January 2006 Archives

XM NavTraffic, XM Radio's nationwide satellite traffic information service for GPS navigation systems, will add nine metro markets this quarter bringing the total number of markets covered by XM NavTraffic to 31.

XM NavTraffic currently delivers real-time traffic information for drivers in 22 markets from New York to Los Angeles. In the coming months, XM NavTraffic will expand into Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver-Boulder, Milwaukee-Racine, Portland, Providence-Warwick- Pawtucket, Sacramento, San Antonio and Wilmington, DE.

[XM NavTraffic]

The rumor mill is churning away once again as the Dell DJ XM Satellite Radio/MP3 player rears it's head again. Nothing really solid to work with, but supposedly the next-generation Dell DJ will be hitting the streets in about 3 weeks or so. This is pretty close with the estimates of when the Samsung Helix and Pionner Inno will be out (late March/early April), but no word on whether the Dell DJ Satellite will have a live-reception mode like those units.

My guess is it'll remain with the live-only-when-docked functionality as I saw it back in August along side the Samsung Nexus. I definitely don't feel this unit is vaporware, having seen it with my own eyes and having the vaporware theory swatted with the reemergence of the Nexus. My guess is the delays are quite possibly because it's getting the upgrade to be XM Passport friendly. Especially with TI's MP3/Satrad chip is now available - I can't see why it wouldn't be XM Passport compatable.

[Dell DJ Site]
Thanks Ben!

Wachovia Securities senior media analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak had some pretty harsh words to say about the satellite radio industry as whole, especially about XM Satellite Radio.

“It is hard to argue that Sirius and XM valuations are not implying an optimistic long term scenario for the satellite radio industry.”

“We do not believe that, in '06, the market will be able to reach a conclusion whether or not satellite radio will ultimately be a great success or not. Therefore these stocks are likely to trade primarily on news flow and we believe Sirius is likely to have what appears to be a materially stronger year than XM.”

The interesting thing is that his forecasts for XM's new net subscribers isn't that far off from XM's own guideance - 3.05 million versus 3.067 million respectively. So what gives? Well, in a word, ch-ch-churn.

Part of Wlodarczak's reasoning involve an increased likelihood that more XM subs might drop the service than are expected to do so. As the Wachovia analyst put it, “potential higher churn from ultra low radio pricing in Q4 and Q1 (when consumers have less 'skin in the game' they are more prone to churn).”

[Billboard Radio Monitor] 

The AMCP Tech Blog got the jealousy-inducing opportunity to beta test the upcoming Samsung Helix XM2go MP3/Satrad player, and it looks to be a pretty positive review. The first thing I should note is that the previous reports of a "delayed" GUI don't seem to be a problem with the author's version. In fact, several people who played with the Helix/Inno at CES didn't find this delay at all - so at this point I'll file that away as a non-issue.

Another thing to note is that the author definitely appears not to be a satrad-fanboy like some of us are... this could be construed as positive or negative, but getting input from people who aren't familiar with the product is probably a better test of ease-of-use so I'll lean towards the positive for that.

Unfortunately, the one key thing that still remains unanswered is the reception strength of the next-generation XM2go units versus the current XM2go units. I guess you can assume reception will be stronger, but it'd be nice to get some validation on that.

[AMCP Tech Blog]
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

A loyal reader of Orbitcast - let's call him Proper Modulation - sent in this bit, and I gotta admit it's a great idea. He recently learned that the FM transmitter on his satellite radio receiver is a bit stronger than that crappy iTrip he had... quite a bit stronger. In fact, he'd get over a block radius of broadcast reception out of the thing.

Suddenly the gears started grinding and he came up with an idea. If other people knew the frequency of his receiver, they could tune in to his satrad unit while on the highway. Sure, they'd lose signal eventually - but it at least gives them a taste of what they're missing.

So he made a simple sticker that shows the frequency on it, and stuck it near his satellite radio antenna. Some geeks will get the fact that it's satellite radio, while others will tune in just out of curiousity. Awesome! Talk about viral marketing. Below is a pic...

Even cooler, he decided to open up a CafePress store in hopes that others will help establish these ad-hoc radio networks on the highways. You can call yourselves roving repeater towers. :) I don't really think he's out to make a quick buck out of it - but then again, who cares if he does. It's a great idea and I'd love to see if people could get involved.

Yahoo's Buzz Index, a meter to show the percentage of searches made on a day, shows that Howard's impact on web searches is still running strong. Citing spikes in searches for peeps like George Takei, Rachel Hunter, Adrianne Curry, Shawn King, Roy Simmons, Alexis Stewart (Martha's daughter - who had by far the biggest spike in with a buzz increase of 5,739%) and of course Bubba The Love Spong - the "Stern effect" still applies for the web.

Sorta.

