Sirius XM Slates A La Carte Radios For Oct. At $129
By Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 9/15/2008
MARINA DEL REY, CALIF. — Sirius XM will begin shipping new a la carte radios this month for sale, including a Starmate 5 for $129. The radios will be available at retail Oct. 6.
On the same date, Sirius XM will offer a la carte programming, allowing consumers to pick and choose programs from 50 stations at a reduced fee of $6.99/month.
The company will also offer its full slate of new program plans on Oct. 6 including "Best of Both" programs that allows XM listeners to receive Howard Stern and NFL football, and Sirius listeners to receive Oprah, NBA and NHL programming, at $4.00/month more than they paid previously. It appears, however, from the initial listing that Sirius listeners will not be able to receive Major League Baseball.
Sirius XM would not clarify whether MLB will be offered as a Best of Both option in the future.
In addition, Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin announced yesterday during a Merrill Lynch Media conference that XM will offer a new wearable portable product later this year, but no product details were provided.
"It's really cool. It will be in stores in advance of the holidays," Karmazin said.
More details on the Best of Both programming were announced: "Sirius on XM" will include two Howard Stern channels, Martha Stewart Living, NBA, Sirius NFL Radio, Sirius NASCAR Radio and Playboy Radio. "XM on Sirius" will include, NHL Home Ice, Opie & Anthony, Oprah & Friends, Public Radio with Bob Edwards, College Sports and PGA Tour.
Karmazin also presented new financial guidance on the company, which finalized its 17-month-long merger in late July.
"We have made great strides over the last six weeks and continue to make progress integrating the company and delivering on our promises," he said.
Sirius XM, now with more than 18.6 million subscribers, also said it plans to reach 19.5 million subscribers by the end of this year and 21.5 million in 2009.
Sirius XM increased its guidance on expected savings from the merger to $425 million in 2009, up from $400 million. It expects to post pro forma revenue of approximately $2.4 billion in 2008 and $2.7 billion in 2009.
In addition, US Electronics filed a claim with the District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals asking it to "review and remand" the Sirius XM merger on certain points. US Electronics claimed the ruling of the Federal Communications Commission in July failed to "put teeth" in it's stipulation that Sirius XM adopt an open sourcing policy allowing any qualified supplier to produce its products, said US Electronics' attorney Chuck Helein.
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Sirius subsribers have to get Baseball. It''s a raw deal otherwise. It''s about value. I subscribed to Sirius for NASCAR, at the expense of baseball and Oprah. I''m from St. Louis originally. I want the Cardinals, and now I want to follow the Brewers and Cubs and Joe Torre in LA. Also, I was under the impression that we wouldn''t need a new radio right away for "best of"options. Just make it worthwhile and don''t turn people off.
Blake Riley - 2008-30-9 19:15:00 EDT -
When this A LA CARTE was announced PRIOR to the merger, never was a NEW radio needed alluded to.
KARZ LIED - 2008-22-9 13:17:00 EDT -
This new programming sure stinks of all the content to leave out why MLB Screwed once again
Charlie Basker - 2008-17-9 08:02:00 EDT -
If XM listeners can get NFL games but Sirius listeners can"t get MLB games then to me this whole merger was a complete failure. I may continue to listen because I love Howard Stern and the commercial free music channels but not getting the baseball games will be a huge disappointment. Mel Karmazin will be doing a great disservice if we can't get baseball to Sirius subscribers and I wouldn't be shocked if some left it all together in disgust. Pleas foward this to Mr.Karmazin and hopefully millions more like this to him.
Sal - 2008-17-9 00:23:00 EDT
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