We heard some chatter about a big announcement by Sirius today, and just now they just came out with it. Sirius Satellite Radio will become the Official Satellite Radio Partner of NASCAR, with exclusive trademark and marketing rights, and the right to sell all advertising time on its NASCAR channel and during the race broadcasts.

Beginning in 2007, Sirius will broadcast all NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races live on a specially created 24/7 NASCAR channel, and Sirius will be the only place on satellite radio to listen to NASCAR.

Sirius will pay NASCAR rights fees totaling a whopping $107.5 million over the term of the five-year agreement, with the highest payments in the final years of the term.

When asked on a media conference call to compare the value of this deal with the fees paid by XM, Brian France, Chairman and Chief Executive of NASCAR said the new deal was worth "a lot more."

NASCAR is the number 2 rated sport on television, second only to the NFL (coincidence?). NASCAR's 75 million fans nationwide are a testament to the sport?s overall growth and broad appeal. NASCAR has the most brand loyal fans in all sports. Plus, with a 10-month season, the longest in U.S. pro sports, sponsors and advertisers are visible to NASCAR?s fan base for most of the year.

Ouch. This is a big blow to XM.

UPDATE:
I asked Chance Patterson, XM Spokesperson, about their response regarding the NASCAR switch, and here's what he had to say:

Hi Ryan,

We are disappointed that we couldn't reach agreement on extending our NASCAR deal beyond the 2006 season. However, we look forward to programming the next two seasons of NASCAR as well as the launch of Major League Baseball on XM this spring. We view Major League Baseball as the "crown jewel" of sports content for radio and there are lots of subscribers buzzing about the fact that they'll have access to more than 2,000 MLB games this season plus the playoffs and World Series.

Chance Patterson
VP Corporate Affairs
XM Satellite Radio

A standard response, that is to be expected, but with a hint of "yeah, we lost NASCAR, but we like MLB better anyway." No one really knows the inside details, but the relationship between NASCAR and XM might have gone sour a while ago (hence the XM / IRL Racing deal?).

Basketball coaching legend Jerry Tarkanian and sports announcer Dave Sims have paired up to host The Shark Tank, a weekly college basketball call-in talk show to be aired every Friday through April between 1pm-3pm ET on Sirius Sports Action, channel 123 on Sirius Satellite Radio.

The Shark Tank is all about college basketball: from the hottest players and the winning teams, to the secrets behind the success stories.

Tarkanian ranks among America's top college basketball coaches. His lifetime .813 winning percentage is fourth-best all-time record and he is one of just 12 college coaches to have put up more than 700 victories. Tarkanian's teams have gone to the NCAA Men's Division I Tournament 18 times during his career, reaching the Final Four four times and winning the NCAA Championship in 1990 at the University of Las Vegas. He retired in 2002 after a seven-year career as coach of Fresno State University.

Sims is well-known around the country as a respected sports broadcaster. He is co-host of Westwood One's Sports Illustrated Monday Night Live and play-by-play announcer for Westwood One's weekly NFL football broadcasts and college basketball broadcasts. For the past four seasons he has served as courtside host for the NCAA Men's National Championship.