One thing that I really should point out is that searches for these people aren't necessarily huge to begin with. So it's easy to throw off the Buzz Meter from that standpoint. Still, trying not to be a cynical ass, it's cool to see this kind of stuff in action.

[The Buzz Log] 

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, XM Satellite Radio has posted the sharpest year-to-year gain in the number of unique visitors to hardware manufacturers’ sites in December, with visits increasing 114% to 3 million from 1.4 million.

Here's the Top 10:
1. Apple, had 35.7 million visits, up 65% from 21.7 million a year earlier
2. Dell, pulled in 18.5 million visits, up 6% from 17.5 million
3. Hewlett Packard, 13.9 million, up 14% from 12.2 million
4. Sun Microsystems, 3.6 million, down 14% from 4.2 million.
5. XM Satellite Radio, 3 million, up 114% from 1.4 million
6. IBM, 2.6 million, unchanged from 2004
7. Gateway, 2.2 million, down 8% from 2.4 million
8. Palm, 2.1 million, up 50% from 1.4 million
9. Playstation, 2.1 million, up 50% from 1.4 million
10. Bose, 1.6 million, up 23% from 1.3 million.

[Internet Retailer]

XM Satellite Radio will offer a "sneak preview" of a new series hosted by Quincy Jones as part of XM's month-long celebration of Black History Month. Featuring stories, interviews and archived recordings, "RNBQ: The History of R&B told by Quincy Jones" is a historical look at the spectrum of popular music created by African-American artists, composers, producers and musicians since its inception.

As a preview XM will broadcast the first episode of "RNBQ," which will cover the 1940s through 1959 including artists, such as Nat King Cole and Louis Jordan, and their hit songs. "RNBQ, Part One" will air on XM's old school R&B channel The Groove on Monday, February 20th at 10am ET, with encores throughout the week.

The complete season of "RNBQ" will premiere in June 2006.

Check out some other highlights of XM's Black History Month programming after the jump...

BoA analyst Jonathan Jacoby has done some recalcuations from his previous estimates, that now reporting that SIRIUS will need 2.4 million subscribers (up 900,000 from 1.5 million) to break-even with the signing of Howard Stern. Instead of $500M, he says that SIRIUS needs to make up $679M estimated to payout to Stern.

Here's where his math comes from: Take the $400M of cash payments + $279M of equity compensation. Jacoby says the latter figure includes the $218 million already given to Stern, along with “incremental equity” the analyst expects Stern to get by exceeding subscriber targets this year, too.

"To reach break-even on Stern, we estimate Sirius requires 2.4 million incremental subscriptions," Jacoby wrote in a recent report. “While it is somewhat complex to estimate the exact number of incremental subscribers that signed up only because of Stern, we estimate [500,000] incremental ‘Stern’ net adds in 2005.”

Also of note, according to Jacoby, recent checks indicate that the early 2006 Sirius retail surge is now starting to fall off despite the continuation of hardware price discounting.

[Billboard Radio Monitor]
[Forbes]

Both XM Satellite Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio are featuring special programming for the 48th Annual GRAMMY Awards on February 8th, 2006. SIRIUS will be broadcasting special music and commentary programs that will highlight all the excitement and drama of the music industry's biggest night. Their Top 40 hits channel SIRIUS Hits 1 and The Pulse, which features the best music of the '90s and now, will be the home base for their GRAMMY programs on SIRIUS with preview features, live updates on the GRAMMYs and much more.

XM Satellite Radio, the "official" satellite radio partner of the GRAMMY Awards, will be dedicating XM Live 200 to the GRAMMYs completely and will be entitling it GRAMMY Radio. GRAMMY Radio, with exclusive pre-show coverage of GRAMMY Week events, begining on February 6th, and bringing you inside never-before heard events with some of the biggest names in music. On February 7th, you'll get live coverage of the exclusive Clive Davis party as well as a ton of other exclusive programming throughout the week.

In a scathing article, Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield pulls no punches in his review of Howard Stern's new show on Sirius. The title and tagline of the article says it all: Howard's End - Stern's show puts the "um" in "tedium" - OUCH! The thought behind the whole article is that now that Howard has no enemies - no censors, no FCC, no Clear Channel - he also has no substance anymore either.

"He sounds like he no longer has to deal with anybody who doesn't kiss his ass, and as a result he sounds like a bored, gloomy fifty-two-year-old man."

The most painful part to read was this: 

"Howard spends most of the mornings talking about how famous he is, how loyal his listeners are, how many millions of people are running out to buy Sirius radios, while his studio monkey-boys crowd around the mike to say, "Right on, Howard. You still the king." Fans call in to remind him he's still got it. [...] If you thought his sidekicks were useless suck-ups before, get a load of them now. Robin compares him to Martin Luther King Jr. Artie says the main reason he wishes his father were still alive is so he could hear him on The Howard Stern Show. "We're making history," he gushes. And this was the first seven days. By next month, Howard will only be able to keep himself awake ordering the staff to do tag-team ass-to-ass action."

