Satellite+Radio

==Satellite Radio  ==

Overview
Satellite radio is a more convenient way to listen to music, sports, or talk shows without the hassle of losing reception. Satellite radio gives a wider variety of channels for listeners to enjoy in a CD like sound quality. It is continuously broadcasted 24 hours a day seven days a week. Satellite Radio is subscription based which puts the listeners in more control of what they want to hear.

Different Types of Satellite Radio Two popular SR mobile providers are [|Sirius] and [|XM]. Sirius radio was established in July of 2002. It provides 69 music channels, 65 sports and entertainment channels. Sirius Radio merged with XM Satellite radio February 2007. XM Satellite radio was in 1992 as American Mobile Radio Corporation and later changed its name to XM in 2001. It is operated by Sirius XM Radio and offers its listeners 73 different music channels, 39 entertainment channels, 23 play-by-play sports channels and 21 traffic and weather channels.

Benefits of Satellite Radio 

Satellite radio offers commercial free channels for music, news, sports, weather, or talk shows. It offers a variety of channels from different cities with having to be in that current city. Since the reception is digital, it eliminates the frustrations and annoyance of hearing static or losing the channel when travelling into another county or state. Some of the channels are uncensored which can be a relief to those who cannot stand the beeping sound when censoring a song or person on the radio.

Costs  Sirius radio offers different packages to buyers. Prices range from $6.99 a month to $19.99a month plus an activation fee of $15. It also depends on what type of Sirius radio topic you’ve purchased. A do-it-yourself Stratus 6 radio is $69.99, Sportster 5 is $169.99 and offers the capability of rewinding and replaying live music for 60 minutes, Mirge started at $249.99 and dropped to $189.99 and Starmate 5 is $129.99. Starmate 4 is $99.99, Starmate 3 is $69.99, Sportster 4 is $119.99 Sportster 3 is $59.99 and Stratus 4 is $49.99. Most of products listed are mobile radio that can be docked in a car or placed in a radio with the Sirius tuner hook up at home. Sirius offers portable radios such as the Stiletto 2 for $149.99, Stiletto 100 for $199.99, S50 with car kit for $179.99 and Stiletto 10 for $149.99. XM radio also offers different packages priced from $2.99 for an online subscription to $16.99 a month. XM also offers a variety of radio products Mirge Interoperable Satellite Radio for $189.99, Xm XpressRCi with Power Connect for $169.99, XpressRCi with Vehicle Kit for $169.99, Xpress R with Vehicle Kit with Sure Connect for $129.99, Xpress Radio with vehicle kit for $89.99, XM Onyx with Power Connect Vehicle kit for $79.99 and XpressEZ with vehicle kit for $69.99. XM products also hold the same capabilities of being portable to listen to in a car or placed at home in an XM dock station for the radio. There are only two offered portable radios by XM which are the Xmp3i portable radio with home kit for $199.99 and Xmp3 portable radio with home kit for $229.99. Overall, the cost can be slightly expensive depending on which product you purchase whether in package form, single purchase or combination of two.

Reach, Frequency and Impact

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In Spring 2009, the company introduced an application allowed subscribers to stream music on their [|iPhone] and [|iPods] (Intini, 2009). This feature helps the reach greatly because the service is offered to a widely known and popular music player. People who own iPhones of iPods can use word of mouth to talk about satellite radio streaming capabilities to other people. With the service becoming more popular, it allows the frequency to be well kept.======

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To help keep frequency up, Sirius and XM have made commercials to keep the brand names in the minds of consumers. They've used wide known celebrities such Elvis Presley, Michael Jordan, and Richard Pryor to compare the impacts in their fields of excellence and cleverly uses the Sirius name brand to foreshadow that its the next big impact on how people hear their music.======

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Limitations

Satellite Radio has a few limitations. A big limitation is that when you pass under something that can obstruct the antenna’s reception, the signal for the station being listened to is lost. If it begins to rain or is very cloudy the reception can sometimes be choppy. Another limitation is paying for the service yearly to hear the radio stations. Some rather deal with the static sound for free then paying for channels. Though there are some limitations, the overall gain is more than the minor setbacks of satellite radio.

