TORONTO – Saying that XM Canada is in a better place now than its American counterparts were at the same point in their launch, XM Canada president and COO Stephen Tapp mentioned today the company may move into sending more than audio and a little data over its satellite pipe.
With over 120,000 subscribers, XM is ahead of where it had planned to be and "all of our financial metrics are right where we thought they’d be," Tapp said during the BMO Capital Markets 2006 Media and Telecom Conference on Tuesday.
The ability to leverage the infrastructure and the content already in place from XM (U.S.) and to use the cross-border buzz about satellite radio helped build the Canadian company and the satellite radio sector in Canada – which probably now has about 250,000 customers, including Sirius Canada. However, Sirius Canada is a private company which doesn’t divulge subscriber info.
The existing delivery pipe, however, can be leveraged to offer more than just music. Speculation has grown Stateside that the satellite radio players would move into data and video distribution, too. Not that they would necessarily compete with the DTH TV companies, but instead deliver video to cars and its mobile devices.
"We can deliver a lot of content to the automobile… video to the car is a technical possibility," says Tapp, "but we haven’t launched anything."
– Greg O’Brien
