La La LA

think it's time to get more creative with retail. Father's Day is looming and we need to see some new products, as well as some more aggressive marketing efforts. Mergers are distracting

Could not have said it better myself

Ryan can you tell me by what percentage March NPD sales numbers were up over February? I read last month February sales were up 8% over January. Thanks.

XM closing the gap fast at retail. If they achieve a 50/50 split at retail and with their OEM dominance they will be the market leader once again.

BTW, SSG numbers on NPD data differ slightly from yours.

They have XM with a 48% market share for March and Sirius with 52%.

They also have XM down 22% for March YOY and Sirius down 33% YOY for March.

These changed skew the data slightly more in XM's favor.

Curious as to which are correct.

Either way this blows the analysts comments on sub count out of the water for XM. Look for XM to acheive close to 350K net subcriber ads, not the 230K to 290K doom and gloom the analysts were predicting.

It seems to me that satellitestandard is overwhelmingly dominated by Sirius people and that orbitcast is dominated by XM, as if it really matters that much. I subscribe to Sirius (though I'd rather have the combined programming) and I was shocked that XM didn't have a bigger share in March with baseball starting up. WITHOUT the Stern bubble and WITHOUT mlb and basically WITHOUT toyota, Sirius still had a bigger market share than XM? If XM couldn't take the lead this month, then I don't know if they ever will. The cards were stacked in their favor, and they still fell short, even if their numbers, in comparison, were better than last year.

I'd rather see the companies end this Betamax vs. VHS war and focus on competing with free radio, but if they don't, it looks like Sirius has the long-term advantage in branding and subscriber retention over XM. I know XM has the slight advantage in OEM partners, but judging by the numbers from the last 2 years, Sirius had the clear edge in conversion rate and retail subscriptions. Honestly, I think the overall diffences in content are minimal, but Sirius has the slight advantage, and in the long-run, content is what really matters.

"it looks like Sirius has the long-term advantage in branding and subscriber retention over XM"

Those "free" 1 year and 3 year subscriptions from new cars that Sirius offers will churn one day soon, and might not be that pretty. Far different than the way XM signs subscribers.

But we are talking retail. It seems MLB may have actually made an impact. Im as shocked as the next guy. XM marketing still sucks after all this time. Or i just dont watch TV, because im busy listening TO THE RADIO.

"it looks like Sirius has the long-term advantage in branding and subscriber retention over XM"

Unless you have to deal with Sirius's abomination of customer service and radios that break after a year, it might be ok. As a formal dual subscriber, I was tired of Sirius radios broke over and over again. I am now exclusively with XM because their unit still works after a year with no problem. Branding means nothing to me. At the end of the day, service and retaining my subscription makes a difference. Sirius has a long way to go in this department.

Looks like SSG has changed his numbers. Now says that XM has 44% and Sirius has 53% market share. I dont believe anything that comes out of that site anymore.

All the analysts are reporting the same numbers that Orbitcast is reporting.

JB wrote: "It seems to me that satellitestandard is overwhelmingly dominated by Sirius people and that orbitcast is dominated by XM, as if it really matters that much. I subscribe to Sirius (though I'd rather have the combined programming) and I was shocked that XM didn't have a bigger share in March with baseball starting up. WITHOUT the Stern bubble and WITHOUT mlb and basically WITHOUT toyota, Sirius still had a bigger market share than XM? If XM couldn't take the lead this month, then I don't know if they ever will. The cards were stacked in their favor, and they still fell short, even if their numbers, in comparison, were better than last year."

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The same thing could be said the other way around. Sirius barely beat XM when having NASCAR, NBA and Stern competing with just the MLB on the XM side (both have NHL this year, so a wash).

Frankly, this "my dad can beat up your dad content-wise" bullcrap is just that, bullcrap. They still beat the crap out of terrestrial anyday.

Sorry Matt. The analysts were dead on. XM added 285,000 net subscribers. Still haven't reached 8 million yet. I would gloat but Sirius' numbers could be worse so I'm going to be sympathetic with you XM lovers. It's the merger news that's slowing people up from buying sat radios. Fucking merger. Pass it or deny it already! They're fucking screwing everything up.