A complicating factor in any Canadian merger talks was that Sirius Canada had far more than half of the total satellite radio subscriber base in Canada, and felt they deserved greater than a 50/50 split of the new company, whereas XM Canada felt that their deal with the National Hockey League — a particularly lucrative prize in Canadian sports broadcasting — warranted a larger share of value in the new company than its subscriber base would suggest.

[4] In an interview with The Globe and Mail before the merger was approved, Bitove also noted the difficulties that arose from the merged American service becoming a minority shareholder in both of the Canadian companies simultaneously, such as conflicts of interest that forced the American company to leave its Canadian partners out of strategic planning discussions which would have given each company power over decisions affecting the other.

[9] John Bitove's Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. held 30.4% and effective control of the new company.

[4] Both Bitove and Mark Redmond, the former president and CEO of Sirius Canada, hold executive roles with the new company.

In 2016, Sirius XM Canada, which had had its shares publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, announced a privatization ("go-private") and recapitalization transaction whereby three of the broadcaster's largest shareholders – Slaight Communications, John Bitove's Obelysk Media, and Sirius XM U.S. – would buy out the remaining public shareholders.

[11] The transaction was completed the next year, following CRTC approval, following which Sirius XM took a 70% equity interest in the Canadian firm but only 33% of voting shares, with the remainder split between Slaight and Obelysk.

[13] Sirius XM Canada is the Canadian distributor of the namesake SiriusXM satellite radio and streaming platforms.

The service must also make significant ongoing financial contributions to Canadian content development.