Schedule Satellite radio's schedule is a 24 hour seven days a week broadcast of music, talk shows and sports. Though some of the media may be repeated or updates of scores or even recaps of previous shows it is always being broadcasted.

Audience

The audience is very diverse because Sirius and XM are based on subscriptions to channels. Listeners can chose which stations they want to hear. There are a variety of channels from 1950s oldies, techno, hip-hop, sports, Latin American music, Christian music and everything else in between. They offer child friendly channels like Disney radio so younger audiences are listening to clean music rather than explicit.

Interesting Qualities <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sirius and XM radio are being pre-installed in newer cars. This helps boosts the sales and awareness of the satellite radio trend. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 115%;">With auto sales showing signs of recovery, we are well positioned to hopefully grow our promotional base in 2010 and beyond, (Reuters, 2010). Revenue at Sirius XM <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 9.9pt; line-height: 115%;">rose 6 percent, to $684 million, from $644 million. That beat the analysts' forecast of $664 million (Reuters, 2010). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Have an older car and want to install a satellite radio? No problem, it can be professionally installed from distributors of satellite radio such as Walmart or Best Buy. If you are the type that prefers to do it yourself the site provides instructions on doing so.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Celebrities on Satellite Radio <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> [|Howard Stern] has used his talk show on Sirius radio to boost his audience. In 2004, Stern promoted Sirius radio by giving them away to fans in New York City (Graff,2004) while also promoting his future signing with Sirius radio for his upcoming show. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Stern was given a $500 million deal to sign with Sirius Satellite Radio (McBride, Flint 2004). He first aired in September, 2005 and his live and uncensored show gain listener’s attention and keep them coming back for more. His channels are Howard 100 and Howard 101. Howard 100 is more direct with Stern where as Howard 101 is more based on the wild talents he gives air time to such as [|Jay Thomas], Jackie “The Joke Man” Martling, [|Greg Fitzsimmons] and [|Lisa Lampanelli]. Currently, Stern and Jamie Foxx, comedian, actor and artist, have been going back and forth about actress, Gabourey Sidibe, who played in Precious. The arguments have gained more listeners to each station. Howard's [|remarks] on Gabourey caused Foxx to [|respond]<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"> This DJ personality is so popular amongst others that Stern can pull in $108 million worth of revenue a year without a daily podcast (Intini, 2009). His fame brings a large crowd of listeners to satellite radio and by having him sign with Sirius, it has helped increase sales.

Oprah and Friends is a talk show that [|Oprah Winfrey] has specially signed with XM radio. She focuses on current events, news, home, health and self improvement. She also offers a recap of her television show if you missed watching it the day before on her radio channel. Her channel XM 195 was launched in September 2006. After the merger with Sirius and XM, Oprah’s channel became available on Sirius channel 195 in September 2008. In March of 2009, the channels were re-named [|Oprah Radio].

Related Links
<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.xmradio.com/ http://www.sirius.com/ http://www.sirius.com/howard100

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">References <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 108%;"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt;">GRAFF, MONIKA. (2004, November 11). Howard Stern Gives Away Satellite Radios. //UPI//. Retrieved from Ebscohost

Intini, J. (2009). LOST IN SPACE. //Maclean's//, //122//(12), 37. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt;">McBride, S., Flint, J. (2004, October 7). Radio's Stern Leaps to Satellite in $500 Million Deal. //Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition//, pp. A1-A8. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database

REUTERS (2010, February 26). Sirius XM Posts Profit, Its First Since Merger. //The New York Times// //<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt;">Section B; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk //<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt;">, p. 4. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic

<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt;">TAUB., ERIC A., (2006, January 12). Basics; Satellite Radio Leaves the Car To Go Home And on Walks. //New York Times//, p. 9. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database