Everyone's Aiming at Satellite Radio

**Jared Moya** · January 13th, 2006, 10:39 AM

Since their debut a half-decade ago, satellite radio stations have had one main rival: traditional radio. And it's not hard to see why winning subscribers has been easing pickings. Satellite radio offers ad-free music channels and boasts myriad specialized offerings, compared with a few dozen for traditional AM/FM stations. XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) and Sirius (SIRI) had signed up 9.3 million paying users by the end of 2005, compared with fewer than 4.5 million a year earlier.

Competition between XM and Sirius has been furious from the start and has only intensified of late -- most recently with the Jan. 9 debut of a channel for shock jock Howard Stern on Sirius (see BW 12/28/05, "Satellite Radio: Now It's a Race"). But now, the battle for subscribers is about to get cranked up another notch. Traditional radio companies are making a major push into so-called high-definition radio, a new technology that will let them better compete for listeners with a greater range of channels and higher sound quality.

What's more, wireless broadcasting networks as well as services that let you listen to radio on your PC or download radio wirelessly are rushing into the market, offering consumers a slew of new listening options. The big wild card: Apple Computer (AAPL), maker of the wildly popular iPod digital music player, might enter the fray, with results that may not favor the satellite companies.

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**ivand67** · January 15th, 2006, 09:41 PM

I very much doubt that Apple will want to offer a pay radio service on a new generation of "wireless-radio" capable iPods.

Their big business is iTunes and selling a song for a dollar for all the idiots that are willing to do that, and if suddenly they started offering hundreds of channels like Sirius and XM, it would kind of defeat the iTunes business model.

And even if they could, I doubt they'd offer it for just $12 month. Sirius and XM are one big step ahead of high-definition radio, and Sirius will be in the forefront, thanks mostly to one Howard Allan Stern.

**boogiedan** · January 17th, 2006, 03:19 AM

nice article..

i actually think sat radio is the future
n a very rosy one at that

**ker7099** · January 18th, 2006, 05:56 PM

personally i just recently got xm radio and i love it. i still listen to the local stations but the majority of the time i am listening to xm.

also my grandparents just bought a new accord and initally were against paying for radio and didnt think they would like xm. well after a few weeks into the free trial they prepayed for a years worth of service. they rarely if ever listen to local radio now.