Sirius Satellite Radio
Encyclopedia
Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio
(SDARS) service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.
Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis
, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams (channels) of music and 65 streams of sports, news and entertainment to listeners. Music streams on Sirius carry a wide variety of genres, broadcasting 24 hours daily, commercial-free, and uncensored. A subset of Sirius music channels is included as part of the Dish Network
satellite television
service. Sirius channels are identified by Arbitron
with the label "SR" (e.g. "SR120", "SR9", "SR17").
Its business model
is to provide pay-for-service radio, analogous to the business model for premium cable television
. Music channels are presented without commercials while talk channels, such as Howard Stern
's Howard 100 and Howard 101
and Opie and Anthony
's The Virus, do have regular commercials. At approximately 6 minutes per hour, the number of commercials are still less than the average on terrestrial radio or television. Furthermore, all channels are free from FCC content regulation, thus songs are played unedited for language, and talk programs may feature explicit content if they wish. Subscriptions are prepaid and range in price from US$12.95 monthly (US$8.99 for each additional receiver) to US$499.99 for lifetime (of the receiver equipment) subscription. There is a US$15 activation fee for every radio activated. Sirius announced it had achieved its first positive cash flow
quarter for the period ending December 2006.
Sirius was founded in July 1990 by Martine Rothblatt
as Satellite CD Radio, Inc.. In that month she also petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to create a Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service in an underutilized portion of the 2300 MHz frequency band. Her vision was to adapt GPS patch antennas to a national, digital, radio service, for which she claimed in her Petition for Rulemaking that there was a large, unmet public need. Rothblatt first demonstrated the service via terrestrial emulators of a satellite to FCC officials in 1992 outside the offices of WPFW in Washington, DC. In that year her daughter was diagnosed with life-threatening pulmonary arterial hypertension, and she resigned as Chairman & CEO to focus on finding a cure for the medical condition. She selected David Margolese to succeed her, and he subsequently venture capitalized US$20 million over the next five years lobbying the Federal Communications Commission to allow satellite radio to be deployed.
In 1999, marketing chief, Ira Bahr, developed and championed the name "Sirius". Margolese was reluctant to re-name the company, but Bahr convinced him the current name "CD Radio" did not work well. Margolese wanted to use the name "Orbital" but it was unavailable, and he acceded to Bahr's name.
Sirius launched its radio service in four states on February 14, 2002, expanding service to the rest of the contiguous U.S. by July of that year.
On October 16, 2006, Sirius announced that it would be launching Sirius Internet Radio, with 78 of its 135 channels being available worldwide on the internet to any of its subscribers with a valid user name and password.
On July 29, 2008, Sirius formally completed its merger with former competitor XM Satellite Radio
. The combined company began operating under the name Sirius XM Radio. On November 12, 2008, Sirius and XM began broadcasting with their new, combined channel lineups.
As of December 31, 2008, Sirius XM had a total of 19,003,856 subscribers.
After Margolese had run the regulatory steeplechase and effectively created the industry, the FCC also sold a license to XM Satellite Radio, which sailed along in Sirius's wake. Sirius then built and launched three satellites, constructed a coast to coast transmitter network for urban coverage, partnered with automakers to include satellite radios in their cars, and raised approximately $2 billion. This remains the largest amount of financing that a pre-operational start-up, with no proven market for its service, has ever raised. In 2001 Margolese stepped down as CEO, with Sirius issuing the following statement: "The Board warmly thanks David for his great vision, leadership and dedication in creating both Sirius and the satellite radio industry; as Chairman, we will continue to benefit from [his] strategic thinking". Joe Clayton, former CEO of Global Crossing, took the reins until Mel Karmazin, former President of Viacom, replaced him in 2004. Sirius acquired XM in 2008 and the company was re-named Sirius XM Radio.
