Unless you are a complete technophile, and think the way the satellites orbit over North America is the make or break point on these services; you should go with the service that most appeals to what interests you. Getting one or the other purely as a result of peer pressure makes a strong statement about you that has no bearing on the quality of one service over the other...

My experience has been that I don't really listen to anything much different than I would try to listen to on commercial radio - except for endless commercials, DJs that are too chatty, and really shallow playlists. My satellite presets are fairly reflective of what I listen to wherever I am.


Finally, I don't know that I'd characterize Sirius' bookkeeping as 'Enron-esque' for merely counting hardware that hasn't been activated. If, however, they are hiding substantial losses in offshore subsidiaries.....

 

I bet you were real optimistic on DTV and DIsh network, when they were doing the exact same things a few years back weren't you? I mean, realistically, whats the difference? Maybe you watch TV more at night, but if you live in a major metropolitan area where you sit in traffic two or more hours a day like the 5 million here in atlanta, then you want something to listen to other than who has a used car sale. Then you have far out there middle of nowhere types with one station worth listening to. In the end, whats the tab, $13. $13 a month for everything imaginable from the catholic channel to the gay and lesbian and trucker channels.

You wanna know what was a crappy plan? Charging extra for "premium content" That was a miserable failure. What else? Charging for internet usage, yet another miserable failure. So what did they do? They followed sirius to 12.95 a month, they added the commercial free content after sirius, they added the internet free like sirius. Well hell, how could xm not be successful? I mean, they copied everything sirius did didn't they?

 

I recommend Sirius, kind of biased cuz i own one. mine plug and play is over a year old, works just great, gone through about 4 antenna's though. It all depends on whatcha like i guess. Sirius has DJ's but dont chime in at every opportunity. unless its part of a show if someone is live in the studio or something. the talk radio is very good. check out Mike Church on 142 at 4mst it still has commercials though, the equipment is a lot better for some reason. i have a Jensen from wally world, and my gf has a XM and a delphi plug and play and it was going out at 30 days. From using both and being with both of them, i still love it when i get in my Truck and get to listen to my Sirius, and i NEVER run out of signal unless im in a building or my antenna is loosing its connection. Well ive given u a one sided opinion seems like this came right outa CNN.

 

I would also say Sirius over XM, I have both and the day to day choices with the extras, NFL, Nascar all that are better. The signal recption on Sirius is also much better than XM

BM

 

Dish vs. Direct TV is a poor comparison. I actually remember the very beginning when there was DTV and USSB both broadcasting digital TV content. What was the end result of that satellite 'war'? Personally I couldn't care less about TV as I rarely watch it.

that is a valid argument for why to choose satellite over commercial radio, not sirius vs. xm.

lets see, the premium content you're talking about was O&A when they first came on the air and the playboy radio channel. O&A were on premium because of their past reputation. XM wanted to feel them out and make sure they knew what kind of show they were going to do before anybody flipping through the channels could hear them, get repulsed, and cancel their service. O&A and xm were the first to try such a show in the unrestricted medium of sat. radio. Remember this when you hear H. Stern touting himself as the 'pioneer of sat. radio'. As usual, xm took road of responsibility and wanted to make sure they knew what they were getting into before letting a caged tiger loose on everyone. Once they were sure it wouldn't have disasterous effects, yep, they took them off the premium channel. It was xm that was crossing into undiscovered country, but being responsible as they are, they wanted to make sure they didn't burn their bridges in case they needed to get back home. How can they copy sirius's handling of extremely controversial uncensored programming, when sirius had none?

As for the playboy channel, you nailed that one, it was a disaster. Who in their right mind would want to LISTEN to such programming? Whether anybody ever listened or not, programming such as that should always be on a premium setup. Since nobody listened, the channel went bye-bye.

 

internet usage is a lot more popular since it is not an extra fee. This is a serious question, since I've never been able to find the info anywhere--When did sirius begin internet streaming of their programming? Supply me with this info, then I'll give you the answer to why xm did what they did with the streaming fee.

Hoo Hoo, technically, xm ripped off the whole concept of sat. radio, since sirius launched first. Sirius sats. were orbiting a long while before xm's were. Like usual though, sirius just couldn't get the technical aspects figured out, and couldn't get their service working right until 6-7 months after xm started broadcasting nationwide. This jump xm had is constantly cried about by sirius folks; even thought XM only had a 50,000 or so subscriber lead when both were finally fully operational. XM led the way with most of the major innovations of the sat. radio industry. Sirius has had some great ideas as well. Who did what first is really of little importance, it does not matter who did it first, what matters is who does it best. Hoo Hoo, tell'em Fred!

for fun, I leave this post with a couple of quotes:

when Howard stern pushed a huge rally, about 1000 fans showed up with the promise of a free sirius radio. 300-400 O&A fans showed up solely for the purpose of being annoying. This is from the sirius press release that day: (thanks for even more free press sirius, I'm sure somebody actually believes you)

Mel Karmazin is the CEO of sirius radio. Here's something he said in the not too distant past:

 

no, my buddy had to pay extra to get the channel with opie and anthony. Playboy is extra so no it is not the same!

 

You can get Playboy on sat. radio??? Might as well get the braille copy at 7-11...

 

You had to pay extra for O&A when XM was cheaper than Sirius. Now that the fee has gone up across the board, O&A is a standard program, and internet access is part of the deal as well.

