Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Sirius XM And Satellite Radio 3.0

Sirius XM (SIRI) announces that the company is now offering full integration between Sirius XM Satellite Radio and Sirius XM Internet Radio in 2014 model year cars with Ford (F), GM, Chrysler, Toyota (TM), and Nissan (NSANY.OB). The merging of satellite and Internet delivered content will allow subscribers to experience a more robust service capable of delivering features such as On-Demand, station refinement through My SXM, and the ability to create play-lists of programming for playback at any time.

The satellite radio technology is unique in that it can deliver the best attributes of both satellite and Internet delivered content. From the company's satellite constellation, subscribers will receive unparalleled signal coverage, while the Internet feed will deliver the types of customization that today's consumer demands. The default listening setting with Satellite radio 3.0 is the feed from the company's orbiting satellites. When a user wants customized features, the software will make the switch to an internet feed automatically so that from the consumer point of view the switch is seamless.

Please note. Everything written above is a fabrication. It sounded great though didn't it? That is where, in my opinion, this company needs to get to solidify its place in the world of audio entertainment.

Sirius XM satellite radio has many great attributes. Sirius XM Internet Radio has many great attributes as well. Combine the two into a seamless environment and you have some pretty compelling attributes. The reason we want to see this sooner rather than later is that the dashboard is getting mighty crowded these days. It is no longer AM, FM, and Sirius XM. Pandora (P), Slacker, iHeart, Aha Radio, Spotify, HD radio, and others are vying for their own respective space in this game.

While Pandora has remained pretty much a simple music service, companies like Slacker have stepped up in the content world to offer news, sports, and more. In the case of Aha, a platform has been created for audio entertainment companies making it the home for 30,000 stations, pod-casts, and more. In fact Slacker is available on the Aha platform. The significance in this is that Aha has been busy adding automakers to its line-up. Ford, Chrysler, Honda (HMC), Toyota and six other automakers all boast the Aha platform now. Essentially, while Aha and HD Radio are announcing more deals with new car makers, Sirius XM is announcing a concentration in the used car market.