XM Satellite Radio is re-launching their flagship hits channel, Top 20 on 20 (ch 20), on Monday, December 4th.

As part of the re-launch, Top 20 on 20 will feature on-air personalities around the clock, along with the popular Top 20 on 20 countdowns airing throughout the day at 12, 3, 6 and 9am and pm ET/PT. In addition, the new 20 on 20 will include celebrity hosted countdowns each Friday at 9pm ET/6pm PT.  

To kick off the revamped channel, during the week of December 4th, XM’s 20 on 20 will air celebrity countdowns each day hosted by Nelly Furtado (Dec. 4), Ciara (Dec. 5), Diddy (Dec. 6), Evanescence (Dec. 7) and Chingy (Dec. 8). The channel will also feature performances by celebrity "House Band" guests throughout the week, including The Fray, Hinder, Ludacris, Pink, KT Tunstall and others.  

Current Top 20 on 20 MD Priestly and PD Michelle Cartier will be on-air hosts for the new Top 20 on 20 during mornings and mid-days, respectively. XM has also hired two new personalities for the channel – Evan James, previously with MTV Radio, who will host afternoons out of XM’s New York studios, and Chris Styles, of DC’s Hot 99.5, will serve as evening host from XM’s DC headquarters.

We first spotted the elusive Bushnell ONIX400CR when it was honored with the 2007 CES Innovations Award, but at the time there was little details available on the unit. All we knew was that it was a handheld XM-Ready GPS/Weather tracker. Satellite Radio TechWorld even discovered a related patent application back in early October, though it veiled in secrecy.

Orbitcast has obtained the specs to the ONIX 400CR, and this looks like one incredible device. It looks like Bushnell is aggressive going after Garmin by providing XM, XMWX Weather Data, and GPS with Satellite Imagery all in a single handheld device - and it's priced well below the competition.

Here's the features: 

• Large 3.5” full color screen (320 x 240)
• Aerial & satellite photos can be downloaded from Bushnell web site for real world navigation
• Access to live XMWX weather feeds including animated Doppler radar, severe storm tracking & warnings
• Screen layering (including weather)
• Safetrack™  battery conservation mode
• Option of XM satellite entertainment packages available
• Customized user profiles
• Designed for outdoor use
• Ergonomic design
• Waterproof, rugged rubber armor (IPX7 Standard)
• LCD screen readable in direct sunlight
• Imbedded 64MB Micro SD card
• Rechargeable Li-Ion battery
• USA & Canada Base Map
• SiRF GPS Chip Set

The Bushnell ONIX400CR will go for an MSRP of only $499 (half that of the Garmin 376c and a fraction of the cost of the Garmin 396c). The Bushnell ONIX400CR is expected to be available in February 2007.

One interesting thing to note is the use of the "XM satellite entertainment" moniker. This is something that I thought was reserved for satellite video, but I could be jumping the gun on that.

Honda will factory-install XM Satellite Radio into more than 650,000 of their 2007 model year vehicles.

In 2004 Honda made over 200,000 vehicles with XM; over 400,000 in 2005; over 550,000 in 2006; and now is projecting production of more than 650,000 factory-installed XM units for 2007.

Remember XM is also now a standard feature on all 2007 model year Acuras.

[Reuters] 

XM Satellite Radio will broadcast each of the 17 races from the 2006-2007 Amp'd Mobile World Supercross GP and Amp'd Mobile AMA Supercross Serie on XM Sports Nation (ch 143). Also, XM Sports Nation will provide news from each race on "XMSN This Morning with TJ Rives," featuring riders and industry insiders.

This is the fifth year of the relationship between Amp’d Mobile Supercross and XM Satellite Radio Radio. This year XM Sports Nation is providing an extra hour of coverage for each race, broadcasting live each Saturday during the season from 5pm-8pm 11pm-2am ET.

The three-hour show features Supercross LIVE! announcers Jim Holley and Jason Weigandt calling the race from the press box, bringing all the racing action to listeners nationwide.

[Press Release] 

Satellite Video, or Satellite Radio Video, or SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand), or whatever the heck it would be called. It's something that's been talked about by both Sirius and XM for quite some time now.

Sirius has brought up a video service since early 2004. Along the way Sirius has said that their mobile in-car video services would provide children's content in a live format, and would be available by the second half of this year as part of their OEM offering. We even know that Sirius plans to use Microsoft's Windows Media Player 9.

XM demonstrated their own in-car satellite video at CES last year, and even went so far as to demonstrate a live wearable video player to analysts in the beginning of this year. XM has partnered with On2 to provide their video compression technology.

The efforts even extend into Canada where XM Canada and Sirius Canada both talked up satellite video with an expected release for late-2006.

But the question isn't "if" this will happen, or even "when" (because a delay at this point wouldn't surprise anyone - it's almost December afterall) - the question is... how?

The experience needs to be something that consumers will actually find useful. It can't just be music videos or clips of Despirate Housewives. This isn't the iPod audience per se (though it will be compared to the iPod nearly instanteously). If the target distribution market is vehicles, then the audience to appeal to should definitely be kids. Sirius has a good hunch here.

But big name content providers aren't going to sign on board immediately. They sure as hell didn't when iTunes started offering video, though maybe since the landscape has changed so has the mindset of entertainment companies. But most likely the content would need to be either created in-house or by current VOD content providers. I personally love the content provided by Comcast's Select On Demand for my kids, and similar providers would be quite open to working with both satcasters.

Then there's social video. Verizon partnered with YouTube (but as a neutered version), and a similar style of approach isn't inconceivable. But it couldn't be the only content provided, and would be best for a handheld video player rather than a rear seat video application.