What's your opinion on this? Has Stern lost his edge? Is it a little too early to go judging yet? Were expectations set too high from all the hype?Read the article and sound off here.

[Rolling Stone] 

It's always facinating to see how flawed some of these "surveys" are, and while not only flawed, how transparently biased they actually are. Take this press release from the American Media Services as an example. How can you actually take this seriously when the copy is written with such a sensationalistic tone?

The 'Howard Stern Factor' is Overrated: Few Americans Expect to Purchase Satellite Radio, a Survey by American Media Services Finds

Despite recent media attention about shock jock Howard Stern's widely publicized transfer to satellite radio, a nationwide survey indicates a large majority of Americans (86 percent) are not likely to consider the purchase of satellite radio in the future because of his move.

[...] 

Ugh. You don't even need to read about them to know who's pocket they have their hand in, the press release copy says enough.

See, there's this thing about "statistics" and "surveys" that's always interesting. You can pretty much modify the numbers to fit your needs by simply changing the sampling. Just take a "random" sampling from a telephone survey, of say, oh I dunno - mid-west senior citizens - and *ta-da!* you've got yourself a representation of the entire nation!

Blech.

[Press Release]
Thanks Tim!

A few days ago, Wired featured an editorial about Howard Stern and Podcasting (linkage: Real Stern Shocker: No Podcast). The thought was that Podcasting is the new radio revolution and Stern is pretty much an idiot for going to Satellite Radio instead. Big money contract notwithstanding, the author saw no reason why Stern wouldn't gravitate to the Podcast medium instead.

Well, a few Wired readers responded and it pretty much sums up exactly how I felt about it. There's definitely an enhanced experience from listening to something LIVE as opposed to the delayed experience that Podcasting provides. Podcasting is a wonderfully empowering medium - one that gives the people the ability to broadcast with a massive reach - much like blogging. It's citizen media. But questioning why Stern went to satrad as opposed to Podcasting? The point is moot in my opinion.

[Wired News: Rants and Raves]

WorldSpace Satellite Radio added more than 40,000 net new subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2005, increasing their subscriber base by more than 50% in Q4 alone, and finishing 2005 with more than 115,000 subscribers globally.

Expect to see complete results for the fourth quarter of 2005 from WorldSpace on March 16, 2006.

[Press Release]

Lance Armstrong will welcome funny-guy Will Ferrell as his special guest this Sunday (January 29th).

And, back by popular demand, Lance will play a brand-new duet by the lovely Sheryl Crow and the not-so-lovely Sting, entitled "Always On Your Side," which Lance fetaured last week on his SIRIUS radio show. Check it out this Sunday @ 9pm ET on... where else... SIRIUS Faction channel 28.

What is this "Faction Day" today or something?

Hey check it out, if you go to sirius.com, you'll notice a new button at the bottom of the page called "Ask Bode Anything" - that's of course referring to Olympic skier Bode Miller, the first American skier to win the World Cup title in 22 years.

Bode Miller will post his answers to selected questions on SIRIUS' website, and some might be featured on his weekly Sirius Satellite Radio program (heard on Thursdays at 7pm ET) on SIRIUS Faction channel 28.

IBM brought somemore insight into XM Radio's upcoming voice recognition technology (created by partner VoiceBox Technologies) when they unveiled their new speech recognition technology on Tuesday. The real meat and potatoes is the Free-Form Command feature found in Embedded ViaVoice 4.4 software. For Free-Form Command to work, it must recognize two things: first, that the user is referring to the radio, even if the term "radio" isn't actually used. Second, the software has to be programmed to understand that the term "play" also is a command to tune the satellite radio unit to the desired channel.

It's really very cool to learn about how the software itself works, and this is seriously groundbreaking stuff. Definitely check it out.

[PC Magazine]

Great article in the Daily News today featuring Opie and Anthony and their style at XM Satellite Radio.

One of the interesting things touched on in the article is the corporate thinking that caused Infinity to lose two of their most popular talk shows to satrad (that would be Howard Stern and O&A). Had Infinity realized the potential of a "guy talk" station a couple years ago, they might not be driving the downhill road their on now.

[New York Daily News]
Thanks Trevor!

SIRIUS Radio's action sports & music lifestyle channel, Faction, will provide four full days of coverage of the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado. Get the latest stats and scores, breaking news, exclusive interviews with athletes, and the inside scoop on what happens after the boots come off starting this Saturday, January 28th.

