Las Vegas – Sirius Satellite Radio is heralding its service as the new source for ‘uncompromised’ and non-commercialized radio, in contrast to the ‘narrow’ and ‘commercialized’ services of traditional radio and MTV.
Sirius claimed at its press conference Wednesday that its commitment to commercial-free music and continually updated programming should help propel its service in the future.
The company announced programming changes for nine new stations and said that Hertz expanded its Sirius radio program for rental car customers to airport locations in three new cities including Las Vegas, Phoenix and Denver.
Sirius’ newly announced stations include an international rap channel, two dance channels and a jam band rock channel. Also new are folk music, easy listening and live music stations.
The company also said that Kenwood is launching a new promotion through February offering a free Sirius tuner and a month of free service with the purchase of a Kenwood Sirius FM modulator or head unit.
Sirius also launched a new program to help unsigned artists called WAG. The company will record a CD for the artist, play it on its service and then offer the CDs for sale on the Internet.
The company also reported it had 18,000 new activations during the fourth quarter. But the number is below those of rival XM Satellite Radio, which signed on 145,000 new subscribers in the same quarter (see above story).
Eclipse said it will offer Sirius satellite radio products possibly in July and Sirius said Sanyo will offer a transportable home and car system in the future. Sanyo also said it may offer an additional Sirius product in the second quarter. Delphi also showed separate XM and Sirius AM/FM/CD players that did not require outboard XM or Sirius tuners.
