed a “programming undertaking”.
ExpressVu then asked the commission for a ruling on the issue. That ruling was issued today in Broadcasting decision CRTC 2006-615.
In its ruling the CRTC upheld the earlier staff opinion that said that XM radio and Sirius were licensed as a satellite subscription radio undertaking and were not a programming undertaking therefore ExpressVu and Star Choice do not have the authority to distribute XM and Sirius satellite radio programming under their existing condition of licence.