Former Olympian ski racer and Faction reporter Carrie Sheinberg will provide an insider's perspective on the competition, and Faction X Games analyst Michael Tully will be mountainside with up-to-the-minute reports.  After dark, Faction host Bryan Cullen will recap the day's events, and report on the Winter X Games' nightlife around Aspen.

Good stuff!

USA Today has a write up on HD Radio today and of course pits HD against Satellite Radio in terms of sound quality, price and selection. Initially I was expecting another one of those ho-hum articles (*cough*) simply regurgitating iBiquity's media kit, but Edward C. Baig actually wrote a very nice and honest comparison. Wow.

His points are all very truthful and valid: HD Radio is still way too young to endorse or decline, HD units are pricey right now but you don't need to pay a monthly fee, Satellite Radio offers far more selection, and satrad is available nationwide.

And while I'm pretty much anti-anything when it comes to commercial radio, I really can't argue against this article. HD really is too young to compare it right now, and satellite radio really does offer more selection nationwide. The only thing I would point out is the headstart that satrad has against HD. Only now did the Radio industry start to get organized with this technology - Satellite Radio is already looking far into the future to bring much more than just "radio" to the table. Let's take a look in a few years and see where both industries are, and then let's do a true comparison, shall we?

[USA Today]

Digital Home Canada put together a comparison between XM Canada and SIRIUS Canada, declaring winners in different characters. Here's the final breakdown:

Station Selection Winner: Slight edge to Sirius
Reception Winner: Slight edge XM Canada
Sound Quality Winner: XM Radio
Hardware Winner: Tie
Pricing Winner: Slight edge to Sirius

The final conclusion? Neither really:

Consider XM Radio - if you want the best sound quality, you spend a lot of time in downtown urban centres or you must have NHL hockey.
Consider Sirius - if you want more stations, you need three or four receivers or live well north of the 49th parallel.

Agree? Disagree? Read the article and feel free to comment about it here. Something tells me some people may disagree...

[Digital Home Canada]

On Super Bowl Sunday (February 5th in case you live under a rock) SIRIUS Satellite Radio will multiple air live play-by-play broadcasts of Super Bowl XL, with 11 different game calls in seven languages, including both teams’ local radio broadcasts and the national Westwood One/CBS Radio Sports broadcast.

Throughout the week, SIRIUS NFL Radio’s coverage will also include up-to-the-minute news, interviews, live press conferences, and analysis from SIRIUS NFL Radio’s lineup of NFL experts, which includes John Riggins, John Madden, Cris Carter, Shannon Sharpe, Carl Banks, Randy Cross, Gil Brandt, Tiki and Ronde Barber, Tim Ryan, Pat Kirwan, Adam Schein, Bob Papa and Steve Cohen.

On Media Day, January 31st, SIRIUS NFL Radio will broadcast live from Ford Field with interviews with the players and coaches who will take part in this year’s Super Bowl.

SIRIUS subscribers can check out all this NFL coverage on the following channels:

• Pittsburgh Steelers team broadcast - channel 125
• Seattle Seahawks team broadcast - channel 123
• Westwood One/CBS Radio Sports broadcast - channel 124
• BBC Radio broadcast (UK) - channel 126
• Westwood One Spanish broadcast (Spanish-Latin America) - channel 181
• Canal + Spain broadcast (Spanish-Spain) - channel 131
• NTV + Russia broadcast (Russian) - channel 147
• BeTV broadcast (French) - channel 143
• SMG broadcast (Mandarin Chinese) - channel 110
• TV 2 Denmark broadcast (Danish) - channel 117
• NTV Japan broadcast (Japanese) - channel 107

Not enough? Check out the full schedule after the jump...

A loyal reader sent me this article on The Desert Sun where Rush Limbaugh talks about his views of Satellite Radio and the growing speculation that he may be making the jump.

Q. What are your thoughts about satellite radio?

A. I think satellite radio is a new technology and it's going to build slowly. It's tough for me. I'm asked all the time if I'm going to satellite radio, and I've got 604 radio stations. I would cannibalize (myself) if I went to satellite radio. My audience is 22-24 million, and their subscription is like 3 million people. That's pretty small. The question is, they have a pretty big debt load and you've got two satellite companies. At some point, it's possible there will be a new technology that is going to come along and surpass them before they can retire their debt load, like podcasting. I wish them the best, because it's more opportunities for people, but it's going to be a slow build. It's like satellite TV. They have a lot of subscribers and it's taken a lot of years to get there, but they still don't reach the nation.

Q. Have either of the satellite radio companies approached you?

A. They've approached everyone. There's no business reason to do it. It makes no business sense. My radio station, I've been with them for 18-to-20 years and I value them too much to make the program available somewhere else. It would just undercut them.

Now, there's a couple translations I get from this. Both responses are business related.

1. Regarding podcasting, of course Rush will feel it is a dominating force in the market, because he began podcasting (for a fee you can subscribe) back in June, 2005. So of course he's going to endorse it.

