XM Satellite Radio has signed a five-year agreement with the Southeastern Conference (SEC) to broadcast SEC football, basketball and other sports.
XM will air complete coverage of SEC championships, starting with the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament live from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta March 8th - 11th on XM channel 201. XM Sports Nation (ch 144) will also broadcast live from the Georgia Dome.
Starting this fall, XM plans to carry live regular-season football games for six SEC schools: University of Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee. University of South Carolina joins XM in fall 2008, and University of Florida joins XM in fall 2009.
XM will also carry the SEC football and basketball championships, the vast majority of regular-season basketball games for participating schools, and other SEC sports on dedicated SEC channels.
Rights for the four other SEC schools are currently not available for the 2007-2008 season, but when those schools play against the schools that are joining XM, you'll get to hear those games. So in other words, when Tennessee plays Auburn, XM will carry the game.
As part of marketing push, SEC fans can go to xmradio.com/sec for a special offers. Special deals on XM radios will also be offered this week at the SEC men's basketball tournament and the SEC FanFare in Atlanta.
Go Big Orange!
if there is going to be a "Merger" then why is XM the "exclusive Satellite radio partner"
Why why why.. are they still spending for content thats not more exclusive... this coverage could be picked up by broadband or internet radio or any other form of terestrial. It needs to be totaly exclusive audio content. The onlt place to hear it EVER is XM or Sirius.
So does this mean Sirius will stop carrying these SEC teams?
I buy a Sirius and everything leaves.
(Angry typing guy)
THIS PROVES THEY'RE FAILING! THIS MERGER'S GONNA KILL THE INDUSTRY!!!
I'm kidding. I really did buy a Sirius, but college sports really isn't my thing.
Hey Tennesee Volunteers fans:
How about those Penn State Nittany Lions!.....
(You know, this past January ) ..... LOL .....
(And they said the Big 10 couldn't compete with the SEC.)
I will say this, the merger would make me a lot happier. I purchased Sirius, in part, because Kentucky and the SEC were on there service. Now I have invested money in three radios, a boombox, multiple car and home cradles, and the SEC moves to XM. I guess I have to throw all that away and purchase three XM radios, a boombox, multiple car and home cradles....this just sucks...
Please merge so I don't have to do this. I doubt I will actually move to XM in the end, but I am really sad about losing SEC sports.
So if I want half of the SEC I need to buy XM - the other half Sirius? No wonder they are merging - talk about a perfect synergy. Tongue firmly planted in cheek.
XM now carrying 1/2 of the SEC and one sometimes on channel of the Big East - your home for College Sports!
The merger is not final and it is not a slam dunk it will be approved.
XM is once again just positioning themselves to have the best content for their listeners.
Absolutely, there is no gurantee of the merger at all. If you are buying, be sure to pick the service that offers most of what you want. Don't bank on a merger.
Or do like I do and subscribe to both. It really isn't that expensive. $25 per month, that's less than a dollar a day. You can't even get a 16oz bottle of coke out of a vending machine for that.
SEC on XM?! WOW Awesome!!!
93 Mustang:
I don't think a Coke a day is good for you.
It sucks that LSU is not moving to XM. It is just like XM has the Pac-10, but UCLA & USC are on Sirius.
How is this? You make deals with the conference and the schools?
Does this mean that LSU won't be on XM?
Everyone can relax! The SEC has not moved from Sirius to XM. XM and Sirius sign up colleges differently which is why XM can say exclusive. Sirius signs each college individually and XM signs by conference. So you will not lose your SEC games on Sirius. Besides, Sirius is the only place to get the final four and championship game anyway.
"SIRIUS will provide uninterrupted coverage of the 2007 NCAA® Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. (March 13 – April 2) From the opening tip-off to the final buzzer, SIRIUS delivers every game in its entirety with absolutely no blackouts."
Rights may not be available to XM for Auburn, but Sirius has them. That is because they sign individually. Check this site to see all the teams Sirius has http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/Page&c=FlexContent&cid=1152812365108
XM doesn't give a list that I could find on their site.
hey coward, you do remember the florida, ohio st. game right? this sucks. i'm a kentucky fan and an sec fan. its not enough to make me switch however. hey, we still have lacrosse!!!
The big picture, the reality, is that Sirius has Stern, and therefore cannot AFFORD other content.
Sirius went for the Hail Mary, and in doing so limited future content offerings. XM is positioned much better financially (and in terms of bandwidth) to add content as it becomes available.
Had Sirius not spent a billion dollars on Howard Stern, they could have spent more on other things. Not rocket science.
Provided the merger doesn't go through (and I, for one, hope it doesn't) SIRI ends up with the bigger brand (just like they have now, attributable to Mel's ability to lay on the bullshit), but they simply cannot sustain the purported content advantage. Sooner or later people are going to begin to figure out that if you choose Sirius for Stern you also choosing to limit other content because Stern sucked up all the money.