RSSXM to Increase Monthly Fees
By Ed Oswald | Published February 28, 2005, 1:51 PM
In an unexpected move, XM Satellite Radio increased its monthly access fee to $12.95 per month, in line with its competitor SIRIUS. The change will take effect April 2; however, the company said customers who sign up for a prepaid plan before that date would be able to lock in the old $9.99 rate from anywhere between one to five years.
While the new rate is nearly $3 more, XM sweetened the deal for its users. All basic customers will now have access to XM Radio Online, formerly a $3.99 per month premium service. XM Online allows customers to listen to programming over a broadband connection.
Also joining the basic lineup is High Voltage, Opie and Anthony's XM channel.
"XM's growth to date demonstrates that the potential for satellite radio is far greater than anyone anticipated," XM CEO Hugh Panero said. "This new pricing approach will help fund future technology development, enable us to offer more attractively-priced radios and maintain our programming excellence." Panero also reiterated the company's forecast of 20 million subscribers by 2010.
Monday's move could be seen as part of a plan to bring XM into profitability. In a mid-month conference call for investors, Panero told the group he expects cash flow break-even by 2006. The company is also spending less to acquire customers, at $100 down from $137 at the end of 2003.
hopefully these morons have shot themselves in the foot. Who cares about Opie and anthony? And the internet listening is worthless. You cant get any of the talk shows. I'm canceling my subscription.
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|You can't get many of the talk stations online on sirius either, it has to do with who actually owns the show,
The radio Chick is funnier than O&A anyway :)
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|I can see why the price is going up. XM just put a new satellite into space XM3. http://www.boeing.com/ne...2005/q1/nr_050228s.html
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|Sirius has always had online listening available to its customers and never charged an additional fee for it. They've also included ALL programming in the price without charging extra for "premium" content. It's about time XM got with the program.
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|Well the prce raise sucks a bit but i have had it for a bout 6 months now so i'll just get a yearly plan. I already have O&A and wanted to try there online thing but was to exspensive.
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|see, i was considering getting an XM, i'm currently a Sirius Subscriber, and i love it, i was going to pick up XM so i can get MLB.
i dont think this price increase is a good thing for XM, i think it shows that they are struggling, while they do have an edge in subscriber base, Sirius is quickly catching up, AND currently the only draw to differentiate Xm from Sirius, is MLB and Opie & Anthony, while Sirius has NBA, NFL, NHL, Nascar(starting in 07) Stern (starting in 06) and The Radio Chick now.
I give the edge to Sirius.
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|I was considering adding the online package, so even with the price increase, I'll still be saving.
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|..same here... I love XM radio, and I work in a sub-basement.. The internet feature is great!
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|Sirius has superior content, a listener line that almost immediately plays requests, since day one they have had online (Internet Based) radio for their subscribers, and smaller antennas that work more reliabily then XM (in car garages, shopping malls [new wristwatch Sirius radio] etc.
And there is no 'premium content' all channels = all channels.
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