Initially the company was truly at the forefront of technical achievements and innovation. The service availability goals, satellite configuration, were new and no prior standard allowed verification of the system. Its unprecedented satellite orbits and systems were developed by satellite industry legend, Robert Briskman. Even the studio layout and acoustics were developed from new techniques, where the audacity of glass walled studios was implemented. There was much press about initial delays, citing the company's chipset supplier as the cause, but nevertheless by Valentine's Day 2002, Sirius had put together a remarkable system, full of innovation, with excellent performance.
. Upon government approval, the merger combined the two radio services and created a single satellite radio network in the United States, named SIRIUS XM Radio.
On March 24, 2008, the United States Justice Department approved the merger of Sirius and XM. The approval process for this merger was the longest in United States history. Approval from the Federal Communications Commission
cleared on July 25, 2008.
One of the issues that the FCC has been called to resolve is the fact that, 10 years after initiating operations, both Sirius and XM have kept the United States' outlying states and territories in the dark. Rep. José E. Serrano, several members of the Outlying Areas Senate Presidents Caucus
, headed by Senate of Puerto Rico
President Kenneth McClintock
and a resolution of the Puerto Rico Senate have called upon the FCC to require the merged company to offer service to the outlying areas of the US within a given timeframe as a condition for the merger.
As a result of Serrano and McClintock's efforts, Sirius made a written commitment in the FCC docket to offer service in Puerto Rico within three months of the merger approval. The application with the FCC for 20 additional repeaters in Puerto Rico was filed on October 27, 2008. Sirius XM was granted temporary authority for these repeaters in September 2009.
On July 25, 2008, after 17 months, the merger was approved in a 3–2 vote by the FCC. The companies voluntarily agreed to stipulations that include setting aside 8% of their channels for public interest and minority programming, 3 year price cap, as well as a A-La-Carte pricing available within 3 months of deal closure.
According to a Spring 2007 Arbitron report, the five most listened to channels on Sirius based on their Average Quarterly Hour (AQH) Share
are Howard 100, Howard 101, The Highway (60), Sirius Hits 1 and Octane (37).
, E Street Band
member Steven Van Zandt
, aka Little Steven, Jimmy Buffett
, and Eminem
to executive-produce streams or entire channels on Sirius. Van Zandt was the first major musician recruited by Sirius or XM to create branded music channels and he has created two distinct stations for Sirius, the Underground Garage
dedicated to garage rock
, and Outlaw Country with its focus on alternative country music
.
By far the largest of these deals was announced on October 6, 2004 when Sirius announced that it signed a five-year, US$100 million per year agreement with Howard Stern
to move his radio show, The Howard Stern Show, to Sirius starting on January 9, 2006. The deal, which gave Sirius exclusive rights to Stern’s radio show, also gave Stern the right to build three full-time programming channels. Currently, Stern has two operating channels on Sirius, but still retains the right to a third. Stern said his move was forced by the stringent regulations of the FCC
whose enforcement was intensified following the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show
. Beginning with the announcement of his imminent departure, Stern complained Infinity Broadcasting
was making his departure more acrimonious than was necessary.
Sirius presents an extensive array of programming on multiple channels that cover a wide variety of genres. The overall categories include: Music, News/Talk, Sports, Entertainment. Within each category there are multiple channels that present a wide variety of sub-genres. For example the Music category sub-divides into streams for Rock, Pop, Country, Hip-Hop/R&B, Jazz/Blues – and within each stream there are channels for various sub-sections. An example of the variety of music offerings available would be the 22 channels playing different sub-genres of rock.
The vast majority of its programming is self-produced exclusively for Sirius. However, there are some shows—especially in the Talk genre—that are syndicated programs originally created for terrestrial radio that now air on traditional radio and Sirius simultaneously, for example, the Eternal Word Television Network
which broadcasts on channel 160.
