Compared to 600,460 Sirius added during the same time! Yeah, retail softness, good one Hugh. Check around XM...the product is there, it is just sitting on the shelves in stores. Every one of the stores I have around me, in DC I might add, has plenty of XM products.

Memo to XM: How about actually marketing your services?

wonder what the oem/retail shares are .....

the O&A effect to CBS must be great for XM huh?

One thing that really annoys me with XM is their marketing. Has anyone else seen their Best Buy ads? They have Snoop Dogg in huge print (a convicted felon no less), Ludacris in big print, and then a little portion is devoted to Oprah and Bob Dylan. XM is so much more than that, it's pathetic that their advertising is so blatantly targeted to the black youth. I don't mean that in a racist way, but XM has things for people of all ages, nationalities, colors, and creeds...it's a shame that they just choose to advertise for one.

Right, because Snoop Dogg and Ludacris have such overwhelmingly black audiences. Sheesh.

There are just as many white suburban kids as black kids buying Snoop and Ludacris albums. The common denominator is that they're kids. Oprah and Dylan don't have nearly the number of young fans, so they get little print. I think XM is consciously trying to skew young- a better demo for advertising, more open to new electronics technologies, and with unprecedented money to spend. It's a smart strategy if it works.

Someone else pointed out that XM is marketing its product as ferociously as Sirius is. Assuming that someone's at the wheel in DC, that's probably strategy. Each company has to set a balance between the value of a new customer and the cost of acquiring him, and I believe XM is content to spend less for fewer new subscribers and focus on the best per-acquisition values as opposed to gross numbers.

I'd say to look at the financial numbers when they come out. If XM's cost-per-new-subscriber number is down a lot then it's a sign that they're actively sacrificing big expansion numbers for a better bottom line in the short term.

I can tell you that in my area of the NE, both seem stagnant. But that's just one store.

The 2 BestBuys I go to(1 burbs/1 south Philly) have opie and anthony on the displays.

Those best buys could have open and ass in motion lubing each other up, it still wont help xm or cbs. The BIG DOG is the leader in sat radio.

No talent, no creative abilities, blue light special programming, crappy audio quality... its no wonder why Sirius is kicking xm's butt. Just like people in the know have been saying for years.

But hey remember XM has Oprah...

XM's performance was simply anemic. Yes, there ARE product shortages (especially in my region of the NE), but the fact remains that Hugh doesn't know how/when to market his product, and Mel does.

Until XM wakes up, they will continue to lag behind their sub goals.

Oh crappy numbers now.. just wait till the nascar fans drop xm for the crap it is and move in mass over to Sirius... might even be BIGGER than the Stern effect.

Oh its going to be a great Q4 and Q1 and beyond!

Bye bye Hugh.... Thanks for taking a leader in sat radio, with terrible business planing, a idiot management staff, bottom of the barrel dj's, and with you being cheap turning xm into a turd we all knewit would be.

I still have xm cause i hate howard and the horriable radios get rid of howard sign oanda and start making better radios and i'll sign up

there is no inventory shortage people! go to circuit city.com. type in your zip code and not only is in stock at your local store, they gaurantee to have it waiting for you at the front counter within 24 minutes or they give you a gift card for $24! any make, any model, you choose...all in stock folks! so where is this inventory shortage? better yet, where is the retail softness? maybe hugh meant xm was seeing a retail softness because obviosly sirius is still rolling full steam ahead.
wheres Ramone? i just want to let him know that this is proof that Oprah and Anal are failing. in March opie said he had some numbers that showed xm was crushing the "lil doggy company" in adding subscribers. Hoo hoo O&A suck! tell em lil jimmy!

>>The 2 BestBuys I go to(1 burbs/1 south Philly) have opie and anthony on the displays. >>

And it's killing you, isn't it? ;-)

Regardless of XM trying to go for the younger demographic, it's almost as if satellite radio is best suited for an older audience - I bought XM for both my mom and my in-laws, and instantly took a liking to the 60's & 70's decades channels. My uncle in Florida (who loves his Yankees) has it for the baseball, and my wife's grandparents insist we put on the 40's station every time they come to visit.

I agree that Suburban kids listen to rap almost as much as blacks, but my point was that XM seems to target a particular group, whereas if you look at Sirius ads there is Martha Stewart/Cosmo (Women), Sports (Men), Bam Margera (kids), Eminem (blacks/whites)....etc.

I also disagree that XM has mainly younger subscribers if you look at this previous orbitcast article: http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/xms-listener-audience/circulation.html

Turns out the 70's is their most popular station, and 20on20 (hits) is 3rd by seemingly far behind the 70's.

Just all very interesting to consider.

Nice to see them doing so well. Long Live Free FM and XM. Sirius sucks.

XM has lost even more integrity by incorporating commercials into their popular broadcasts. I subscribed to satellite radio to get away from the commercials; now you can hear commercials on several of the 20s stations.I was extremely angered at this. With regards to my music interests, hip hop and rap, Sirius wins hands-down. XM simply has nothing but commercialized music that you hear on TRL and BET; FM radio even has special mixes and stuff. There are several hiphop stations on Sirius that have music that I've never heard, whereas XM may only have one station (66). As soon as my prepaid subscription runs out, I'm definitely gonna be one of those new Sirius subscribers. XM has really blown on it; they had a huge advantage in the game about 3 years ago, and they've watched it disappear due to poor programming and poor marketing.

I have two cars. One has Sirius...the other XM. Both satellite radios have their merits...and are definately better than FM radio...especially here in Sacramento. The folk that says sirius sucks have probably never listened to Sirius. I have never heard a commercial on Sirius and I have noticed that they don't replay the same songs like XM...Flight 21. I keep XM since it came with my new car....but Sirius is great...and definately does not suck.

"Yes, there ARE product shortages (especially in my region of the NE)"

Where in the NE? I have never seen a shortage of XM product. They sent out plenty of product for 4th quarter which sat there, plenty of product for 1st quarter which sat there, and had an abundent amount for the 2nd quarter. It just did not sell!

Hugh needed an excuse for all the woes XM is facing. This is just another hit for them, and Hugh needed someone to blame. There is no inventory shortage; especially in the NE. DC has far more XM product than Sirius, but for some reason Hugh blames inventory shortage.

Remeber when he said there was an "overall" retail softness that was to blame. Overall implies Sirius suffered as well. Remember how Sirius came back saying they were right on track to meet goals and there was no softness for them.

Don't you remember when XM dropped guidance by 500,000 subs? This was done long before they got the letter from the FCC. They were trying to spin this back then too.

Hugh is just trying to svae face in light of Sirius' success. Don't blame him for trying, but don't fall for his line of bullshit either.

Black people don't have money for satelite radio, XM.

XM the company is falling apart with internal problems. XM radio just is not as entertaining as SIRIUS radio. XM sucks.

>> I have never heard a commercial on Sirius and I have noticed that they don't replay the same songs like XM...Flight 21 >>

It's 'Flight 26', but I assume maybe you're referring to the 'Top 20 on 20' channel, whose whole existence is based on playing the 'top 20' songs over and over. There's definitely an audience for that sort of repetition, however - see: Z100 in NYC.

Ick.

Is Opie and Anthony supposed to be considered an attraction? Who are they signing next, Al Jazeera?