Sirius XM @ CES & The Dual-Platform radio (Mirge)

[jcrandall]

Well, SiriusXM had a location on the directory, so I went to checkout their booth, and it was just an empty locked meeting room.

It is common to have a meeting room, but not when a company has no booth/public presence.

Sirius XM did have a bunch of prime advertising, however, as they purchased most of the pilliars outside the enterance of the north hall, where all the automotive stuff is.

Sad that a company struggling like Sirius XM would spend that much on advertising and have no booth to show the products, if they had anything new to show - which I can't answer now.

 

[Bradtothebone]

I thought I saw somewhere that they were introducing a combo XM/Sirius radio at CES.

 

[DJ Rob]

I thought I saw somewhere that they were introducing a combo XM/Sirius radio at CES.

I had read that too.


Thanks for the update Jason! I wonder what's going on with them and why they keep wasting money on the wrong things...

 

[JonE]

As I understand it their 'booth' is in the Bellagio. Much like Slacker was in a seperate location. I don't understand why, especially in the case of Sirius XM where their product isn't exactly setting the world on fire sales-wise in the first place.

 

[mikew]

I am really close to pulling XM from both of my cars. The watered down playlist on the 70's channel, some of the "talent" and the sound quality of many tracks is leading me back to MP3 CDs. It is a shame, but I really think that satellite radio may be heading the way of Voom.

Here's an interesting article about MiRGE..the $250.00 box that can play both services for $19.99 /month.

http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20090109/the_sirius_xm_merger_finally_matters-id-1046893.html

I fail to see what I could gain by going this route vs. having XM and "the Best of Sirius".

 

[jcrandall]

OK, more info today.

The combo radio won an award, but is not displayed anywhere but a glass award case. 269 and VERY little content beyond the best of packages.

XM sirius had all their products on display at the Audiovox booth, but nothing new was displayed.

Sorry for my error yesturday.

 

[jcrandall]

Here is a pic of the Sirius/XM stuff at the Audiovox booth.

 

[jcrandall]

More on the combo radio. It's called the MIRGE. (Note the closeness to merger).

Essentially, there will be a package of Sirius Everything + XM Everything for $20/mo.

The thing is, however, that most of the content is already available with the "best of" package since the music programming was merged together.

The XM guys I spoke to about it basically said they are only producing it because it was a requirement of the merger agreement with the FCC.

Also, they do not plan to sell it on retail, or aggressively market it. It will be $269 and generally just available on their web site (as well as any web-retailers that go after it, which will probably be few).

To me, this is a compliance product, not something they plan to sell much of. That said, it did win an innovation award at CES.

Some more info:
SIRIUS XM Radio MiRGE, the First Interoperable Satellite Radio | BestStuff

 

[Jimbo]

More on the combo radio. It's called the MIRGE. (Note the closeness to merger).

Essentially, there will be a package of Sirius Everything + XM Everything for $20/mo.

The thing is, however, that most of the content is already available with the "best of" package since the music programming was merged together.

The XM guys I spoke to about it basically said they are only producing it because it was a requirement of the merger agreement with the FCC.

Also, they do not plan to sell it on retail, or aggressively market it. It will be $269 and generally just available on their web site (as well as any web-retailers that go after it, which will probably be few).

To me, this is a compliance product, not something they plan to sell much of. That said, it did win an innovation award at CES.

Some more info:
SIRIUS XM Radio MiRGE, the First Interoperable Satellite Radio | BestStuff

Jason,
If you get back around to the SiriusXM area, can you inquire about what was rumored during the merger about there being a new price format.
They were talking about being able to have either service for $9.99 and then able to add the Best Of, to either ($4) ... That would make the package $ 14 for both packages .... the other thing that was talked about was being able to order ala carte, it would be like .75 a channel.

I would love to get my XM for 9.99 and add the NASCAR and NFL , this way it would still be reasonable... I originally thought that $13 for the XM package was too much, but they gave me 3 months when I got my car and I decided to keep it for awhile.
A cheaper package would be helpful.
When you talk to them they want to give you a cheaper deal by signing you up for like 3 or 5 years, thus allowing a larger discount, but I have no intention of spending $500 for XM

Jimbo

 

[jcrandall]

Jimbo - I'm home and can't ask that now. But from what I've read before:

The $9.99 is what we have now, either music OR talk/sports -> but not both.

Best of is what it is, it's not going away, especially on the XM side due to the cost of NFL and Stern.

The problem with Alacarte is that most of the radios aren't compatible with it, so they would need a new fleet of radios. In fact, in their product catalog this year only one radio had the logo indicating Alacarte compatible, so I know they are differentiating them.

If I had to guess, I'd say Alacarte is still a few years away, if we ever see it.

 

[jegrant]

Actually, most XM radios ever made, and select Sirius units, would technically be compatible with a la carte. As in so many cases, this is a business model problem, more than a technical issue. SXM doesn't want subs to use a radio that was sold at a subsidized price to buy a cheaper a la carte package (starting at $6.99), when they could force subs to at least buy a $9.99 "mostly music" or "news, talk & sports" package.

So - to get a la carte, you must buy the one unsubsidized radio that "supports" it, from a business model point of view.

My guess is that on a technical level, all XM units are a la carte compatible, and any Sirius unit that can get the "Best of XM" could probably also get a la carte.