2, On the second point, it simply means that neither XM or SIRIUS have given him the right offer. Think about it from Rush's standpoint, "they paid Howard Stern $500,000,000 - why would I sell up for anything less myself?" An understandable debacle, especially considering that Rush has the largest radio talk show audience, as of 2005, according to Arbitron (14-20 million listeners weekly). This is the same with Oprah. The Howard Stern deal set a precident that other huge names will undoubtedly cite in their negociations.

Thanks Jimmy!

Texas Instruments has announced a chip and reference design that makes it extremely simple to integrate XM's latest Connect-and-Play technology (ie, the XM Passport) into a hard-drive based player MP3 player. Or, maybe more specifically... a dock for any, that's right ANY, digital audio (iPod? hmmm...) player.

Not to mention, it's cheap and simple to integrate. OEMs just need to pay a one-time license fee of $20k plus the price of the chip, and instantly they can make an XM-Ready dock for their digital audio player that will interface with the XM Passport. Manufacturers now can even build XM Satellite Radio capability into the portable digital audio unit due to the built-in power efficiency of the design. The hardware support is pretty impressive: color LCD / NTSC displays, FM tuners, photo and video decode, rechargeable battery-based subsystem, audio codec support (AAC, AAC Plusx, MP3, WMA and others), line-in encoding, USB 2.0, and the latest DRM technologies.

I have a funny feeling these might pop up very soon in, uhm, mostly white-colored docking stations... but hey, that's all just speculation.

WorldSpace has expanded its senior management team, and apparently it's marketing initiative, with the appointments of Shishir Lall in India, as managing director of operations, and Stephen Horn at the Silver Spring headquarters, as chief marketing officer. Lall helped launch Pepsi in India and for over nine years was responsible for various marketing and sales operations, rising to become International Vice President responsible for South Asia Franchise Operations. Horn has more than 20 years of industry experience, previously holding senior management positions at Coca-Cola Enterprises, PepsiCola and Citibank.

[Press Release]

CNET reviewed the first Sirius-branded dedicated home satellite radio receiver - the Sirius SR-H550 - and gave it a "Good" rating of a 6.9 out of 10. And while they liked the easy-to-read display, they didn't have some very nice things to say about the sound quality, and didn't like the lack of a rewind buffer.

Right now there's not too many User Opinions listed for this Sirius receiver, soooo maybe you should head on over there and let them know how you feel?

[CNET]

Yesterday the New York Post frontpage (view) featured Howard Stern with the headline "MOUTH TRAP" in their classic sensationalistic style, followed by an article citing "a source" from Sirius that reported an internal standards-and-practices document that will "censor" the show. Howard retorted on his show, pretty much calling it ridiculous - and it is.

Of course, the media has grabbed this ball and is running as far as they can with it. But is it really such a big deal? Afterall, this IS a public corporation we're talking about here, and while there are no concerns about FCC regulation (which for some reason the media is trying to weave into the picture). Instead, the concern is LIABILITY. In a land where lawsuits abound, why wouldn't SIRIUS have a standards-and-practices guideline?

Afterall XM has its own guidelines in place, as Opie and Anthony know, and they have for a while. As a broadcasting media company, they need to have a set standard for which their on-air personalities should follow - but there is no "Dead Air Dave" sitting in a room somewhere waiting to dump out on the show.

Slander, defamation of character and a whole boatload of other possible liability cases are still a reality that these companies need to deal with. Is this a preemptive strike to prevent the FCC from regulating satellite radio? No. Is it a big old conspiracy created by Clear Channel to go after Howard? C'mon. It's just corporations covering their asses - that's all.

[CURSES FOILED AGAIN FOR STERN: NY Post]
[HOWARD COMES TO HIS CENSORS: NY Post]

Thanks Cranky! 

The 2006 ECHL All-Star Game will be broadcast by XM Satellite Radio on XM's Home Ice channel at 10pm ET in the States on XM Radio and in Canada on XM Canada. Produced by NHL Radio, the ECHL All-Star Game audio broadcast will feature Brian Clark of the Fresno Falcons, Matt Melzak of the Toledo Storm and Christopher Stango of the Greenville Grrrowl.

Back in December I spotted this tidbit on Mercury News, about an in-helmet satrad sound system that Kawasaki is working on. After some back and forth with Kawasaki's Jeff Herzog (who was amazingly open to communications - hat tip to the boys over there for 'getting it'), here's some info on the upcoming sound system device:

Kawasaki's "Sound System" fits inside a rider's helmet and offers AM, FM and satellite radio - yes, both XM and SIRIUS versions will be available. The Sound System essentially consists of headphones and a microphone that fit into your choice of helmet., and a small display console that will attach to the left-handlebar. Currently it's in the development stage, so I don't have any real photos to drool over - so for now you can enjoy this seemingly unrelated photo of a motorcycle helmet on the right.