Among the hosts who present shows heard on Sirius, there are many high-profile personalities:
On November 18, 2004 the former COO
and President of Viacom
, Mel Karmazin
, was named the CEO of Sirius. Stern worked under Karmazin at Infinity Radio and the two appeared to always have a great deal of mutual respect. It was Karmazin who fiercely protected Stern in the wake of the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show (produced by MTV and aired by CBS, both co-owned with Infinity-now CBS Radio-until CBS Corporation
split off in 2006) and the FCC crackdown on shock jocks and obscenity, in general.
On October 25, 2005 Sirius announced that "E Street Radio", the exclusive channel of artist Bruce Springsteen
, would air from November 1, 2005 to January 31, 2006 on the Bridge – Channel 10. On September 14, 2006, The Bridge was replaced again, by The Who Channel
. This special limited-run channel was moved to channel 98, replacing Rolling Stones Radio, and the Bridge restored, on January 1, 2007, But was turned back into E Street Radio again on October 5, 2007.
, CFL
and NBA
games. Sirius also announced in December 2005 a multi-year deal with the NBA, which made the satellite radio company the broadcaster of more live NBA games than any other radio outlet. Sirius airs Full Court Press
, weekdays from 12 pm – 3 pm ET; FCP is the only all-NBA show on Sirius. The agreement also created a 24-hour NBA Radio Channel, which was located on channel 127. However, as of November 12, 2008, NBA games have switched to XM and are therefore now part of Sirius as part of the "Best of XM" package and the 24-hour NBA channel no longer airs, replaced by Sporting News Radio
. NHL
games were shared with XM for the 2005–2006 season, and XM now holds exclusive rights. Sirius currently has full NASCAR
coverage, including, among other programs, a two hour weekly show hosted by NASCAR driver Tony Stewart
. In 2009, for the first time, it carried live coverage of the Le Mans 24 hour race from Radio Le Mans
.
Sirius also has rights to a number of major college sports teams, including teams in the Big East
, Big Ten
and Southeastern Conference
s as well as The University of Notre Dame
. Beginning in 2005 Sirius also has exclusive radio rights to cover the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
. In August 2004, Sirius launched Sirius NFL Radio
, a 24-hour radio stream dedicated exclusively to covering the NFL. Sirius has also been aggressive in creating its own in-house produced studio sports radio content.
Sirius also has the only national Horse racing
talk show, At the Races, hosted by noted racing handicapper, Steve Byk. The show which airs weekdays between 4 and 7, is unique in the horseracing world.
The Hardcore Poker Show, Wednesday night at 8 p.m. (eastern), hosted by Rob Pizzo and Chris Tessaro
, is the only syndicated poker talk show in North America.
Sirius also broadcasts select Premier League matches which generally air on Saturday and Sunday Mornings during the season, but there are occasional games on weekday afternoons. Continuing their major expansion of soccer coverage, Sirius announced a deal to add UEFA Champions League
soccer to their lineup on September 27, 2006. As of recently Sirius also had exclusive radio rights to broadcast the ESPN television feed of the Euro 2008 championships. . Rounding out their coverage Sirius also airs a two hour soccer talk show on Wednesday nights on channel 125 called "The Football Show" with former Metrostars GM Charlie Stillitano and former International Italian star Giorgio Chinaglia
. The show also airs on Tuesday evenings after UEFA Champions League Matches. On Saturdays and Sundays during premier league season, Sirius airs Radio 606
, a classic radio call in show from the UK discussing all of the days top matches.
On September 15, Chris Russo
launched his own show called Mad Dog Unleashed.
As of March 2009, Major League Baseball
games remain exclusive to XM Radio as a result of an arrangement dispute between MLB and Sirius XM. It is currently unclear if and when baseball games will be available to Sirius subscribers.
-based Applied Media Technologies Corporation
, a provider of telephone "on hold" messaging. AMTC provides Sirius service in a package branded as Sirius Music for Business. For US$29.95 per month, AMTC provides all of Sirius' streams of commercial-free music, and pays all performance royalties to ASCAP, Broadcast Music Incorporated
, and SESAC
, so that business owners may legally play Sirius' music in their establishments.
