Date:         Fri, 27 Jun 2003 11:18:29 -0400
Reply-To:     caverat <caverat@ATTBI.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         caverat <caverat@ATTBI.COM>
Subject:      Re: Free Sirius satellite radio system
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

-- FM radio used to be commercial free too. It is only a matter of time for
-- this "free" radio will have commercials too.  Every time I turn on the radio I get a deluge of --- commercials ...

That is the big difference between XM and Sirius.  XM has commercials on many of their music channels and their business model is partially based on advertisement revenue.  Sirius has elected to charge a higher subscription fee than XM to offset this and plans to always remain commercial free on all music channels.  Their subscribers are paying more to not have commecials.  They are attempting to market themselves as the premium service due to their commercial-free aspect and that is partially why they have aligned with manufacturers such as Mercedes Benz and BMW.  Both services do run limited commercials on the non-music channels (2-4 minutes an hour vs. 20 minutes).  Like another listmember stated, "It's about nation wide coverage, programming choices and crystal clear reception.".  These things aren't available on free radio, and that is why the satellite radio companies have spent over a billion dollars getting this technology ready for the small percentage of people that will pay a premium for it and the auto manufacturers are partnering with them to enable mass distribution of this so that they can get a piece of the subscription pie.  Sony, Alphine, Pioneer, Kenwood, Panasonic, Delphi, Visteon and other receiver manufacturers are also into making this happen so that they can get a piece of this too.   All of these guys expect this to eventually take off like cable and satellite TV did and they believe it will be an easier service to make available and to sell.

I'm not trying to diss anyone who doesn't want to pay for this, but I did want to make listmembers aware of the unpublished free system offer since in many cases it is the initial equipment purchase that puts people off rather than the subscription fee, especially for those people that spend a lot of money on CDs to get away from commercial radio.  I know of 15 or so people that have taken advantage of this offer, and some listmembers have indicated that it is still going on and have ordered their free radios also.  I'll tone down the sales talk (heh, I'm a stockholder and I want this to take off ), but I'll be happy to continue to let people know how to get ahold of the equipment for free.

caverat

89 westy
Satellite radio fan