Two of Canada's biggest car makers say that if the federal broadcast regulator doesn't decide soon on whether to license satellite radio, they won't be able to install units in their 2006 models.
Executives at General Motors of Canada Ltd. and Honda Canada Inc. said that with the selling season about to start on next year's models, they need to know if they can offer satellite radio equipment in their vehicles.
"We need a damn decision" from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, said David Paterson, GM Canada's vice-president of corporate and governmental affairs. "The 2006 selling season starts now."
"For the 2006 model year we needed the decision a month ago," said Jim Miller, Honda Canada's senior vice-president of corporate affairs.
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While Honda won't begin making 2006 models until September, Mr. Miller said, parts and fittings such as wiring harnesses are ordered as much as six months in advance.
Unless the CRTC's decision is imminent, "we'll probably have to pass until the 2007 model year," Mr. Miller said.
GM and Honda already install radios from XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. on cars sold in the United States. Both have agreed to do the same in Canada, in association with Canadian Satellite Radio Inc., XM's partner in this country.
The CRTC is considering Canadian Satellite's licence application, but the regulator also has other subscription radio applications on its plate. One is from CSR's rival Sirius Canada Inc., a partnership between Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Standard Broadcasting Inc. and U.S. firm Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.
The other is a bid for another type of digital subscription radio service from CHUM Ltd. and Astral Media Inc. that proposes to use terrestrial transmitters instead of satellites.
Mr. Miller said that when Honda appeared before a CRTC hearing in November, the company was under the impression a decision would come within one to three months, but that timetable appears to have slipped.
In a speech in mid-April, CRTC chairman Charles Dalfen said the decision on subscription radio will be issued "no later than June 30."
GM has already started making some 2006 models, Mr. Paterson said, "so every day that passes by at this point is another vehicle that gets introduced [without satellite radio equipment]. If we haven't had the decision we can't take the business risk of going ahead and starting to install those technical aspects into the vehicles."
He said it is difficult, but "not impossible," to begin installing satellite radio equipment part way through a vehicle's production run.
If the CRTC does approve satellite radio licences, owners of older cars will be able to add "aftermarket" hardware to receive signals.
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