This year’s Canada Day celebrations are now a memory. The fireworks over the lake have faded and the bands have gone home. In a couple of days our American neighbours will do the same thing for The Fourth of July.

The almost forgotten medium of radio has just undergone a rebirth of sorts where, in Canada, the fireworks were for the first licensing of two satellite radio services. Elsewhere, virtual fireworks have recently accompanied the addition of podcasting features to Apple’s iTunes software.

and they’re off…
So (legal) Satellite Radio has at last come to Canada. On hearing that the CRTC had finally sanctioned the medium my first thought was “Thank goodness they will have nothing to say about podcasting” 🙂

My second thought was that “expensive” satellite radio will most certainly be competing with “free” podcasts. This is true on my daily GO train commute into Toronto where mp3 players are one of the few diversions that can keep riders awake. (but not always)

Car radios, a common “driver” for satellite, are now being advertised as “iPod ready” and lots of iPod-to-car-radio connection options ranging from $50 – $250. Now that iTunes is “podcast ready” public knowledge of podcasting will increase.

On today’s Best Buy home page I see the featured buy “Here Comes Satellite Radio” right below the announcement of the latest colour screen iPod series.

The competition, if it develops this way, will indeed be interesting to watch since both satellite and podcasting are arriving in the Canadian market at about the same time, unlike the US where satellite was available years before podcasting developed.

Canadian content
The Canadian Content issue was, and continues to be, an issue with Satellite broadcast licences. In Canada the percentage of Canadian content is regulated by the CRTC. Which is why it will be interesting to see how this will compare with Canadian podcast “content”… however that will be measured.

Hi Ho!