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02-28-2005, 11:04 AM
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#1 of 46 
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Ronald Epstein
Owner
Join Date: Jul 1997
Local Time: 07:35 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 23,421
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XM Satellite Radio Expands Basic Service and Announces Price Changes Effective April 2; XM Offers Existing Subscribers Unique Opportunity to Lock in Current Rate for Up to Five Years
Monday February 28, 10:12 am ET
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- XM Satellite Radio, the nation's leading provider of satellite radio with more than 3.2 million subscribers, today announced that it is expanding its basic service package, and that the monthly subscription price for XM's basic service will increase to $12.95 beginning April 2, 2005. XM is also offering existing customers the unique opportunity to lock in the current $9.99 monthly rate with a one-year prepaid plan and deeper discounts with a two, three, four, or five-year prepaid plan until April 2.
The price change will not affect XM's Family Plan, which allows XM subscribers to add up to four additional subscriptions for $6.99 a month per radio. Beginning April 2, XM's expanded basic service will include the Internet service XM Radio Online, which offers more than 70 channels of XM music and talk programming (previously $3.99 per month), and the High Voltage channel, featuring the talk radio duo Opie & Anthony (previously $1.99 per month).
Since the national launch of XM Radio in November 2001, XM has dramatically expanded its channel lineup from 100 channels to 151 channels. XM has converted all of its music channels to a commercial-free format and invested heavily to add 21 traffic & weather channels, 16 channels dedicated to Major League Baseball, nine college sports channels, and XM Public Radio, featuring legendary journalist Bob Edwards, among other channel additions. This is the only price change since XM's 2001 launch.
Hugh Panero, XM President & CEO, said, "XM's growth to date demonstrates that the potential for satellite radio is far greater than anyone anticipated. This new pricing approach will help fund future technology development, enable us to offer more attractively-priced radios and maintain our programming excellence. Together, these initiatives should result in XM exceeding its current target of 20 million customers by 2010. Most importantly, XM is instituting the pricing change in a way that adds value to the basic service and provides existing customers the opportunity to lock in the current lower monthly rate -- a unique opportunity rarely offered by subscription entertainment services, including satellite radio, satellite television and cable television."
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02-28-2005, 12:09 PM
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#2 of 46
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Member
Location: Los Angeles
Join Date: May 2001
Local Time: 04:35 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 880
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A 33% increase is too much. I think they're going to lose me even though I just acquired a new SkyFi2. This baloney about adding services doesn't affect me at all. A bunch of traffic news for cities I don't live in is not value-added.
Opie and Anthony -- just more braindead vulgarity passing as contemporary humor.
Internet radio? I have my SkyFi in my office so I don't clog my bandwidth with non-business-related streaming audio.
Plus, I couldn't care less about their sports programming.
At $10/month I could put up with the flawed sound "quality" because of the quality of the programming. At $13 a month, the extreme compression seem a little more compressed, the digital artifacts a bit more obvious.
Is an additional $3 a lot of money? Not really. But it's all about perceived value. To me, XM is a $10 bill value.
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02-28-2005, 12:30 PM
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#3 of 46
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Ronald Epstein
Owner
Join Date: Jul 1997
Local Time: 07:35 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 23,421
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Bob,
I understand and respect your position.
Under your circumstances I would only
value XM as a $10 service.
For me, I'm not happy that the rate is
going up by $3 but since I am already
paying $2 more for Opie and Anthony and
have always wanted XM Online streamed this
works out VERY well.
XM may be going up to the same price as
SIRIUS, but that service stated they too
would raise their rates at some point.
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02-28-2005, 12:57 PM
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#4 of 46
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2001
Local Time: 03:35 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 2,045
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Besides getting overly compressed online streams, I don't really see the value either. I could care less about "shock jocks" and hasn't the weather and sports always been free?
Long you live and high you fly
And smiles you\'ll give and tears you\'ll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be.
-R. Waters
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02-28-2005, 02:04 PM
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#5 of 46
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Member
Join Date: May 2000
Local Time: 11:35 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 527
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I'm a big Opie and Anthony fan, while they are not for everybody, it's good that xm made them available to all 3.1 plus million subscribers. It will be interesting to see how or if their show will change now that it's not premium and what kind of ratings they'll get when they go against Howard.
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02-28-2005, 02:26 PM
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#6 of 46
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Member
Join Date: Dec 2002
Local Time: 08:35 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 436
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Will XM still offer an internet only plan? I've been thinking about trying it out for a while through that.
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02-28-2005, 02:39 PM
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#7 of 46
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Member
Join Date: May 1999
Local Time: 07:35 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 588
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I'm in Ron's camp on this.
I already pay for O&A, so the price difference isn't that much of a problem, and the online service makes up for the extra .97 cents.
And as far as people leaving XM because of this.....the only other place to go is Sirius, and they're the same price now, plus, their (already announced) price hike looms on the horizon.
So overall, this news is not really that surprising, and at the end of the day, more or less irrelevant (to me).
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02-28-2005, 03:04 PM
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#8 of 46
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Jason
Member
Join Date: May 2000
Local Time: 07:35 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 4,439
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To be honest, it isn't surprising to me.
It kinda tells me that having O&A as a premium program was a failure. It wouldn't surprise me much, since O&A isn't exactly a household name.
Then again, Sirius now doesn't have the argument that they have internet streaming at no extra cost.
Also note, that some channels are ONLY available online now. (XM Liquid Metal, Special X, etc.)
This will work out for the best for me, since now I can stream XM at work. (I'm not next to a window, so getting it OTA isn't going to work for me.)
Jason
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02-28-2005, 03:19 PM
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#9 of 46
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Member
Join Date: Jan 2003
Local Time: 07:35 PM
Local Date: 10-11-2008
Posts: 3,951
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Count me in as someone who listens to O&A and someone who can only listen at work through the internet stream, so this will work out good for me. I'm sick of having to open a new e.mail account every three days for the streaming service. :b
Just of note, I read something on another board that suggested that even though O&A's High Voltage will be included in the basic subscription, you will still have to specifically request that channel be activated on your XM Unit. I'm not 100% sure on that though, but it would make sense since XM still obviously has jitters about having them on their service.
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It kinda tells me that having O&A as a premium program was a failure.
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Opie does often claim that they have far exceeded XM's expectations for High Voltage subs. But since they apparently are not allowed to reveal the actual numbers, it's hard to say what that really means. But yes, they are only going to be so successful on that premium channel and if what I have suggested above is true, XM is going to have start supporting them more and find ways to promote them because nobody will be able to just stumble onto their show like I and many others did years before on terrestrial radio.
Not that I really care all that much, but I suppose the Playboy station will still be a premium channel.....? |
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