Personally, I think XM is subsidizing the O&A deal with the new pricing strategy because no one was buying it as a 'premium' service. I have no idea what the draw of Playboy radio is. Surely there must be plans in place for the bandwidth once that deal expires... Or, is there that much demand for it?

 

That old argument again, "they took O&A off the premium channel because nobody would pay for them". Tell me then, if xm were losing money on them, why not just fire them? They could sure use the bandwidth for better programming if that had been the case. Truth is, O&A brought a lot more listeners in than xm ever thought they would, even when on the premium channel. They haven't been on the premium channel for over 6 months now.

As for the playboy channel, nobody knows what the draw was since there never was a draw. Playboy has been on the chopping block for some time now; you haven't been able to add it to your plan for months. It is officially dead now.

Sat radio is a new industry that is really taking off. Services and products are changing every day for both companies. Using information that is very outdated and incorrect could keep you from making the choice that's best for you.

 

Inbred, I hate to chime in on this thread but you are behaving like a corporate executive from XM, telling everyone they are wrong and then supplying them with [what you call facts] to why XM is better, you seem to have the back story on EVERYTHING, and not one comment has denoted XM, all this pro-XM explanations you make up are getting extremely annoying. You have not provided any links to your source of information, so if you can justify these ludicrous remarks I think a lot of us would stop getting on your case and personally, I would request your title be changed from "Senior Member" to "XM Intern" like you seem to so desperately want.

 

I like that !! XM INTERN

I don't care if you don't have to pay now. The fact is you did as where you never had to with Sirius. Each to their own. But I still read more for Sirius then XM. Apperently Sirius has cash if the can pay Howard that much. XM has/had a jump on Sirius which is slowly closing.

 

I asked when sirius began online streaming, because I don't know the answer. I've never been able to find it in any of their press releases. If they were the first to offer the service, I'm sure they would have put out a press release about it. I don't know for certain why xm charged for internet streaming when they first started it. Most likely, they did so to study the interest in such a service and get the bugs worked out of it since they were probably the first to try such a thing. But since I don't actually know when sirius started streaming, I can't say with certainty who did it first. Excuse me for wanting to get my facts straight with accurate information before I made a statement.

I've been an xm suscriber since before Sirius even started broadcasting. I think I'm in a position to know a little more about xm than people who don't subscribe to it do. I am a huge fan of sat. radio technology and spend a lot of my time reading up on the subject.

Have I said anything bad about xm? nope. Have any sirius people said anything bad about sirius? Nope. What they have done is supplied info and links that are old and incorrect. I'm simply providing updated and accurate information. There was a period about 1.5 years ago when I was thinking about switching to sirius. I didn't due to hardware prices involved with switching. Now I'm glad I didn't, because the negatives I was dealing with have been fixed and I'm 100% happy with xm now.

I live for this stuff, and stay on top of what's going on with both companies on a daily basis to make sure I have the service thats best for my needs. If that makes me an xm intern wannabe, well then so beit. What does that make someone who posts info that their buddy told them 6 months ago that we are supposed to take as fact?

You want some links to where I get my information?
Start with the press releases from both companies:
http://www.shareholder.com/sirius/news.cfm
http://www.xmradio.com/newsroom/news_room.jsp

If you want more links, go to one of the many sat. radio forums out there, I scan many of them every night. Here's a couple for you:
http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.ef08a86
http://www.satelliteguys.us/forumdisplay.php?f=62
http://www.xm411.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=20
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=101

 

when did sirius have a show such as O&A that they could've charged for even if they wanted to?

That's the thing, they don't have the cash. Stern is the ultimate gamble, if he hits huge, then we will have a big sat. war on our hands and it will be interesting to see who wins. If his impact is mediocre or low, sirius is in a huge world of hurt. They make a $500 million or so deal with the NFL a couple years ago, and it did nothing for their subscriber numbers. They make a $500 million deal with stern, we shall see the results in a few months. Everybody's watching it. Stern (and his paycheck) will make or break sirius. The NHL was always one of sirius's favorite features to promote. With canada opening up to sat radio, that makes hockey even more important now than it was before. But sirius didn't outbid xm for it? xm only paid $100 million for 2 years of dual coverage and 8 years exclusive. For a sport like hockey with that many games and fans (expecially in canada), the price was a total bargain. Sirius couldn't beat that bargain price to keep one of their big meal tickets and set themselves in a great position in the canadian market? Makes one wonder how much money they have left.

As for the closing jump xm has/had--both companies finally came online the lead xm had was about 50,000 subs. Currently the lead xm has is about 3 million subs. Yep, that gap is closing quickly.

xm intern signing off

 

Excuse me for being behind on THE SATELITE World, obviously I don't need to cause your ontop of it for everyone in the forum! I can give a crap less about XM still, you still had to pay for everything extra then( which is still pretty recent!) I don't care if Playboy radio is done for it still was $5.00 a month or so to here guys call in and talk about jerkin it and it was still $1.99 o month to listen to Opie. So why change it now? Cause Sirius had lined something up that would pull more listeners? You can hate all you want on Howard Stern but I can guarantee he does and will have more listeners than Opie and Anthony and that give XM a run for their money. You can say whatever about what is he called then (sniffle sniffle). I can care less about that too! By the way what is Xm's new price now that they decided to throw in the PREMIUM package? From $9.95 to ??.