XM & Sirius Satellite Radio

dwynne

Commercials = no need to bother with HD radio for me.

Lack of variety and programming = no need for HD radio.

I don't mind paying a fair price for the equipment and monthly service to get a wide variety of commercial free channels. I was an XM early adopter and have been with them just about since launch.

Dennis

jim53

I received a bill to re-up my XM subscription back in April. I believe my current subscription ran out in late April. I have yet to pay it as I really don't want to spend 142.48 for a year. So far, I have not gotten another bill and my service is still active. Does anyone know how long they leave the subscription active before shutting it off. Are they offering current subscribers discounts to continue service - if so, how do you get them?

upstatedoc

Oh!....be careful, that's how XM nailed me with my first subscription. They pointed out in the fine print that I had to cancel the service or it would be automatically renewed. I ended up paying three months at full price for services already received. I ended up cancelling the service for months out of spite and then renewed when they offered $77/year.

jim53

I'm not that concerned because I don't want to cancel it really - just want a better deal and am a little concerned that I will pay for a year and then they will go under.

Any advise on how to approach them about a better deal?

dwynne

Tell them that while you enjoy the XM service you are not sure it is worth $150 a year and that you have friends that told you about this special XM promo for $77 per year and you would like to get that. It may take several calls getting a different rep each time to get the deal, but you should be able to get it.

Dennis

parviz

They are also offering 5 months for $19 if anyone is interested. I think you would need to call 866-408-1896. The flyer said offer ends 6/30/2008!

upstatedoc

I'm still holding out for a better deal with Sirius, parvis any info on Sirius deals?

parviz

Sorry, I don't have any info on Sirius deals. I have XM on one car and had just let the other car's subscription lapse and I think that's why they sent me the $19 for 5 mos. deal in the mail. Actually, if you were lookinh into deals with XM, I think that is not a bad deal. That turns out to be $4 a month and you can cancel after the 5 mos. if you wanted to.

upstatedoc

Yeah, I have the $77/yr deal on my MDX until March of '09.

Puzzling as to why Sirius doesn't have similar deals.

Maybe they have enough Howard Stern fans who are willing to shell out the dough.

the_big_al

I've had XM for about 4 months now and I the only time I listen to "regular" radio is when I want to listen to the local AM news station. It is well worth the 12 bucks a month I pay... however I have not been as happy as I once thought witht the music selection and was curious to know if any Sirius listeners out there had any thoughts as to who has the better music selection. To be able to switch I would need to change head units (I hate having extra stuff cluttering my dash - my current head unit is an XM controller with the actuall XM reciever under my seat), but that is not a big issue - especially if Sirius has a better channel lineup.

the_big_al

You could go to Crutchfield.com and type in your Vehicle info and see if they have a Sirius ready head unit. I know that Pioneer makes a 1.5 DIN for GM and Chrysler vehicles, but it was also for older 80-90's vehicles and some early 00's. It was both sirius and xm ready. You might check it out... You might have to get a whole new Sirius set up, but you wouldn't have anything cluttering your dash...

the_big_al

The Velro might actually work - I used it in a similar fashion back in the day before I had an vehicle with a CD player. I mounted a portable DiscMan to my dash with Velco and ran a tape converter to my tape deck. Since the discman had a 10 sec memory anti-skip, it worked pretty well and the velcro never came loose...

jim53

They finally turned off my service. I did receive a message from them. When I called back they just said that I owed $23 for 2 months service and offered no incentive to stay with them which was surprising given their current situation. Any thoughts?

dwynne

Well, you do owe them so you have to pay them. I would call back several times and try for the $77 a year deal. I was able to do that twice on 2 difference cars and others have had similar luck.

Dennis

parviz

Or you can just waite a couple of months and they will contact you with several offers. Last week I got an offer to get 5 months for $19.95 w/ no activation fee and I took it for now.

jim53

I called once and asked for the better deal and was told there was none available for me. I called back again and was told basically the same thing. I then said to cancel my service and all of a sudden I qualified for the $77 per year program. It sounds like that promo code only appears in your account if you actually cancel service. Since I had only not paid the bill I got to re-up for a year my service was still on just behind in payment.

stever

"Adelstein, the potential deciding vote, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he would support Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s $3.1 billion buyout of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. if the companies agree to a six-year price cap and make one-quarter of their satellite capacity available for public interest and minority programming, plus other conditions."

ABC News

nippononly

Will this deal EVER be concluded?!

stever

Done deal? Finally?

"Even without a new radio, consumers will have new options. For example, a bare-bones plan of just 50 stations from one of the two services will cost $6.99 a month, compared with $12.95 for more than 100 stations currently. Consumers will also likely soon see a number of programming changes as the companies get rid of redundant programming."

