SATELLITE RADIO APPEAL SMACKS OF MUCHMONOPOLY CNW Canadian Satellite Radio (CSR) issued the following statement today in response to CHUM/Astral Media's filing of an Appeal to Cabinet in regards to the subscription radio decision:
"CHUM thought our technology was so exciting that they tried to buy a majority interest of Canadian Satellite Radio but I refused," said John I. Bitove, CSR chairman and CEO. "Now, when they couldn't have another MUCHmonopoly, they purport to represent Canadian culture. We believe Canadian music lovers deserve choice and diversity and that independent artists should be allowed to bring their brand of music throughout rural and urban North America. We welcome competition from the few closely held media firms but this Appeal smacks of monopoly.
"As expected, many of the broadcasters listed as signatories to today's CHUM/Astral Appeal to Cabinet are the same broadcasters that are mentioned as possible contributors to CHUM/Astral's original subscription radio application," said Bitove. "All of today's comments were previously raised before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The CRTC deliberated the subscription radio Decision for two years and received approximately 1,000 submissions from the public. The CRTC issued a unanimous (5-0) Decision supporting our application and carefully balancing the needs of consumers, artists and the regulator and Canadian broadcasting system.
"CHUM/Astral Media's original proposal to the CRTC ignores independent artists, blatantly ignores rural Canadians and plans to compete directly with established radio broadcasters," said Bitove. "CHUM/Astral received a licence, like us, and now they are trying to circumvent the CRTC process in order to achieve another media monopoly, this time for subscription radio."
Multiethnic programming is a cornerstone of CSR's philosophy and it represents 20 per cent of CSR's channel offering in its original application. CSR has announced programming agreements with CIRV FM (Portuguese), Telelatino and the Asian Television Network.
"It is absolutely outrageous that they are suggesting that we are ignoring French language, ethnocultural and/or aboriginal programming," said Bitove. "This is an out-and-out fabrication and clearly CSR is committed to promoting diversity and great programming of Canada to North America." |