Awareness of satellite radio is on the rise, and quite signficantly. Both XM and SIRIUS have reached equal awareness levels of 61% among people ages 12 and older. A joint study performed by Edison Media Research and Arbitron interviewed 1,925 Arbitron diarykeepers in January 2006 to give more color on digital radio mindshare.

Almost one in five non-subscribers say they are “very” or “somewhat” likely to subscribe to satellite radio in the next 12 months. For XM, awareness climbed from 41% in January 2004, to 50% in Jan 05, to 61% this January. Sirius awareness climbed 28% in Jan 04, 54% in Jan 05, 61% in Janauary 2006.

The fact that XM and SIRIUS now have equal metrics in awareness now may be an indication that their concentration needs to shift to differentiating themselves from each other, in additional to showing benefits over terrestrial radio.  

Satellite radio subscribers are twice as likely to live in $100K+ households. And while 77% of Americans expect to listen to AM/FM as much as they do now, satellite radio subscribers showed slightly less dedication to terrestrial, with 64% saying they plan to continue listening to the same amount of AM/FM radio.

Satellite radio also attracts a broad audience profile and the satellite radio audience more closely
mirrors the age and gender profile of the average American than audiences of other digital forms
of radio (podcasting, internet radio, etc). Fifty-three percent of satellite radio subscribers are male, and 18% are age 55 and older.

[Arbitron Radio Listening Report (PDF)]
Thanks Tim!