XM Satellite Radio and AOL will be parting ways, and CBS Radio will move in to replace the satellite radio provider, sometime this spring.
AOL and XM partnered together nearly two years ago.
CBS Radio and AOL have instead joined forces according to a press release, with CBS serving its own streams of over 150 radio stations and channels to the online radio service. As part of the announcement, CBS Radio said it will also drive advertising sales for AOL's stations, signaling that the online radio network will start to incorporate advertising into its free service.
(...wait, AOL actually wants to make money with its online radio service?)
If it was AOL's goal to generate revenue through advertising on its music channels, then it's conceivable that XM - and it's selection of commercial-free music channels - did not fit into the equation.
Still, XM on its website says that the two "mutually agreed" on the separation and that it was a "positive relationship."
CBS Radio will include a myriad of terrestrial stations into the service, including WFAN-AM and 1010 WINS (New York), KLSX and KROQ (Los Angeles), WXRT (Chicago), WVEE (Atlanta), as well as a litany of channels created exclusively for online use.
Starting on April 30th, the XM channels on AOL Radio will no longer be available - and the AOL channels on XM Radio Online will no longer be available.
For AOL users who still wish to experience XM Radio Online (along with its commercial-free music) XM is offering the service at a discounted rate of $2.99 plus a free 14-day trial for six months. After six months, the current monthly subscription rate for XM Radio Online will apply.
The offer is available until
Full details and information are available on a special section of XM's website.
UPDATE: Lemons into lemonade. XM just announced the $2.99 pricing deal as part of this.
So AOL is replacing ad-free satellite radio content with terrestrial radio content-plus-commercials? Schweet.
This sucks as I find the AOL stations on XM's WEB service are much higher quality than XM's streams. I will miss these a lot.
Wait.. People are still using AOL?!?
You have to wonder how many millions it cost XM to get out of THIS deal.
no more metalcore :(
Stack, my guess is if anyone wanted out it would have been AOL. Why would XM pony up money to no longer be associated with AOL?
First Starbucks and now AOL. Seems to me XM is trying to end relationships.......I wonder why?
Possibly exclusive with Goog or Apple?
>> First Starbucks and now AOL. Seems to me XM is trying to end relationships.......I wonder why?
Because they are expensive and non-productive.
Perhaps XM has come to the realization that these deals didn't pay off for them as expected, and it is time to move on under the assumption that the merger isn't going to be approved and they need to get their financial house in order now rather than waiting.
>> Stack, my guess is if anyone wanted out it would have been AOL.
Right -- AOL wanted of providing higher quality, commercial-free service so they could provide CBS's radio channels, loaded with ads. I don't think so.
>> Why would XM pony up money to no longer be associated with AOL?
I have no idea what the terms of the deal were but I'd be willing bet that XM was paying AOL to run this programming and didn't want to keep paying, so AOL cut the deal with CBS where there is ad revenue to support the broadcast.
This would be consistent with XM's recent move toward getting out from under some of these expensive deals that aren't paying off. Can DirecTV be far behind?
The deals like this and Direct and Dish were good at the time but that time is over.
Even at $2.99 XMRO is a joke when you conisider it's a 64kb/s wma stream. That is a rather mediocre bitrate to charge for.
Ugh - The only reason I signed up for a USLESS AOL account was to access my XM channels - Lucy, On The Rocks, Luna, 40s on 4, 60s on 6, etc because I use a MacBook and XM obviously has built their crappy web stream interface to be Windows friendly.
Does any body know whether this would affect the Dave Matthews Band and Korn channels? Who produces those?
well aol took xm radio away now it is time i leave aol i'm a paying member no a free member if i want to listen to cbs i would turn on my radio maybe when aol goes belly up it iwill figure out why they give their paying members no reason to stay
well aol took xm radio away now it is time i leave aol i'm a paying member no a free member if i want to listen to cbs i would turn on my radio maybe when aol goes belly up it iwill figure out why they give their paying members no reason to stay
It's pretty simple, AOL got a better offer from CBS on the sly, and was probably willing to let XM go without much of a squeak. $$$ cha-ching! - sure we'll run your ads CBS! On one hand, XM is much better, and like the other guy said, if I want to hear CBS, I'll turn on the radio or TV. I don't want to hear their stupid ads. But I can mute it all, and I am now able to hear radio stations that weren't available to me before. I'm from Chicago, used to live in CA and now living in a state where I can't get other stations, and since there are stations I miss from Chi, L.A. & SF, I'm able to get them all effortlessly now. From what I see, most of the music categories are still there! Works for me.