FCC Commissioners Will Approve XM-Sirius Deal (WSJ)

tpe

Regardless of what this merged company offers and what they charge the consumers will have an option that they didn't have 10 years ago. If the price is too high or the offerings too limited the consumer will stick with broadcast radio, mp3 players, or whatever. I never understood how a single satellite radio company could be bad for the radio listening public. I've read a lot of posters saying that they'd pay $5/month but not $13/month for satellite radio. Fine, they'll be listening to broadcast radio. No loss to them. Their radio listening experience will be the same as if satellite radio never existed. How can they complain? I guess they could claim that they are entitled to this new product at a low price and whether or not the providers make money is irrelevant.

stever

I'd link to the WSJ article, but the headline and story will probably change again in an hour.

Next up - XM-Sirius, the Soap Opera.

It'll be on PBS. :P

cdnpinhead

Thanks for keeping us up to date. It'll certainly be interesting to see how this plays out.

dtownfb

It was approved. It should be interesting to see how this affects consumers.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/25/technology/sirius_xm_approval.ap/index.htm?postv- ersion=2008072611

fintail

I wonder if there is some kind of merger-related stuff going on already. Today I turned on my Sirius unit and it read "updating channel list" or something to that effect, and it received data for maybe a minute. Then it defaulted to the weather emergency channel, and my presets were all erased. I had to start re-entering them, and I notice some channels have different numbers than a year ago.

nippononly

My Sirius receiver performed that operation two weeks ago, such a hassle, reprogramming all those presets. I wish they would find a cleaner way to update their channel list.

I had it on tonight, and it didn't do it again, but it did do that one other time maybe a year ago.

And two weeks ago, while I noticed as you did that some of the channel numbers had changed, it seemed that all the actual content was about the same. I was able to find all the stations I had on presets before, and nothing stood out in each list as a new offering. But then I hardly ever roam around the channels like that, I almost always just stick to my preset list. So I might not notice if new channels were present.

I still curse the receiver on a regular basis for signal dropouts under trees and freeway bridges, and even sometimes just out in the wide open spaces. One day my patience with that will reach its limit and I will just cancel it.

fintail

I just printed out a new channel list - I don't see anything new, nothing I would listen to anyway. It shouldn't take me more than a few mins to re-enter my presets, but it's the principle...kind of a heavy-handed way to update things.

I live in a heavily treed area - in many places trees cover the road like a tunnel. I lose signal there and in actual tunnels of course, but it is fine otherwise, even around tall buildings etc. Local radio here is pretty dull and the ipod can be distracting, so this still works for me.

upstatedoc

^^ Hey steve, isn't there a forum for this fellow somewhere here?

144tap

Just curious, nothing constructive about this subject yet for Sept. Any info update from our hosts, Steve/Claires ?

stever

isn't there a forum for this fellow somewhere here

Probably, but Fin and Nippononly have been here forever so they should be able to find it if they don't already know about one. Maybe just the Toyota Echo discussion for Nippononly. :shades:

dtownfb

Here's an article that gives more information as to the timeline for offering stations and pricing:

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2008/09/08/daily30.html?b=1- 220846400^1697215&ana=e_abd

stever

Sounds like the churn rate is still bad and the debt from putting the satellites in orbit is hurting the companies.

By the time this deal gets fully implemented, we'll be listening to internet radio in our cars instead of sat radio.

What’s Going on with the Satellite Radio Merger? (MarketNews)

guss

I have a 3 month free subscription to XM in my new Malibu. This is my second time having XM and I must say the reception is much better when it is built into the car instead of my Roadie with wires draped everywhere.

It looks like with the merger it is going to be a lot like TV cable in that alot of channels will be additional money. Whatever they are doing they better get it resolved in the next 3 months for me to renew. I don't want to renew for a year and find the changes after that will be to channels I like.

stever

"The chief question in most satellite radio listeners' minds has been, would XM and Sirius subscribers always remain separate? Today, the official answer has changed from "Yes" to "Sorta," with the emergence of new "best-of" selections."

Sirius adds a la carte, 'Best of XM' options (BetaNews)

guss

So, for $28 per month Sirrus subscribers will get most of XM's programing and for $17 per month XM subscribers will get Howard Stern and the NFL. I think they still need to get the bugs worked out and get the price under $10 per month before they get listeners in any great numbers.

tallman1

I'm a little disappointed. I thought it was a merger, not an add-on. I guess we are supposed to be happy the rates haven't gone up for keeping what we already have.

qbrozen

D'oh!!

I have a buy a new radio?? That totally defeats the purpose. I mean, for $129 for the new radio, that's a full year of regular programming on my current radio. So I pay $129 for the new radio so that I can pay $6.99 for a la carte. Hmmm... so it would take 2 years before the radio pays for itself, at which time its probably outdated and they'll require I buy another one. This is starting to sound like a cell phone plan to me.