The sound system includes an intercom for communication with a passenger, will be available in mid-2006 and is targeted towards the long-distance rider. More info coming soon...

The Advocate has a truly entertaining read about Stern "sidekick" Gary Dell'Abate and the transition to Sirius Satellite Radio.

Of course, they talk about Howard's revelation that he had cosmetic surgery, but the real star of the article is the in-depth profile done on Gary.

Very interesting, and well worth the read if you're a Stern fan.

[The Advocate]

XM Satellite Radio will broadcast performances by some of the most celebrated "Mozartians" direct from the Carolino Augusteum (a 17th-century castle and former home of the Archbishops of Salzburg that overlooks the Salzburg Cathedral and the Mozart Platz), live on XM Classics from January 25-27th.

XM's Martin Goldsmith, who will be hosting along side Paul Bachmann, said that it took nine months of persistence and negotiation to make the broadcasts possible.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio has appointed Andreas Lazar as Senior Vice President, Business Development - he will be reporting to the one and only Mel Karmazin.

Lazar was previously a Vice President and investment banker at Allen & Company LLC. He will be responsible for exploring and structuring strategic partnerships with media, communications and technology companies to extend SIRIUS' product breadth and drive subscriber growth.

Barron's business weekly reported on it's January 23rd edition that XM Satellite Radio's 6 million subscribers, almost double that of Sirius, and its strong partnership with automotive partners will keep it a step ahead of its rival in coming years.

"Given XM's edge in subscribers, automotive partners, technology and customer-acquisition costs, its stock looks like the better buy," Barron's said.

I hope Barrons has a good hate-mail filter, because 900,000 rabid SIRI investors won't take to this news very nicely. :)

XM Satellite Radio will launch in March 2006 a new hour-long sports-themed talk show hosted by Democratic political strategist, commentator and passionate sports fan James Carville. Carville, who is known for his "colorful" debate style, will co-host the program with Luke Russert, his regular off-air sparring partner for all things sports and son of NBC journalist Tim Russert.

The concept for the program was born from the heated exchanges between Carville and Russert during various Washington Nationals home games. This new show will feature the two discussing the top sports stories of the week with the same sense of humor and camaraderie experienced at the ballpark or at home. 

Additional program details will be announced prior to the show's debut.

A loyal reader sent in this link to me a couple days ago. It's a long-ish read, written by Bridge Rating's guest columnist Bob Lefsetz, but it's one that outlines perfectly the problem with music today. Reading it you understand the eagerness of the writer to actually hear music with substance - something that is near non-existant in terrestrial radio today. Sure, it's specifically about Rock & Roll - a genre that thrived for several decades only to disappear seemingly overnight - but I think you can fill in a majority of genres and come to the same conclusion.

Very well done.

A few days ago, Decima Research released its findings that Sirius Canada appears to be leading XM Canada in market awareness for the Canadian satellite radio race. XM Canada disputed these findings, citing theWilcox Group's market research that shows most Canucks want XM Canada over Sirius Canada.

An interesting twist in the whole debate, and one that I didn't realize: Sirius Canada won't be required to release their subscriber numbers. Since XM Canada is a public company, they're required to release this data, but Sirius Canada has no obligation to do so. XM Canada's guidance numbers have XM Canada subscribers at 75,000 by YE 2006 and 1 Million by 2010.

[Cable Caster] 

SIRIUS Satellite Radio host Charlie Monk will welcome special guest Randy Owen of country music supergroup Alabama, on the January 29th edition of The Charlie Monk Show, on SIRIUS Prime Country.

Randy Owen will be at SIRIUS' Nashville studios to talk about Alabama's career, and to play tracks from the group's first box set, Livin' Lovin' Rockin' Rollin': The 25th Anniversary Collection (due out January 31st), including never-released tracks.

Alabama has sold more than 58 million albums worldwide, ranking it as one of the top-selling groups of all time, in any genre. 

XM Satellite Radio has bagged Dale Earnhardt Jr. for a new weekly show set to debut on February 13th on XM's NASCAR Channel during the Daytona Speedweeks. Dale Jr will chit-chat about the latest happenings in the NASCAR circles as well as other personal interests like gaming, music and more.

Dale Earnhardt Jr, a marketing powerhouse himself with his branded merchandise accounting for roughly 25% of all NASCAR driver licensed products in 2005, will also be playing a key role in various XM Satellite Radio promotions as part of a multi-year agreement with XM.

One has to wonder about all these new NASCAR deals popping up on XM Radio, especially considering XM is losing the NASCAR contract to SIRIUS in 2007. Wonder what's the deal? And why's Dale gotta show off by waving that Pioneer Inno around? That's just not fair!

