March Madness

Fans of college basketball will have a few different ways to watch March Madness this year. With the first being from DirecTV with their “Mega March Madness” package. This $69 package from DirecTV will offer NCAA fans up to 64 games of championship action.

In addition DirecTV’s “Mega March Madness” package will offer interactive coverage of the games including a game mix channel which will let you tune in to 4 games at one time, in addition DirecTV will use their interactive technology to bring fans real-time updates and also an interactive bracket. In addition DirecTV will offer a majority of the games in full high definition.

If you are at work and can’t be home the catch all the action you can also watch all of the NCAA action on your iPhone. CBS Sports has released a “March Madness On Demand” application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This $4.99 application will allow you to watch streaming video of the games on your iPod and iPhone touch if you have then connected over a WIFI Network. For those on the go who cannot access a WIFI network they can enjoy audio streaming of all the action.

In addition to the audio and video streaming the application will show scores of all ongoing games, plus news, stats, bracket information and video recaps of past games.

The CBS March Madness On Demand application for the iPhone and iPod touch is available now from the iTunes store for only $4.99.

Sirius XM Screws Up Yet Again

Sirius’s management managed to keep the company from filing bankruptcy earlier this month, but as good as Sirius’s management is they botched up their online listening service for millions of their customers.

Last week new pricing went into effect for Sirius XM customers. And as part of the pricing changes the popular online streaming audio service for listening online is no longer included free with service.

In order to generate some quick cash Sirius XM urged customers to “Lock in” the old pricing which also locked in the free online streaming service. “And if you renew now, you can continue to listen online, FREE for the length of term you choose. Effective March 11, 2009, the online listening platform will be upgraded to a higher quality digital audio and no longer included as part of a base subscription at no charge.” Was how the letter from Sirius XM read.

I personally contacted Sirius XM to lock in my pricing and was talked into the lifetime plan, which is XM with the Best of Sirius for life for $499. This plan also includes free online streaming for life as well.

When I woke up on the 11th I went to log in to listen to some music and found that instead of improved audio, I was downgraded to 32k audio garble. I went to my account and it said that I did not have the premium Internet service, if I wanted that I would need to pay an additional $2.99 a month…

Wait a moment there was nothing that said I was going to have to pay more for the online service. I called Sirius XM and was told on the phone that the lifetime plan does not include the premium online listening option.

I was mad…

Then I went to XMFan.COM and found that I wasn’t the only one who was mad and felt that they were ripped off. The XMFan forums were full of folks who were unhappy.

Later in the day it came out that XM messed up and can’t figure how to activate the high quality streaming for existing customers. I called back into XM later in the day and was told that indeed my lifetime subscription (or anyone who “locked in” the old pricing) would get the new higher quality online service and that they are working to correct the problem.

I asked why they couldn’t put an announcement on the login screen for online listening informing their customers of this issue. The operator on the other end of the phone couldn’t answer that one.

So now almost a week since the pricing has changed and my account is still stuck at 32k instead of the new 128k stream. And judging from the posts at XMFan NO ONE who is paying for the premium service is getting audio at 128k. As it turns out the only ones who are listening to the higher quality streaming are those folks who have signed up for a free trial account!

So after searching around on the internet I found a special promo code that will give me the full 128k streaming for 30 full days while I wait for Sirius XM to fix my account. For others who are in the same boat use the promo code “OPRAHSOUL” to sign up for a 30-day demo account.

Once again Sirius XM upsets their paying customers, when all they needed to do was post notice of the issue to the online listening login screen! For a communications company they don’t communicate with their customers too well.