For the in-house route, the obvious choice would be to make the satellite video offering an extension of the core satellite radio services. So you could see the action in-studio, or watch whatever the hosts are talking about. This works great for the talk channels.

Aside from children's content, YouTube-style videos or in-studio shenanegans - what would be on your "wishlist" for content if/when Sirius and XM unveil this technology to the masses?

In a recent report released by Bank of America Analyst Jonathan Jacoby, it was stated that channel checks with retail buyers (not sellers) indicate that gross retail sales will decline by 20% in the fourth quarter.

Now, that's down 20% year-over-year, mind you. Last year around this time there was a frenzy in retail as Howard Stern's departure from terrestrial was only three weeks away. So a YoY decline of only 20% is actually, not too shabby. Considering the hype and hooplah that surrounded the industry in 2005, a mere drop of 20% is a good sign of the industry's strength in my opinion.

So let's take a look at some different areas of interest now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are behind us. First, here's the Alexa traffic numbers during a 7-day period:

This shows that Sirius still leads XM in traffic, a look at a one-month period shows Sirius benefitting much more from weekday traffic than XM as well. Traffic can be inferred as a level of interest - not necessarily in sales, but in product research. Net-savvy users will research their options for their holiday shopping ahead of time. Sirius seems to be doing well.

A look at Amazon's Car Electronics best sellers shows satellite radio clearly dominating the category, with more XM products in the lead. Amazon's Satellite Radio category shows a similar favor towards XM. It's not all peaches and cream though, because satellite radio is no where to be seen in the Electronics category.

Looking at eBay's Consumer Electronics category shows a fair number of satellite radios being listed (nearly 6,000 items in total - the key would be to see this number grow in the coming weeks). The wearable/handheld units seem to be the most popular on eBay, which is really no surprise.

Now ShopperTrak estimated that Black Friday sales were up 6% from last year, but it was flat-panel TVs and computers that dominated the consumer electronics category. Unfortunately "Cyber Monday" ended up being a bust... well, not a bust necessarily, but just yet another holiday shopping day. While Microsoft's Xbox 360 Core sold out in 30-seconds for Amazon's door-buster campaign; the much hyped (and ugly) Microsoft Zune is falling fast on sales charts. There's a lot of competition this season for satellite radio, and nothing is a guarantee.

Remember, last year SIRIUS added 1,142,640 net subscribers and XM added 898,315 net subscribers in the fourth quarter (Gross Subscribers: 1,266,674 and 1,373,876 respectively). During the same period SIRIUS added 900,645 net retail subscribers, while XM added 782,420 net retail subscribers. So a 20% hit in retail - if equally applied to both XM and SIRIUS - would mean an estimated 720,516 net retail subs for SIRIUS, and an estimated 625,936 net retail subs for XM.

As a reminder, to meet guidance SIRIUS needs to add 1.18 Million net subs, and XM needs to add 515,000 to 715,000 net subs. 

Karmazin's latest comments to SmartMoney hinting toward a possible Sirius/XM merger are being eaten up by the press. Gee, who saw that coming.

No surprise as suggestions of a merger seem to get the media into a tizzy over even the slightest hint. This time around it the merger whispers haven't sent either stock soaring  though. Interesting. Perhaps investors are getting wise to this ruse. Personally, I feel it's a distraction. And a useless one at that.

But maybe Mel isn't to blame. Maybe it's the unoriginal media and their boring obvious questions. Maybe a better question to have asked Karmazin, rather than this XM/SIRIUS merger nonsense, should have been: "How is Sirius planning on beating last year's Q4 subscriber additions?"

Perhaps then we would get an answer that's truely newsworthy.

XM Satellite Radio is now offering a free two-week subscription to XM Radio Online when you use a special coupon code. Normally the trial subscription is three days.

To access the free XM subscription, use the promo code "FREE2AIR14" when you register. As always no credit card is required, just a valid email address.

It's interesting timing for a promotion like this. Two weeks still gives plenty of time to purchase a radio by the Holidays. 

[via Deal News]
Thanks tim!

In a SmartMoney interview with Mel Karmazin (via SSG), the subject touched upon the beaten-horse topic of a possible SIRIUS+XM merger.

Karmazin's response isn't that of complete dismissal, but rather he leads the answer in a suggestive direction stating that his focus is on "value and wealth creation" and that "mergers allow for that." Not necessarily saying anything, but teasing with the suggestion nonetheless.

When asked the same question by Bear Stearns analyst Bob Peck only a few weeks ago, Mel had a more conversative response in that he didn't "have very much to say about any hypothetical combination that could or could not exist." (He later went on to say that Sirius is going to kick XM's ass).

Karmazin then turned the topic to the regulatory hurdles - which most believe would be the biggest barrier to a merger occuring:

"I personally believe regulatory agencies are not a problem. If there's an iPod with terrestrial radio, it's hard to believe government is worried about two satellite radio companies combining."

I'm not sure I personally buy that argument and I doubt the regulatory powers-that-be do either. iPods with FM receivers have little to do with FCC-granted SDARS licenses. But for a topic that inevitably - and so easily - drives up stock prices (and drives Jim Cramer into a frenzy... which isn't difficult), why not use a little suggestive language?

[SmartMoney] 

A Delphi SkyFi3 review unit just arrived on my doorstep courtesy of our friends at The Radio Place. An in-depth review will be written soon, but for now here's some photos of the unboxing and the contents that come with the SkyFi3 (which includes the new XM SureConnect FM transmitter).

More photos after the jump...