Pacific Design has just unveiled a new MyFi XM2go Flip Case available in a "soft leather-like material" that supposedly fits the MyFi like a glove. While I'd like to see more accessories made for the next-generation XM2go units, it's still a good thing that a 3rd party market continues to develop around the 1G XM2go radios. No word on whether this will fit the Pioneer Airware, but it's a no brainer to wonder if it'll fit the Tao XM2go (it will). Set to retail for $29.95, the Pacific Design MyFi Flip Case is available at Circuit City and Ultimate Electronics.

Remember that HD Radio Alliance that was formed a while back? It was basically just a bunch of Big Radio Suits getting together and coming up with some sort of organization, with a neato name, because they couldn't get their stuff together with their HD Radio technology. We all know how scared of satellite radio they are and HD Radio is their only hope for salvation (in their eyes - personally, my feeling is that HD Radio will provide no benefit to Terrestrial's offering whatsoever - but hey, that's just me).

Well, it looks like finally something will come of this because The Rebel Alliance has announced the initiative for broadcasting HD2 multicast programming. Set to launch within a few days in 28 markets (NY, LA, Chicago, etc) with 264 new HD2 channels covering a variety of music and talk formats. Member broadcasters will be responsible for programming each of their multicast channels (as opposed to the templatized playlists we all know and love) and all HD2 formats will be initially commercial-free. In addition, all current analog radio signals will also be available as HD digital radio broadcasts (on HD1 channels).

The commercial-free part is very interesting. It looks like Terrestrial is willing to (uncharacteristically) eat some potential profits in hopes to spur adoption of HD Radio. Currently, no one owns HD Radio and there's not really any reason to. But commercial-free programming that's non-templatized? That almost sounds as good as satellite radio!

Things are getting interesting...

[FMQB] 

That's what Canadian research firm Decima Research says. According to one of their latest studies conducted last month, 6% of Canadians - equalling up to 2 million Canadians - said they would likely subscribe to satellite radio within the next year at the current price point. Another 14% said they might or might not subscribe within the next year.

77% said they are aware of satellite radio, led by men (87%), those 25-34 (86%), and households with $100K annual income or more (87%).

Sirius Canada appears to holds the market share lead over XM Canada with those likely to buy a satellite radio within the next year. 27% of respondants are leaning towards Sirius Canada versus 12% for XM Canada.

[Cable Caster] 

On January 9th, when Howard returned to radio on SIRIUS - 300,000 people called in to talk to him. Crazyness.

"The number of callers was insane," said Telos Telephony Product Manager Rolf Taylor, who added, "That's like having the entire population of Tampa trying to get through!"

[Radio Ink] 

Starting on Monday (January 16th), Sirius Satellite Radio will broadcast the popular daily talk program, World Soccer Daily. The show’s in-depth reporting of the English Premier League will complement SIRIUS’ play-by-play broadcasts of EPL matches.

Hosted by Steven Cohen and Nick Geber, World Soccer Daily will air weekdays from 1-3pm ET on SIRIUS channel 126. America’s only English-language daily national radio program devoted to the world’s game, the talk show provides news, expert analysis and interviews with the biggest names in the game.

[Press Release] 

It's sort of a slow day today, so I figured I'd put together some interesting news bits that have been floating around since morning...

• Opie and Anthony To Stern: Bring It On - Sure to stir up the bee's nest in Orbitcast's comments, this cover story about the ongoing O&A vs Stern / XM vs SIRIUS war is a great read no matter what side of the fence you're on.
  
• Stern's pirated, naughty bits air - While not really a big deal in my eyes, since FM broadcasting isn't necessarily rocket surgery, but the media seems to be having a field day with this bit.
  
• Everyone's Aiming at Satellite Radio - Just to step away from the whole 'shock jock' thing, this article in BusinessWeek is very well written and extremely in-depth. From HD Radio, to the new iPod FM Tuner, to Motorola's iRadio service; this article covers it all.
  
• ...and finally XM Seen Topping SIRIUS in 2006 - S.G. Cowen research analyst Tom Watts is giving XMSR the big thumbs up and even projects XM will have 41 million subscribers by 2015 and 24 million by 2010 - 20% above guidance.
  

After two years of being off the radio, Bubba the Love Spong has returned on Sirius Satellite Radio. FMQB kicks off their new featurette, eFMQB, with an in-depth interview with Bubba.

It's nice to read about exactly how Bubba and Stern settled their "differences" because that's always been a question in the eyes of many people.

From his history with Howard, to his current role on Howard 101, to Arbitron, to stripper poles; it's all explained in this interview.

A nice read.

[FMQB] 

So says the New York Times in an article published today:

Two new XM receivers, the Samsung Helix XM2go and the Pioneer Inno, identical devices that will sell for $400 when they go on the market in March, will be able to receive live XM programming on the go.