Unlike the music services Muzak / DMX Music
or Music Choice
, the Sirius business music services use the same channels and SDARS delivery platform as the consumer Sirius service. The SDARS delivery platform, on the other hand, is more reliable than any of the other services in that it is not subject to satellite dish rain fade
. Unfortunately, the highly elliptical orbit
of the Sirius satellite constellation can pose difficulties for the reliable delivery of the signal to stationary antennas in certain parts of the country. To eliminate this potential problem, Sirius launched a new geostationary satellite, FM-5, to improve service to non-mobile customers such as those of Sirius Music for Business. The service can also be accessed online using Sirius' online streaming technology, allowing any business with a broadband Internet connection to overcome any potential reception issues. Additionally, Sirius is applying for repeaters in Hawaii and Alaska and has already been granted authority for 20 repeaters covering the island of Puerto Rico
by the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC).
, Disney Channel
and Cartoon Network
Mobile. There will be a single screen (or a dual screen option in the Chrysler Town and Country
and Dodge Grand Caravan) for back seat passengers to watch while front seat passengers have the option of simultaneously listening to any normal Sirius radio channel. The service is reported to cost an additional US$6.99 per month on top of the standard Sirius subscription price. The MSRP of the factory installed units is US$470 and the aftermarket unit has an MSRP of US$299.99. Both were made available in the fourth quarter of 2007.
in the UK to rebroadcast the station to an American audience. In August of 2011 Sirius abruptly dropped BBC Radio 1
leading to thousands of angry customers, as evidenced by the facebook
groups that soon emerged.
Sirius also has exclusive satellite radio rights to National Public Radio, carrying two separate streams (whereas XM's XM Public Radio
channel carries only programming not produced by NPR, such as by PRI
). The deal with NPR was the first high-profile deal entered into by Sirius. The Sirius NPR NOW (now available on XM) programming does not include the popular programs All Things Considered
and Morning Edition
.
With the launch of Sirius Canada in December 2005, American listeners gained five Canadian-produced stations including CBC Radio One
, CBC Radio Three and Iceberg Radio
, and Première Plus, Énergie2, and Bande à part
for French listeners. Iceberg Radio is programmed by Standard Broadcasting
, which also provides a number of additional channels exclusive to Canada; the other four come from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
. After a delay and outcry from Canadian subscribers, Sirius Canada added Howard Stern's Channel 100 to their lineup in early 2006. Channel 101
, Stern's other channel (featuring Bubba the Love Sponge
, Scott Ferrall
, and other personalities), were made available in late June 2006.
Talk radio content recently added onto Sirius Satellite Radio include the ABC News and Talk channel 143(since having ceased operations), including live feeds of Sean Hannity and Larry Elder's syndicated radio shows, Patriot Talk channel 144 (which includes Michael Reagan's syndicated radio show) and Fox News Talk channel 145 (which includes syndicated radio hosts such as Alan Colmes and John Gibson).
On March 14, 2006, Sirius added Cosmo Radio
, Playboy Radio
, and returned the audio simulcast of the Fox News Channel TV feed, which was previously removed during a contract dispute. The service also added Fox's satellite talk radio channel, Fox News Talk
.
In April 2003 Sirius launched Sirius OutQ
, the first ever 24/7 talk channel designed for the LGBT
audience. Personalities associated with the channel include Frank DeCaro
, Michelangelo Signorile
, Derek Hartley
, and Romaine Patterson
.
In addition to the audio programming, the Sirius broadcast stream also carries a Data Services channel that is utilized by capable receivers and graphical display hardware. Some of the data services offered are traffic speed and flow, marine weather, and fuel prices to name just a few. Examples of capable hardware are the Raymarine SR100 Satellite Weather receiver and the Alpine NVE-N872A Satellite Traffic Ready navigation system.
