'satellite radio'

Sirius' nifty new home satellite radio tuner

I went to Sirius XM's New York City headquarters on Wednesday to see what's new. They showed a bunch of docking units and the like, but the only new product that got my juices flowing was a new home tuner, the sleek-looking SR-H2000.

You might think a brand new Sirius tuner (not a table radio) intended to be used with a stereo or home theater system would also offer access to all XM channels, but that's not the case. Sirius subscribers can add "The Best of XM" package for a small upcharge on their monthly … Read more

XM SkyDock turns your iPhone into a satellite radio control panel

Like satellite radio, but don't want to deal with the kludge-y "dock and play" satellite radios that clutter up your car's dashboard? The XM SkyDock could be for you. It looks little different than your average iPod car charger, but the SkyDock has a satellite tuner built in. Pop in any iPhone or iPod Touch, run the free SkyDock control app, and the Apple handheld is transformed into a touch-screen control for the satellite radio service.

The app automatically adjusts to landscape (shown) or portrait mode, and the audio stream can be sent either via line-out … Read more

Sirius TTR1: Just call it the Howard Stern Box

Many (but not all) of the XM Sirius satellite radio audio channels are also available online to subscribers, for a small additional fee. The browser-based service is great for listening in those places where you don't--or can't--have a satellite radio rig set up, such as an interior room of an office building (or any other room without a window). And now, XM Sirius is offering a dedicated device for listening to its online streams: the Sirius TTR1 Internet Radio.

The tabletop radio connects to your home network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet to access the satcaster's online audio … Read more

How big are Howard Stern's ratings?

Stern loves to count the 20 million Sirius XM subscribers as listeners, and his rabid fan base believes him!

Come on, that's a huge stretch, even for the former "King of all Media." Intentionally equating potential audience with actual listeners is classic Stern BS. The former King never made another movie or wrote another book. He's the King of Satellite Radio, and he works for a company that NEVER posted a profit during his reign (it continues to post losses every quarter). Sirius XM stock has been lingering around thirty-three cents a share for the past month or so.

I'm just waiting for Stern to advise his buddy, Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin, to boost profitability by eliminating all of the other channels. Stern is the big draw, so why waste resources with all those other channels? I wonder how fast the 20 million number would plummet.

Before the Sirius XM merger "Daily News" writer David Hinckley reported that "Arbitron has released its first-ever ratings for XM and Sirius, covering April-June 2007, and they show that in an average week, 1,225,000 listeners at some point heard Stern." That's the TOTAL for the week, so at any given moment, Stern has maybe a few hundred thousand listeners. Anyway you look at it, that's a sorry ratings number for the former terrestrial radio god.

Arbitron also said that one other satellite channel--XM's "Top 20 on 20" - topped a million during that April-June 2007 ratings period. Since Sirius XM doesn't release its internal ratings, we don't have any way to verify Stern's claims, or other satellite radio shows' numbers.

On today's show Stern admitted that, yes, he has fewer listeners than he did when he was on terrestrial radio, but wouldn't go so far as to say lots of terrestrial radio personalities have far more listeners than he does now.… Read more

My weekend with Sirius

I canceled my subscription to Sirius more than two years ago, and haven't had much chance to listen to satellite radio since Sirius and XM merged. So this weekend I was happy to I discover that my rental had a Sirius receiver and a package with about 80 stations. I know the company has been struggling lately, so I was curious to hear if the service had improved.

I was pleasantly surprised. The annoying DJs who talked between every song have been scaled way back, although they still talk more often than I'd like. The programming is more … Read more

Sirius XM teases iPhone app

On May 27, 2009, a PowerPoint presentation from a Sirius XM shareholder meeting revealed the satellite broadcaster's plan to bring its service to the iPhone.

A screenshot of a Sirius XM iPhone app was included in the presentation, with an interface similar to competing internet radio applications, such as AOL Radio or Slacker. Judging from the screenshot, the app allows users to browse stations by genre or category, designate favorite stations, or purchase songs through iTunes.

There's no indication of when (or if) the iPhone app will be available to the public, but if Apple gives it their … Read more

Sirius XM sticks it to subscribers

How's the Sirius XM satellite radio monopoly working out for subscribers? Not so well. Now that Sirius XM is the only game in town, it's nudging up fees for subscribers. Nice!

The one and only satellite radio company's boasts of its ever-increasing subscriber base are gone now, and the decline is significant. The number floating around the Internet is a loss of 400,000 subscribers. That still leaves 18.6 million, but there's no way of knowing how many of that number are full-price-paying subscribers.

Could the subscriber losses be attributed to recent price hikes? The … Read more

Sirius XM tuning in to iPhone application

Update at 8:19 a.m. PDT, with comment from Sirius XM.

Sirius XM is planning to launch an iPhone application by June in a move to expand its market, the satellite service provider said Thursday during an analyst conference call.

The iPhone application will be available to Apple's U.S. iPhone users and Sirius XM customers, as well as to iPod Touch Wi-Fi users.

Sirius XM charges $12.95 per month for its Internet radio service. It is not immediately clear whether iPhone and iPod users will incur the same service fees.

A Sirius XM representative declined comment, … Read more

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