Is Charlie Sirius?
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Charlie Eregen’s Echostar Corporation has acquired a large amount of Sirius XM Radio’s debt. The question now is Echostar plotting to take over Sirius / XM?
That is the question a lot of industry folks are asking today, and I must admit I am scratching my head as well.
What could owning Sirius XM mean for Echostar? Sure they could keep the service running and save lots of money by closing down all the Sirius XM call centers, and yes they would get 6 satellites but what else could there be? I think part of the key here just might be Sirius / XM’s ground based repeater network. As we all know Echostar won a large amount of spectrum that it has been rumored that Echostar will use to make Dish Network mobile. Could this network of repeaters give Dish what they need?
I think this one is going to have folks talking for quite awhile. What do you think Echostar is doing? I would love to hear your comments. (Note due to the backend upgrades here at MultiChannel sometimes comments take awhile to appear after you post them)
Speaking of Sirius
There is one thing that might keep me a Sirius XM customer and that is an upcoming piece of software for the iPhone by a little company called NiceMac, and that application is called StarPlayr.
StarPlayr is an application which will allow you to enjoy your Sirius XM anywhere via your iPhone. The application was recently submitted for approval by Apple so that it can be sold in the iTunes application store. The expected cost of the software is around $12.95 which to many will seek kind of high but when you consider all the benefits the software offers to me it’s money well spend.
I won’t lie I have been trying to enjoy Sirius XM on my iPhone for awhile now. I have been using an iPhone application called ORB to access my home windows media computer which is running two special applications called uSIRIUS and uXM which log into my satellite radio streaming accounts and then relay the audio out of my windows media center pc to my phone via ORB. This setup has been very clunky, it either works or it doesn’t. For example if my computer goes into power save mode then I can’t listen to Sirius XM, or if my computer reboots due to a windows update again I can’t listen. Also Orb wasn’t a free application it was $9.99. I would rather just pay the $12.95 for StarPlayr and have proper support for Sirius XM, plus it frees up my home computer.
The StarPlayr requires a subscription to Sirius XM to work as it logs into you online listening account.
I understand they just rolled out the application to beta testers (and if they need one more I am available!) and they hope to have the application for sale to all soon!
I honestly can’t wait for this program to come out, then I will have all my songs in itunes, will be able to listen to Sirius XM, will be able to enjoy Slacker Radio and I will be able to listen to all my favorite talk shows using the iheartradio application.
Sirius Life Time Member commented:
Oh great after 3 years I finally decide to become a life time member for $399 verses the annal $110 charge. Just my luck now Sirius may go under.
Derrick commented:
so does this mean we could use an fm transmitter from the iPhone to listen to Sirius/XM through the car radio
Bob Teemty commented:
The Sirius network, stripped of expensive programming (bye Howard) and SAC, is a very inexpensive company to operate, especially for Charlie. He\’ll give it away for free to Dish customers. He can use it for several channels of mobile video as well. Sirius is the cheapest spectrum - 24 MHz, or 7.2 billion MHz pops, available in the world - and you get a 29 million subs for free - great deal. Charlie is brilliant.
Mike C. commented:
Dish Network isn\’t really that great when it comes to satellite TV (when compared to the likes of DIRECTV). I hope they don\’t affect the quality of Sirius XM programming.
Tim House commented:
What else could there be? Cross marketing, but why does Dish Net need to do that. XM does have quite a bit of untapped potential, but I don\’t see it growing till the economy improves. If they were able to lower their price and have more advertising, I think they would grab a lot more subs. In the long run it would increase revenue.
