Is the Sirius Starmate 5 going to be A La Carte capable?

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 8:44 AM

Tags: A La Carte, FCC, Merger, Sirius, Starmate 5

While speculation abounds about whether the upcoming Sirius Starmate 5 will have the capability to receive both Sirius and XM, there's one piece of the puzzle that was missed... the ability to receive A La Carte channels.

As a refresher: Sirius-XM have said that after merging, they would offer the first-ever a la carte packages in subscription media. These packages would allow subscribers to choose 50 channels for $6.99/month, or 100 channels from either Sirius or XM for $14.99/month. Additional channels would cost $0.25/each.

But a commenter on SiriusBuzz points to the Starmate 5's user manual, which gives a strong indication that this radio could indeed be the first A La Carte capable unit.

The section in question, Page 74 of the user manual (PDF), refers to the "My Channels" category, which "will show all of the channels contained in your SIRIUS subscription plan." The Starmate 5 user manual then goes on to describe that the "category heading bar will show the total number of channels your Starmate ST5 is subscribed to."

A La Carte capable?

The manual also differentiates these subscribed channels from channels that are locked by the built-in Parental Control feature (which has been available on previous generations).

Below are select bullet points from the manual highlighting this:

"If you try to tune to an unsubscribed channel the ST5 will display a 'Channel Unsubscribed' message."
"The ST5 will not display channel information for any unsubscribed or locked channels."
"The Memory and Song Seek functions... will only occur on subscribed channels."

Now, before we get all in a tizzy, it is also important to point out that the "My Channels" references in the Starmate 5's manual could be referencing the "select" packages and not true "a la carte" packages. As you can see in Sirius' post-merger channel lineup, there are other programming packages that would limit the number of channels displayed on the unit, including a "Family Friendly" package, a "Mostly Music" package and a "News, Sports & Talk" package.

Even if that's the case, I still think this is an important development.

[via Orbitcast Forums]

Comments

I am the one that pointed out that article. No thanks necessary. Your beaming smiles is enough for me.

Posted by: Brian R. | April 30, 2008 10:04 AM

Why can't they do that with an Inno? SIRIUS radios suck.

Posted by: LAPTOP GAMER | April 30, 2008 10:08 AM

Maybe Sirius is first out of the gate because XM's taking the time to make theirs not suck.

Posted by: TVGenius | April 30, 2008 10:20 AM

Specs on Starmate4 , which I own, show a radio weight of 3.2 OZ.

The Starmate 5 spec sheet shows radio weight of 2.5 OZ.

Hmmmmmm

Posted by: WL | April 30, 2008 10:21 AM

I called Sirius. Now don't forget...the information your get from the people on the other end of the 800# is rarely perfect or without its flaws. But Sirius said that the Stiletto 100 will be compatable with xm/sirius after they merge. I through out a couple of questions to them and they assured me that the 100 will have all features available after the merge and even named Al A Carte specifically. I still have my doubts..so I will keep my S50 for a while longer.

Orbicast

Posted by: Doug | April 30, 2008 10:34 AM

Are Sirius and XM extending their merger date? Doesn't it expire May 1st.

Posted by: Anonymous Coward | April 30, 2008 10:41 AM

I think we're a little excitable here.

Building an "ala carte" receiver should be a very minor change from receivers of days gone by; they all have channel blocking, which is, on a fundamental level, the same as ala carte. The big changes would be with the in house software that allows XM/SIRI to track which channels are paid for and which aren't.

Further, it totally makes sense for Sirius (and XM) to add this feature to receivers, without regard for whether the merger passes. This will give them the ability to add ala carte even if the merger fails, and Mel's claims to the contrary notwithstanding, that could well happen. XM has done ala carte before with Playboy and O&A, so there is nothing particularly challenging about it.

This should not be confused with dual-mode receivers, a totally different thing.

This is much adieu about nothing.

Posted by: Stack Pointer | April 30, 2008 11:40 AM

WHOA... Go back in time... OK.. are you there yet? lets see whats on my XM... Oh look.. playboy channel was an additional fee and not available if I did not subscribe to it... Oh look.. Opie and Anthony were a seperate fee as well.
Sounds like A Al Carte to me.... What about XM Canada and Sirius Canada?
Does Sirius Canada offer the EXACT same channel line up as Sirius US? Why is XM's Lineup in Canada different? Wouldn't this be A-La Carte without the cutomer choosing.. Essentially proving that XM has and has had this capability for a long long time already and sort of suggesting that Sirius does not have the ability.

My My... how soon we forget.

Posted by: jeff | April 30, 2008 12:02 PM

That image listing channels looks very a la carte to me, rather than one of the limited packages. What package would include 3 music channels (or possibly 7 if channels 1-4 are above) and Howard Stern?

Posted by: DogstarRadio | April 30, 2008 3:00 PM

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