Will Satellite Radio be around in 5 yrs?
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As far as I know they are profitable, it will be up to them to provide a product that compete with free services. As long as sports subscriptions exist in their current form they will forever be viable assuming they don't price themselves out of the market.
Hybrid MP3/internet/phone devices offering sports packages would be the biggest threat to probably their most ironclad niche.
Hybrid MP3/internet/phone devices offering sports packages would be the biggest threat to probably their most ironclad niche.
I think they will still be around in 5 years from now and add other services as well other than radio.
Of course they will. Lots of folks are getting them now with the factory installs.
I love my Sirius unit. We haven't listened to the garbage on FM in the past two years. I couldn't go back. Drove me wacky for the couple of days we drove around in the wife's car without the Sirius radio.
I love my Sirius unit. We haven't listened to the garbage on FM in the past two years. I couldn't go back. Drove me wacky for the couple of days we drove around in the wife's car without the Sirius radio.
I definitely believe they will. If not I might just have to get an office job. I would not be able to drive around and listen to FM anymore.
With the merger and the addition of satellite radio television (Sirius has it now).... its not going anywhere... they will be searching for my bandwidth in 2 years
HD radio is a disaster. Early receivers were not well made- something about low sensitivity, IIRC. HD (which means "Hybrid Digital" BTW, not High Def) in the AM band has caused interference. I believe we are still negotiating with Canada and Mexico over the interference this has caused. HD radio is not pushed much anymore.
I suspect that to save face, rather than withdraw it from the U.S. market, it will just be allowed to die in obscurity. Then in 10 or 20 years, we might adopt a system used elsewhere in the world, or come up with something better. OK, maybe 30 or 40 years.
Personally, I think we should set aside a small portion (digital taking up far less spectrum for the same result) of the frequency band currently used by FM radio, and assign slots. One slot per station today. Let 'em bid on more slots if they want. Each slot to be called D1, D2, etc or some such. No frequencies to be referred to. Require all radios sold after X date to support reception in this mode. And then after 10 years, begin actual broadcasts. Phase out the old stations, sell off the frequencies.
I suspect that to save face, rather than withdraw it from the U.S. market, it will just be allowed to die in obscurity. Then in 10 or 20 years, we might adopt a system used elsewhere in the world, or come up with something better. OK, maybe 30 or 40 years.
Personally, I think we should set aside a small portion (digital taking up far less spectrum for the same result) of the frequency band currently used by FM radio, and assign slots. One slot per station today. Let 'em bid on more slots if they want. Each slot to be called D1, D2, etc or some such. No frequencies to be referred to. Require all radios sold after X date to support reception in this mode. And then after 10 years, begin actual broadcasts. Phase out the old stations, sell off the frequencies.
With most people under 30 radio in any form is becoming irrelevant. I look no further than my own children, as well as my nieces and nephews. My oldest son is 13, he doesn't even own or want a radio. My oldest niece is now 20 and her sisters are in their mid teens. They only rarely listen to the radio, preferring their iPods. Before the internet I used to listen to much more radio than I do now, even listening to shortwave broadcasts. I am a Sirius subscriber and enjoy many of their channels, but when we are driving together as a family my kids prefer to play video games or watch DVDs.
My short answer is yes, satellite radio will be around in five years time in some form. You can still buy an old-school turntable at Best Buy for your LPs too.
Long answer - the incumbent providers will not be happy with the demographics. Perhaps a satellite-based or WiMAX-based service that is not real-time, sending rich content to a mobile device at a slower rate might be better suited for a younger audience. The content could be music, games, video, books; whatever the user wanted or the player supported. It could be something similar to the Netflix model, with a user specifying content preferences on a web site, then the content spooling out to the device sometime within the next 24 hours, never needing to be physically connected to a PC. Of course you could still instantly get content on the device through synching if you chose to do so. Content should be shareable between devices as well, sort of like what the Zune is doing now. All this could be done using technology available today, using broadcast bandwidth available today. Something like this could definately be the future of radio.
