Sirius, XM Add Each Other’s Channels Earlier Than Expected

By Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 10/2/2008

New York — Sirius XM’s first radio to offer its A La Carte service, the Starmate 5, went on sale today, with a suggested retail of $129, at Best Buy, Crutchfield, RadioShack and regional retailers, as Sirius XM began airing the programming service that lets consumers choose 50 radio stations at a discounted $6.99/month.

The Starmate 5 is a plug-and-play Sirius radio with a TiVo-like memory buffer that lets consumers rewind

Graphic The new Starmate 5 plug-and-play radio is the first radio to receive Sirius A La Carte programming.

through up to 44 minutes of live satellite radio. It also has an FM transmitter to connect to the car’s sound system. The Starmate 5, thus far, is the only model that can receive the new A La Carte service.

The A La Carte plan is available in two versions. The basic package lets consumers choose 50 Sirius stations at a $6.99 monthly fee, but users cannot mix and match between Sirius and XM selections. A second service, called A La Carte Gold, lets customers choose 100 channels with some mixing and matching between Sirius and XM. The fee for the Gold service is $14.99, which is slightly higher than the standard XM or Sirius monthly charge of $12.95.

Sirius XM said an XM version of the A La Carte Radio is “under consideration,” but there is no firm time table for its release, according to a spokesman.

Sirius XM also began offering Best of Both and additional service plans. Best of Both programming lets XM listeners receive some Sirius channels, including Howard Stern’s channels, and some XM channels, including Oprah & Friends. The plan costs subscribers an extra $4 a month above the normal $12.95/month charge.

More specifically, Sirius subscribers receive NHL Home Ice, Opie & Anthony, Oprah & Friends, Public Radio with Bob Edwards, College Sports, PGA Tour and the Virus.

XM subscribers receive Howard Stern, Martha Stewart Living, NBA, Sirius NFL Radio, Sirius NASCAR Radio and Playboy Radio.

Other new plans, including music-only or talk-only plans for $9.99/month, are also now available.