How could Sirius say their coverage is radically different?
XM talked about racing all week.
XM had a long post and pre race show.
XM had in-car audio.
XM had driver talk shows.
What am I missing here?
I'm 100% sure that Sirius will do what XM did and just pass on the audio that comes from MRN and PRN. It'll be the exact same experience.
As someone who uses the Sirius in my car as much as the XM in my house, I'm glad that I'll be able finally hear racing on Sunday drives. Thank you Sirius!

Or you could turn off the radio and listen to your own engine, it's just as exciting.

XM did not devote individual channels to specific race cars as Sirius will be doing for ten separate cars each week. Furthermore, Sirius will incorporate the call of the race into each of those channels so when those channels have no chatter, you can still follow the race. If your a big Dale, Jr. fan, wouldn't you just love to listen to the race with his channel? This is radically different then what XM did.

I like XM's twist suggesting they don't need Nascar and are saving money. Sirius' has stated their research showed that Nascar was the third most popular reason people chose XM (behind MLB and music). That is a HUGE loss for XM.

But rjr

What about Nascar did the people like that brought them to Nascar? That's key information

rjr,

The two "twists" aren't necessarily exclusive. It's quite possible that lots of people joined XM for the live races (or simply because of the publicity *from* the live races) and then, as XM discovered, decided they more interested in the bull sessions on weekdays.

Think about it this way: live race audio only appeals to people who have to be on the road Sunday afternoons. Otherwise just about anyone would prefer the television. I think that if XM can convince its NASCAR fans that it'll have the best content mid-week, it'll keep almost all of them.

What *will* change is that Sirius will become the default satrad brand for casual NASCAR fans looking to get into satrad without doing any research. That's what their $20 mil is buying. Worth it? Maybe, maybe not.

rjr, who or where did the research show that NASCAR was the 3rd most popular thing on XM? Sirius? I doubt that claim.

NASCAR is available just about everywhere on free FM and television markets. After 5 years, XM knew EXACTLY what NASCAR was worth to keep, and it wasn't worth the $110 million Sirius was willing to pay. Plain and simple. NASCAR, while still the 2nd most popular sport (on TV not radio) has been on a slow but steady decline ever since that stupid "car of tomorrow" came in. NASCAR management hasn't exactly been stellar these last few years. Maybe XM really did know something for once.

Not sure about everyone else, but I have definately seen a change from XM to Sirius in the last couple of weeks, and I only expect it to get better. It isn't that people prefer the talk that will keep them with XM, it is that they prefer AND would like to listen when they want to. That is why I have seen people coming in saying they are dropping XM for Sirius. Most of the customers buying Sirius for NASCAR in the lsat few weeks have been coming from XM. That is good news for Sirius, and money well spent. XM is just trying to hold on to whatever it can, but when Feb races start and those people realize they can't hear in car audio or the race, you will see even more people changing over to Sirius.

Yeah, it is all money well spent. A billion dollars for Stern. $105M for NASCAR. $320M for NFL. 30M for Martha. A few million apiece for cherry-picked NCAA teams. Who-knows-how-much for NBA. Paying RSH to sell the product. Paying Penske to ORDER the product. Paying Eminem to, well, do not much of anything. All money well spent.

As Sirius reports a loss well exceeding a billion dollars for '06, we'll see just how well spent the Street thinks the money is.