. This is in contrast to XM which uses six carriers and decodes three 2 MHz carriers to economize on receiver power consumption and complexity at the cost of channel-changing speed. There is an intentional four-second delay between the two satellite carrier signals. This enables the receiver to maintain a large buffer of the audio stream, which, along with forward error correction
, helps keep the audio playing in the event that the signal is temporarily lost, such as when driving under an overpass or otherwise losing line-of-sight
of any of the satellites or ground repeater stations.
A third, separate signal is uplinked to the AMC-6 Ku-band satellite and received by 36 inches (914.4 mm) satellite dish
es for the ground repeater network. This third signal is broadcast on a third segment of the signal.
, at the time a spinoff of AT&T. Early prototypes were followed by a number of generations of ASIC
custom designed chipsets, supplied at first by Agere Systems and later supplied by Agere Systems and their competitor ST microelectronics.
Three signals from three different sources (satellite, satellite, and terrestrial) are therefore combined in the receiver as radio signals, (not as audio signals). The three signals need to be combined constructively (avoiding situations where bad signals pollute good signals) in the receiver before being decoded. Heavy error correction is applied to the signals. All three signals contain the same audio content on all the channels that the receiver can receive, with the exception of one audio program waveform being transmitted ahead of the other two by approximately four seconds. With this time skew, the signals, once realigned, need to see an 8 second obstruction of overpass fade in order to lose audio content. This increases the robustness of the signal delivery in most driving conditions.
In order to recover meaningful signal and error free audio from a signal impaired by interference and fading, the receiver uses concatenated Reed-Solomon block coding and Forward Error Correction encoding and decoding (codec). This technique was proven in the early days of satellite modems in the late 1970s. Linkabit, then run by Ira Jacobs prior to his involvement with Qualcomm, offered such a codec for rack mounting in satellite earth stations. The Sirius signal uses more robust error correction on control channels than on the audio content, trading off error correction and bandwidth differently for separate categories of bits in the signal waveform.
The terrestrial carrier is a OFDM QPSK signal, cousin to WiMax and LTE, with the particular feature that more than one transmitter operates on the same frequency, forming a single frequency network. A number of transmitters can be placed around a city to create coverage that is less subject to fading than if a single transmitter were used. The satellite signal is QPSK. Both satellite and terrestrial signals have hierarchical modulation superposed on the original signal, a measure created to add bandwidth at a small expense in the satellite link budget for decoding the core audio content.
This architecture has worked remarkably well in avoiding drop out of audio signal when driving under highway overpasses, and when scintillating (very deep and frequent losses in signal strength caused by radio fading from trees) conditions exist. Since Sirius and XM separately entered the market with incompatible waveforms on the satellite, one would logically conclude that the merged company will eventually evolve the signal format again to take advantage of their size, but this is a speculative statement. The use of satellite and terrestrial combined service has been adopted by the DVB-SH
standard, and companies such as ICO communications who cooperated with Alcatel-Lucent on system design and field trials. ONDAS, a Madrid based company, also adopted this pioneering system architecture.
Approximately five chipset versions were built by Agere and approximately 4 versions were built by STMicroelectronics
after the initial prototypes, although all of the early receivers included an Agere chipset known as Northstar. This platform enjoyed the highest volume of chipsets to date, representing the bulk of total production from 2002 to 2010. As of 2010, most of the chipsets are produced by STMicroelectronics.
