XM Readies POTUS ’08 Election Channel
Satellite-Radio Provider Teams Up with C-SPAN
By Steve Donohue -- Multichannel News, 5/21/2007 9:56:00 AM MT
XM Satellite Radio is teaming up with C-SPAN and other media outlets on a POTUS ’08 channel dedicated to coverage of the 2008 presidential election.
The 24-hour, commercial-free network will launch as a preview channel in June, featuring rebroadcasts of presidential primary debates. It’ll formally debut in September, XM said.
XM, which is hoping to merge with rival Sirius Satellite Radio in a $13 billion deal, said it created POTUS ’08 in association with C-SPAN and other media outlets.
POTUS (pronounced POH-tus) comes from the code name for the President of the United States, which was originally used by the Secret Service and picked up by the Department of Defense and other government agencies around the 1990s.
“C-SPAN and XM Radio have been longtime partners and are pleased to join forces to bring radio listeners up-to-date information about the historic and competitive 2008 presidential election,” C-SPAN president Susan Swain said in Monday’s announcement.
XM said the election channel will be available to all of its 8 million customers. Even if subscribers cancel their monthly subscription packages, they will still be able to receive the channel through XM satellite-radio receivers, the company said.
“This channel is a unique public-service opportunity to provide our listeners with a commercial-free and politically neutral destination that is focused solely on this important presidential election,” XM CEO Hugh Panero said in a prepared statement.
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