[...] 

Live satellite feeds often break up when an external antenna is not used. The company [SIRIUS] says it plans to introduce new devices by June with improved antenna technology to receive live transmissions.

We heard about the live Sirius S50 portable earlier last month, and this is reassuring. Combined with the thought of having a new Inno/Helix in stores in March is like ringing the ol' Pavlov bell: instant salivation.

[New York Times via Get Sirius Info] 

Great article on the Pioneer Inno and Samsung Helix taking on the iPod. Some very insightful quotes in this one, you might want to check it out. :)

[United Press International] 

Ok hockey fans, get ready to hear Mark Messier Night live and direct from Madison Square Garden on XM Satellite Radio tonight as Messier's New York Rangers jersey No. 11 is retired in a special on-ice ceremony before the Rangers-Edmonton Oilers game. XM's hockey talk radio channel Home Ice will broadcast coverage of Messier Night from 4pm to 7pm ET, including exclusive interviews with Messier and other Ranger greats before the event. The on-ice ceremony will then start at 7:00 pm ET, followed by live play-by-play coverage of the Rangers-Oilers game.

Messier will also be a regular contributor to Home Ice and appear in XM print and on-air promotions as part of a recently signed marketing and broadcast agreement.

These are pretty slick considering what's packed in them. Belkin has just introduced new headphones for the Samsung Helix and Pionner Inno. The seamless integration of a wireless antenna into this headphone design gives you the best XM satellite reception along with comfort and hands-free convenience.

It features a built-in volume control that is easily accessible on the headphone cord. Simply plug the Antenna Headphones into the I/O port on the side of the Helix or Inno and begin enjoying clear XM Satellite Radio on-the-go.

[Mobility Today] 

The New York Sun has a very in-depth article on Howard's new 'defiant fist' symbol. Created by Havas' Euro RSCG (which coincidently is not the same ad agency used by the rest of SIRIUS - Doner handles their business) - the fist symbol is meant to convey a revolutionary attitude.

"It's really simple. It's a symbol of being a revolutionary and being a pioneer in radio," Sirius spokesman, Patrick Reilly, said.

Some people don't necessarily agree with that point though. Such as NY City Council member and former Black Panther member Charles Barron, stating, "he'll do anything to get attention." Adding "using a symbol like that is electoral exploitation in his attempt to appeal to the black community."

...I wouldn't go that far, but I have to agree with the statement made at the end of the article by designer and professor at Pratt Institute, Barry Berger, that the "universality" of the fist removes much of its power and significance. "I think because it is so universal and also so overused, it is not clear what individual message the sender means," he said.

What do you think about it? Thumbs up or thumbs down for the Defiant Fist?

[New York Sun] 

WOW! SIRIUS Satellite Radio and Rolls-Royce have inked an exclusive agreement for the inclusion of SIRIUS radios as standard equipment in all Rolls-Royce vehicles sold in the United States, including a lifetime subscription to the service.

XM Radio recently had a post-CES analyst day and the presentation is really impressive stuff. I took some time to read through it all (the main presentation is a whopping 56 page long) and it's got some really incredible information in it - not just for XM in general but it shows the movement of the satellite radio industry as a whole.

I would highly recommend checking them out - there's seven presentations total - with a main corporate outlook presentation, followed by several car manufacturer presentations, and finally followed by a presentation on XM Canada.

[XMSR Analyst Day] (Thanks David!)

Ad Buyers are reporting that Sirius Satellite Radio is getting about 1/2 the rate they had originally asked for to advertise on Howard Stern's new show. Earlier reports were that Sirius was asking $20,000 for a live read on the show - compare that to the $27,000 for a live read on his old terrestrial radio show.

Still, this is the very beginning and the market can only grow from here. Let's see what kind of rate the show commands in 5 years.

[Media Buyer Planner] 

UPDATE: Mel Karmazin said at a recent Citigroup Media conference that he feels that Sirius is likely to exceed its advertising goal equaling 10% of overall revenue, but stopped short of "officially" forecasting such an outlook. 

Tracking Alexa charts is always entertaining. Sure, it may not necessarily represent the full internet population, but with the large sampling it at the very least it shows trending.

So it's really interesting to see the recent charts for SIRIUS.com and XMradio.com...

Here's the Daily Reach (explained):

Here's Pageviews (explained):

Wow. Stern effect anyone? 

Do you love reading Orbitcast? Are you one of the thousands who visit here everyday hitting that refresh button waiting for the next post? Are the words "XMelot" and "Hoo hoo!" part of your daily vocabulary? Then you're a loyal reader and most likely very bored at work.

And that also means that if you haven't nominated Orbitcast for the 2006 Bloggie