At the heart of a Sirius receiver is a custom application specific integrated circuit (ASIC
) chip called the Baseband Integrated Circuit currently the STA240, which is produced by STMicroelectronics. The chip contains embedded ARM7TDMI
and ARM946E-S microprocessors synthesized from IP cores. Every baseband has a unique Electronic Serial Number (or Sirius ID). Another major section of a Sirius receiver is the tuner. The tuner is also a custom ASIC
, the STA210. The tuner connects to the antenna, and receives the incoming satellite and terrestrial signals at 2.315 GHz and downconverts them to intermediate frequency
signals at around 75 MHz. The strength of the signals is approximately −50dBm in clear-sky conditions. The IF signals are fed to the STA240, which are digitized, demodulated, error-corrected, de-interleaved, and decrypted using specialized circuits on the chip. The baseband processor utilizes a 16 MB SDRAM
memory to buffer four seconds of one of the satellite signals in order to bring it into time coincidence with the other for Maximal-ratio combining
. On newer receivers with a "pause" feature, a dual-port PSRAM is employed to store up to 60 minutes of the selected channel. The baseband processor outputs digital audio over a Serial Peripheral Interface, which is fed to a D/A converter to produce the analog audio signal. The front-end of a Sirius receiver is called the head unit, required to display descriptive text (such as the category, channel, artist, and song name) and provide controls to the user. This is implemented by the third-party designers of Sirius-ready receivers, using a microprocessor of their choice.
Sirius offers car radios and home entertainment systems, as well as car and home kits for portable use. The Sirius receiver includes the antenna module and the receiver module. The antenna module picks up signals from the ground repeaters or the satellite, amplifies the signal and filters out any interference. The signal is then passed on to the receiver module. Inside the receiver module is a chipset consisting of eight chips. The chipset converts the signals from 2.3 gigahertz (GHz) to a lower intermediate frequency. Sirius also offers an adapter that allows conventional car radios to receive satellite signals.
Sirius broadcasts using 12.5 MHz of the S band
between 2320 and 2332.5 MHz. Audio channels are digitally compressed using a proprietary variant of Lucent's Perceptual audio coder
compression algorithm and encrypted with a proprietary conditional access
system. Sirius has announced that they intend to implement hierarchical modulation
technology to economize on bandwidth up to 25%.
Each receiver must be connected to an external antenna, which is included with the receiver. Antenna placement is crucial to receiving a clear signal. In some locations users have experienced difficulty receiving the Sirius programming because the signal is not consistently strong. For best reception, antennas should be placed such that they have an unobstructed view of the sky (preferably on rooftops without overhanging eaves
or trees). If this is not an option, the antenna should be placed on an exterior wall. When placing on an exterior wall, the antenna should be mounted to a wall which faces the center of the continental United States in order to minimize the likelihood of the building itself blocking the signal.
, launched by Sweden's NSAB (Nordiska Satellitaktiebolaget, or Nordic Satellite AB, and known today as SES Sirius
) and used for general telecommunications and satellite television
throughout Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
The current primary uplink facility for Sirius is located in Vernon, Sussex County
, New Jersey
. The original facility was located on the roof of the building housing the Sirius studios in Rockefeller Center in New York City but has since been decommissioned.
Sirius’ spacecraft Radiosat 1 through Radiosat 4 were manufactured by Space Systems/Loral
. The first three of the series were orbited in 2000 by Proton-K Block-DM3 launch vehicles, with the final three-satellite constellation completed on November 30, 2000. Radiosat 4 is a ground spare, in storage at Space Systems/Loral’s facility in Palo Alto, California
, ready to be launched if any of the three active satellites encounter transmission problems. The satellites are based on the Space Systems/Loral 1300 platform. All three satellites broadcast directly to the consumer's receiver, but due to the highly elliptical orbit only two of them broadcast at any given time.
Satellites Radiosat 1 through Radiosat 3 fly in geosynchronous highly elliptical orbit
(Tundra orbit
) in a 24-hour orbital period. The elliptical path of its satellite constellation ensures that each satellite spends about 16 hours a day over the continental United States, with at least one satellite over the country at all times. The orbit allows the satellites to broadcast from directly overhead the continental United States, avoiding the problem of large buildings or objects blocking the signal and requiring a much smaller terrestrial repeater network than does sister network XM.