Well, my subscription ran out last month and I have not renewed because they haven't offered any kind of deal. I have 2 radios and am not paying ~$20/mo.

nippononly

I am with Sirius and let me tell you, they increase costs at their peril. If I either have to buy a new radio or pay 1 dollar more per month, I will cancel instead. It was raining here this weekend and the radio was cutting out all the time. Plus I still have problems with reception at sunset, near tall trees, etc. My patience is already stretched thin at the $12.95 I pay now, with the plug-n-play I have had for a couple of years.

The thing is, when it IS working properly, it is WORTH the $12.95/month. Otherwise, I would have cancelled long ago.

michaellno

My wife's VUE has XM and our subscription is up in November. I'll be interested to see what kind of deals, if any, are available.

I'm hoping for an 'a la carte' option of, say, 50 channels for $7.95/mo.

Guess we'll see.

stever

Proposed Law Calls for XM and Sirius Receivers to Tune In HD Radio Broadcasts

This smells like a bit like a protection racket to me - am I missing something?

upstatedoc

$28!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's an outrage! I'm paying $6.41 a month for XM,I only listen to 5-6 channels max. If they can't come up with an a la carte for around that I'm going back to FM. :P

qbrozen

If you only listen to 5-6 channels, then you CAN get a $6.99/mo option.

The basic "A La Carte" package lets Sirius subscribers pick and choose 50 items from a menu of standard channels at a fee starting at $6.99 per month.

HOWEVER, as is my current problem, you have to have a radio that supports it.

nippononly

Bear in mind that very few receivers receive satellite AND AM/FM. Even now, most carmakers are simply putting in an aux jack, labelling it "sat" and giving dealers a chance to install a separate satellite-only tuner in the car, which then feeds through the regular stereo if you press the SAT button.

In future, as/if it becomes common practice to install tri-band stereos at the factory that receive AM/FM/SAT, then I think it makes sense for them to have the HD band as well. But I wonder how many years it will be before car stereos in non-premium branded cars have a standard satellite tuner included in the head unit. My bet is many years.

stever

My Subaru has a weather band on the factory radio. I rarely use it. I'm sure I paid for it though.

This deal sounds like the old time broadcasters are going to make it more expensive for sat customers to buy a radio by forcing it to have a feature they some consumers may not want. Something tells me that HD radio won't be ad free like much of Sirius and XM are (although that may go by the wayside completely too eh?).

nippononly

Well they will lose my subscription the day they start putting commercials in.

You have to wonder, just what IS the future of sat radio? Will all broadcasters eventually just use the satellites for free (I'm talking a long time in the future here; it would have to gain in popularity a LOT first)?

Ground-based broadcasting works just fine, it seems to me. The sat radio attraction of being able to travel all over with the same channels is IMO cancelled out by how poor the reception is in town, near tall trees, and in bad weather.

That leaves the lack of commercials (and the diverse channel offerings). HD is plagued with commercials, I'm sure, just as commercial AM/FM broadcasting is now. I have had no interest in getting an HD receiver in the car, and when I hear all those ads promoting it, I just feel kind of sorry for the HD broadcasters. They are putting on a massive advertising effort, which I suspect will ultimately be unsuccessful unless they can make deals with automakers to make all car stereos tri-band, with or without a government mandate.

Footnote: it does make you wonder: what exactly is the GOVERNMENT'S interest in ensuring that all drivers can receive HD?

stever

Footnote: it does make you wonder: what exactly is the GOVERNMENT'S interest in ensuring that all drivers can receive HD?

Follow the money (and the lobbyists). The National Association of Broadcasters is probably the main outfit trying to crimp sat radio's style every way they can. They fought low power FM tooth and nail - that would enable tons of alternatives to commercial radio.

The NAB always tries to stack the commission and staff of the FCC.

michaellno

If you only listen to 5-6 channels, then you CAN get a $6.99/mo option.

The basic "A La Carte" package lets Sirius subscribers pick and choose 50 items from a menu of standard channels at a fee starting at $6.99 per month.

That's Sirius .. does XM offer the same deal?

Just checked the XM website .. they offer a "Mostly Music" option with 60 channels of music for $9.99 each month. Similar deal for news, sports and talk.

No a la carte option.

Guess we'll see what deals are available next month.

boomchek

But I wonder how many years it will be before car stereos in non-premium branded cars have a standard satellite tuner included in the head unit. My bet is many years.

Chrysler had many low an mid level modesl that come with Sat radio built in to their base head unit. Doesn't even say on the radio, but it's there.

My mid level Patriot has it, many Rams have it, even some Calibers do.

qbrozen

Huh.
I didn't realize they were separating the company's deals still. Seems weird. And I wonder why, if XM can already offer select channels on their radios, they can't offer the a la carte deal, too.

qbrozen

Our Pacifica had it, so did my Accord.

But it wasn't "standard" equipment. I kind of doubt that will ever happen. If folks are willing to pay for the subscription, they would be willing to pay extra for the installed option.

upstatedoc

Oh sweet, my v-dub has Sirius and I have been looking for deals since my intro subscription ran out.