Sirius Satellite Radio is now expecting to offer a live satellite video service in cars by late 2007 Chief Executive Mel Karmazin said at yesterday's Reuters Media Summit.

Karmazin told Reuters the mobile video service, now likely to be available in 2008 model lines, would be geared towards children, and that deals with content providers may be set as early as January.

"We have three content deals that are very close to being finalized. I don't know if they will be done by CES, but that is what we are shooting for," Karmazin said. "We will have video in the rear seat of the car up and running."

Sirius subscribers who want the new video service would have to pay an additional charge to their regular subscription, Karmazin said, but he declined to give the exact price or the cars in which it may be offered.

"The investment is already made and the benefit for us is (average revenue per user)," Karmazin said. "You want to get more subscribers and increase your ARPU and ... one of the ways is with some other services, and video is one of them."

Sirius has been promising video since early 2004, with an expected mid-2005 launch date. In September 2005, Sirius' Bob Law had said that Sirius Video was on track for mid-2006 - a timeline that he later updated in April, stating that it would launch "shortly" after CES 2007.

As recently as August, Mel Karmazin had stated that the Sirius Video initiative is "well under way" and would be available by the end of this year. Now it appears we're looking at late 2007.

[Reuters]