Given the explosive growth of the satellite-radio market in the U.S., the Canadian companies - Canadian Satellite Radio and Sirius Canada - that have received CRTC licenses know they are sitting on a pot of gold. CSR, which has partnered with XM Satellite Radio, will be worth about $700M when the service is up and running. In fact, CSR CEO John Bitove has already talked about doing a $100-million IPO. The opportunity to score a huge investment win explains why CSR and Sirius said today they will carry an equal number of French and English Canadian channels, which means they will offer four French and four Engilsh channels when their services are launched. CSR and Sirius hope the even split will be enough to persuade the federal government not to send the licenses back to the CRTC for further review. There had been speculation the minority Liberal government, which is fighting for its political life, would pursue a review as a way to reach out to French-Canadian voters. Now, it looks like CSR and Sirius have danced the dance so they can start doing business. The cynic in me says this is how the political arena works but, frankly, the idea of the government sticking its nose into the satelllite radio industry stinks. If the federal government is silly enough to stop Canadian satellite radio service providers from doing business because it wants to oversee programming, it should expect to see the grey market flourish.