Mercedes-Benz and Sirius Satellite Radio have extended their relationship to include Sirius in over 80 percent of vehicles for 2007, and plans to grow the install rate to more than 90 percent over the next 2 years.

Sirius will also now be standard equipment on two additional models this year: the S-Class and CLS. Sirius is standard equipment right now in the Mercedes-Benz SL-Class and CL-Class, as well as all AMG and 600 model vehicles.

Sirius' factory install rate for Mercedes-Benz vehicles will grow to 90 percent for 2008, and continue to over 90 percent by 2009. The original installation rate was estimated at 50 percent - set less than two years ago.

All Mercedes-Benz vehicles with Sirius installed include 6-months of free service. 

Remember how XM and Wal-Mart teamed up to benefit the Children's Miracle Network? Well here's a new TV spot that will air on Wal-Mart video monitors in retail stores.

The first XM Kids Roadshow broadcast and live concert will be in Los Angeles on April 30th. The channel will broadcast from the road every day and host fund-raising events at select Wal-Mart locations to help raise $10 million in just 30-days for Children's Miracle Network.

Volkswagen will now be offering Sirius Satellite Radio as standard-equipment in 2 of their new vehicle models in Canada.

The new 2008 Touareg 2 (pictured) and the special edition Triple White New Beetle Convertible (not pictured) will be featuring Sirius as standard equipment. Both were unveiled at the 2007 Vancouver Auto Show as part of VW's North American premiere.

The factory-installed Sirius receivers are bundled with a 3-month subscription.

With the addition of the new Touareg and New Beetle Convertible Triple White, a total of 7 VW models (including the Rabbit, Jetta, New Beetle, New Beetle Convertible, Passat Sedan, and Passat Wagon) are now available with Sirius Satellite Radio in Canada.

XM Satellite Radio is dropping Arbitron in favor of Online Testing Exchange (OTX), a Culver City, California based online research firm. Arbitron had provided XM with custom studies of its audience estimates since 2002.

In a statement, XM said, "We had a very good relationship with Arbitron, but XM is a highly specialized media vehicle, and Arbitron's methodology didn't adequately reflect that. After years of trying to work with its methodology, it was still not accepted by most agencies and clients. The feedback we have received from our clients on OTX's online methodology has been phenomenal and, based on one year's worth of side-by-side testing, it better represents our subscribers' listening habits."

Arbitron's methodology was based on telephone interviews with XM subscribers. OTX will provide XM with reports every four months, compared to Arbitron, who only provided reports every six months.

OTX will also provide audience estimates by channel and by daypart. “We also wanted to know how many additional listeners we had besides the primary subscribers,” said Eric Logan, executive vp of programming for XM. “The type of things we asked Arbitron to do became cost prohibitive for both companies.”

[MediaWeek] 

XM Satellite Radio will now be a standard factory-installed feature on every single 2008 Infiniti model, including the G, M, FX and QX.

Infiniti is part of Nissan Motor Company, who announced a factory-installed partnership with XM back in 2005.

XM NavTraffic also will now be a standard, factory-installed feature on the 2008 Infiniti QX full size SUV. Infiniti will also expand the availability of XM NavTraffic in their 2008 model year vehicles.

The new 2008 G37 Coupe (pictured) will make XM NavTraffic available as part of its navigation service, and will obviously also feature standard XM.

I have to say that I'm loving these new standard-feature announcements. It's great to be factory-installed, but standard is the real force behind mass market adoption.

XM Canada and Rogers Communications have inked a deal to provide XM Canada content across the Rogers Wireless, Cable and Internet platforms. Remember, the CRTC gave Rogers the ok to provide satellite radio services to their customers late last year.

The new Rogers-XM Canada service launched this week as part of the Rogers Vision package which provides the incredible ability for wireless video calling as well as YouTube, ET Canada, CSI, CNN and Mobile Television.

Along with all these services, Rogers is offering customers up to 25 channels of XM music, comedy, sports, entertainment and talk programming.

"This is an incredible opportunity to expand the reach of satellite radio," said John Bitove, Chairman and CEO of XM Canada. "With Rogers products available throughout Canada, we will now reach more Canadians than ever before, and this agreement provides us new avenues for awareness and revenue growth."

This is a pretty significant development, and its good to see that XM Canada is getting their foot in the door for these mobile wireless services. These are media companies, and they should be doing everything they can to get that media heard as much as possible.

[Broadcaster Magazine]