email from Radio Shack Canada

[oilerfan]

I received an email from Radio Shack Canada yesterday stating that something new was going to be announced in a few days. I wonder if it has anything to do with the CRTC decision for Sirius and XM as Radio Shack USA carries Sirius products.

[pauliwog]

It could very well be!

I'm interested as to what XM will need, (or has done) to get CRTC (Canandian Radio and Television Corp) approval. I can see them adding a few Canadian channels, but if they have to cut existing channels, I see a whole lot of current subscribers being VERY upset!

I think I heard somewhere that XM wanted to give $10 million (not too sure, so don't quote me) to the Canadian gov't for developing future musicians, to try to get around the 'Canadian Content' issue. (here in Canada, Candian stations have to play 30% Canadian music). There are a great many Canadian artists, (go Hip!) but the Canadian market is only 1/10th that of the US.

should be interesting!

[Kas]

Well it should come on Wed...if its anything.

[HornHonker]

The CRTC chairman was interviewed by a NationalPost reporter and all he could talk about was CANCON and upping it to 40%.

[CorpDan]

the crtc chairman has a special torture chamber reserved for him in hell.

it's the one that made stalin cry like a little bitch.

[Longhorn]

The decision will not be made until June at the earliest, it was originally supposed to be March. These guys never do anything on time. Fox News was supposed to be approved in November and I think it was January by the time they got around to doing it.

And the big RadioShack news was that they changed the name of their Canadian stores to "The Source" as a result of a lawsuit.

[Canadaeh?]

Re: Radio Shack in Canada no more?

Welcome to The Source By Circuit City. The official announcement is due today. The Star has a story on it in the business section. Since it is registered required, here it is:

"After 35 years as Radio Shack, one of the country's best-known consumer electronics retailers is changing its name to The Source by Circuit City.

The move, to be formally announced today, comes after the retailer lost a court battle in the U.S. last month.

RadioShack Corp., in the U.S., said the Canadian retailer, formerly owned by InterTan Inc., of Barrie, had violated its licensing agreement when InterTan agreed to be bought by rival U.S. consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc.

InterTan was Radio Shack's parent company in Canada.

The name change is just one of several changes the Canadian unit will make this year, president and chief executive Brian Levy said yesterday.

The 840-store chain said it plans to add more digital products. It will also begin experimenting with larger stores, doubling them in size to 5,500 square feet, Levy said.

The retailer plans to spend $22 million this year, roughly double its usual advertising and marketing budget, to promote the new name, Levy added.

"By the end of this year, our media campaign is such that there will be little left to chance," Levy said. "Circuit City is a very well known name in the U.S. and though Circuit City is not as well known here as Radio Shack, the name recognition is very positive in Canada."

Circuit City said it decided to modify its name slightly for the Canadian market, adding "The Source by" to its usual "Circuit City" banner to differentiate the smaller Canadian stores from its larger U.S. format.

It also gives the company the option of moving the smaller format stores into the U.S. market in the future, Circuit City chairman and chief executive Alan McCollough said.

"You have to think beyond today," McCollough said. The company has found in InterTan a wealth of experience in operating smaller format stores, he added.

Circuit City will be to some degree copying a strategy adopted by its big U.S. rival, Best Buy Inc.

Best Buy entered the Canadian market through the purchase of the Future Shop chain, which it has maintained as a distinct brand while also opening its larger Best Buy stores. The combined chain now controls nearly 30 per cent of the Canadian marketplace.

Circuit City said its original goal in buying InterTan was to get its hands on its broad range of private-label products. So far, the company has transferred about 300 of the 3,000 Nexxtech and Centrios brands developed for InterTan to its Circuit City stores in the U.S., McCollough said."

In a way the name change is not from RadioShack to The Source, it is from The Shack to The Source. I do like the idea of larger stores.

[sully812]

http://www.canada.com/businesscentre/story.html?id=d505a21d-061e-4917-bb9d-e6b7133e075d&rfp=dta

[Canadaeh?]

www.thesourcecc.com

[GMFreak8]

Damn I wish they would do this here in the states.

[Kas]

Yes. Thats cool!

[visiter555]

[Canadaeh?]

RadioShack Corporation today announced that it is forming a Canadian subsidiary to oversee the expansion of its chain of specialty consumer electronics stores in Canada as part of the company’s planned North American expansion strategy.

RadioShack expects the company to have upward of 20-30 company-owned stores operating in Canada by the end of the year, and that most of those will be in the Toronto area.

The announcement comes on the heels of a March 2005 court ruling in favor of RadioShack voiding a licensing agreement by InterTan Canada Ltd, which is now owned by Circuit City. The ruling prohibits Circuit City from using the RadioShack name in Canada or sub-licensing the RadioShack name to its independent dealers past June 2005. As such, Circuit City announced last week it is relinquishing the RadioShack name at almost 900 stores in Canada in favor of a new name.