NEW YORK, Dec. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SIRIUS Satellite Radio SIRI today announced that it has surpassed its year-end target of one million-subscribers.
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Driven by robust holiday sales and helped by aggressive marketing, advertising, and an increase in consumer awareness, SIRIUS continues to see positive momentum across all channels. The company indicated that sales of its popular portable "Plug & Play" products, especially the SIRIUS Sportster, were contributing to the strong numbers, and that consumers continue to be attracted to the company's diverse product offering and programming.
"We predicted that we would reach one million subscribers by year-end and we did it," said Mel Karmazin, Chief Executive Officer of SIRIUS. "It's now clear that consumers are increasingly recognizing the appeal of our programming, including commercial-free music, plus news, weather, traffic, entertainment and the best sports offering in satellite radio."
Reflecting SIRIUS' growing popularity and high level of subscriber satisfaction, the respected auto information site -- Edmunds.com -- recently named SIRIUS as having the best overall programming in satellite radio.
"This recognition from Edmunds.com, combined with recent industry data showing an increase in SIRIUS' retail market share during the holiday season, clearly indicates that we are doing an excellent job of executing on our business plan," added Karmazin.
Besides the Sportster, SIRIUS has "Plug & Play" receivers available from Audiovox, Blaupunkt, Clarion, DISH, JVC, Kenwood, Sanyo and XACT Communication. The Orbiter SIRIUS satellite radio receiver is available at RadioShack stores, and the Streamer, manufactured by Brix, is available at trucks stops and travel centers.
Throughout the football season, the company features SIRIUS NFL Sunday Drive, the programming package that allows subscribers nationwide to hear every NFL game each week, and SIRIUS College Sports Radio, featuring play-by-play coverage of college football and basketball from over 26 top programs around the country. SIRIUS is also home to 65 channels of 100% commercial-free music as well as over 55 channels of news, sports, weather, traffic information, original entertainment and call-in talk shows, all for the great value of $12.95 a month, with no added premiums, and discounts for advance payments of one-year or more.
SIRIUS continues to move ahead with its automotive programs. Today SIRIUS can be found as a factory and/or dealer installed option in vehicles from Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Infiniti, Jeep(R), Lincoln-Mercury, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Nissan, Porsche, Volkswagen and Volvo, and beginning in February 2005, Toyota, Lexus and Scion. Ford recently announced that it will offer SIRIUS as a dealer-installed option in four additional models for a total of 13, and plans to offer SIRIUS as a factory-installed option on up to 21 vehicles over the next two model years.
SIRIUS radios for the car and home beginning at $149 are available at major national retailers such as Best Buy, Circuit City, Crutchfield, Office Depot, RadioShack, Sears, Target, Wal-Mart and over 25,000 retail locations around the country, including DISH Network outlets, as well as many truck stops and travel centers.