My short answer is yes, satellite radio will be around in five years time in some form. You can still buy an old-school turntable at Best Buy for your LPs too.
Long answer - the incumbent providers will not be happy with the demographics. Perhaps a satellite-based or WiMAX-based service that is not real-time, sending rich content to a mobile device at a slower rate might be better suited for a younger audience. The content could be music, games, video, books; whatever the user wanted or the player supported. It could be something similar to the Netflix model, with a user specifying content preferences on a web site, then the content spooling out to the device sometime within the next 24 hours, never needing to be physically connected to a PC. Of course you could still instantly get content on the device through synching if you chose to do so. Content should be shareable between devices as well, sort of like what the Zune is doing now. All this could be done using technology available today, using broadcast bandwidth available today. Something like this could definately be the future of radio.
They wouldhave been profitable 3 years ago if they didn't wildly overspend on programming trying to one up each other....
HOW much did XM pay for Oprah and MLB? HOW much did Sirius pay for Howard and the NFL?
Having no one else around to try and drive up prices will resolve that real quick....
Don't forget NASCAR. How many people actually LISTEN to a radio broadcast of guys driving cars around a track? Seems to me like it is a visual activity, much more so than a sport like football.
I wonder what the conversion rate is for pre-installs in new cars? A friend of mine bought a new Camry last year with a free trial subscription to Sirius. He prefers his new iPod and did not continue his Sirius subscription past the trial period.
The reality is that they are still in ramp-up stage. Look how long it took internet companies such as Amazon to become profitable. With the merger taking down the promo costs and most car manufacturers delivering cars with satellite radio pre-installed, the subscription rate will increase.
The real challenge is to keep it fresh to reduce the burn rates. I've has Sirius for 3 years and had XM for 18 months prior to that. On both if you listen to the same stations with any consistency, you'll hear the same music over and over again, sometimes in the same sequence. Doesn't bother me that much, I just switch to another channel since I like many different genres of music, but some people will become bored and cancel.
Bridge Ratings does some projections but the public web site is 10 months behind since industry insiders pay for the up-to-date info. Bridge Ratings
The real challenge is to keep it fresh to reduce the burn rates. I've has Sirius for 3 years and had XM for 18 months prior to that. On both if you listen to the same stations with any consistency, you'll hear the same music over and over again, sometimes in the same sequence. Doesn't bother me that much, I just switch to another channel since I like many different genres of music, but some people will become bored and cancel.
Bridge Ratings does some projections but the public web site is 10 months behind since industry insiders pay for the up-to-date info. Bridge Ratings
I still feel that XM has deeper playlists while Sirius plays the same depth you can find on most radio stations (specialty formats like Heavy Metal excluded). I also have both services.
The problem is that I prefer the XM playlists, so I'm a little worried about what they will look like post-merger....
The problem is that I prefer the XM playlists, so I'm a little worried about what they will look like post-merger....
No offense but most of the stuff I hear on sirius I rarely heard on terestrial such as B sides and studio cuts or live foreign tracks.
None taken, but I'm referring to a channel like the 80's channel. You've probably already heard most of the songs fairly regularly elsewhere, but on XM they dust off some dusty tracks that haven't been heard for eons more often than not.....
If you are dealing with the Elvis channel, I'm sure there are tons of obscure buried treasure tracks they dig up....
Basically I equate XM with a deeper catalog (which will appeal to adventurous types or compleatists) vs. Sirius which has more familiar tracks more often and will appeal to more casual music fans.
That's a label I slapped on them years ago, and I haven't heard a lot that has made me want to retract that assessment yet.....
You're right, my bad.
Sirius loss narrows, subscriptions rise - MarketWatch
Being able to scale back advertising, not pay as much for 'exclusive' programming (NFL cost them $188m cash over 7 years and $32m in Stock w/ options to purchase 50m more shares) will be huge for the combined company, looking forward to the merger going through.