On June 8, 2006, Space Systems/Loral announced that it was awarded a contract for the fifth Sirius spacecraft. The new spacecraft features a nine-meter unfurlable reflector. The first four Sirius spacecraft used more traditional parabolic reflectors. The new satellite has been designed for geostationary orbit, unlike the other satellites in the constellation; the different orbit has the stated purpose of allowing for more consistent reception for fixed location users (many subscribers have reported having to regularly reposition their antennas for optimal reception). Radiosat 5 is in a geostationary orbit at 96 degrees west. It was launched July 9, 2009, and announced to be in service as of September 9, 2009. http://investor.sirius.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=407919
(ILS) announced a contract which includes launch of the SIRIUS FM-6 satellite on a Proton
Breeze M rocket. SIRIUS FM-6 is currently under construction at Space Systems/Loral. ILS anticipates the launch will take place in the fourth quarter of 2010.
, BMW
, Chrysler
, Dodge
, Ford
, Infiniti
, Jaguar, Jeep
, Land Rover
, Lexus
, Lincoln
, Mazda
, Mercedes-Benz
, Mercury
, MINI, Mitsubishi
, Nissan, Scion, Toyota (except Corolla
), Porsche
, Volkswagen
, and Volvo
vehicles, and the service plans on adding availability for portable use. Subaru
offers Sirius on the Forester and Impreza. Starting in 2006, all Rolls-Royce
vehicles sold in the United States come with a Sirius radio and lifetime subscription as standard equipment. Sirius has an exclusive contract for VW and Audi vehicles from 2007 through 2012, and with Kia Motors
from 2008 through 2014, with an optional extension to 2017. Beginning in the 2007 model year, Bentley
vehicles will have Sirius as an option, and it will be standard equipment in several models beginning in 2008. Porsche
switched to XM Satellite Radio
on their vehicles beginning with the 2007 model year. Currently, only Toyota (including its Lexus and Scion divisions) and Subaru offer both Sirius and XM contracts.
Sirius also makes several receivers for aftermarket installations such as the Sportster4, Starmate Replay, Sirius S50 with built in 1 GB MP3 player, and the Sirius One.
Radios from Sirius:
For an additional fee, Sirius subscribers are also able to access all of the proprietary music channels and most of the talk stations via streaming media
through Sirius.com. A standard 64 kbit/s and "Premium" 128 kbit/s feed are available; the latter costs an additional $12.95 fee per month.
Alternatives to the browser based player are available such as a Yahoo! Widget (designed to look like a miniature Sportster model receiver), and SIRIUS Internet Radio Player (based on Windows Media Player and available as plug-in or standalone application). Both alternatives are gaining popularity with streaming listeners, and offer artist and track name information updated in real time, which is an improvement from the online Sirius player.
Recently, SiriusXMStream has come available as a replacement to Usirius. It offers a server capaility to stream sirius and xm programming to game consoles and mobile phones as an alternative to the iPhone And Blackberry app.
NiceMac LLC, creator of the StarPlayr and StarLightXM product lines have created clients for Mac, PC, Windows Mobile and iPhone. The company recently merged with Jason Millard of Millard Software and plans to release uSirius StarPlayr, a Sirius XM iPhone client in 2009. http://StarPlayr.com
CatPig Studios Inc. has also released Radium
for Mac, a general-purpose internet radio player that supports XM and Sirius. In early 2010, Rogue Amoeba software released Pulsar, a standalone Sirius-XM player for Mac OSX. http://www.rogueamoeba.com/pulsar
In addition to being available through Sirius.com, Howard Stern's website offers a Java
application that streams the two Stern-themed channels. The site also states that Stern-specific video and audio clips will be made available at a later date.
and Apple iPod Touch
devices that allows its subscribers and users of those devices to listen to its programming. The application was released and available for download on the evening of June 17, 2009. The Sirius XM app is available at the iTunes App Store. Also integrated into the app is a "click to buy" function where if a user clicks any song title playing on Sirius XM they are given the option to be taken to the iTunes Music Store where they can purchase the track or album. Some select programming, including MLB Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play, and SIRIUS NASCAR Radio are not available at this time. Due to the terms of a new contract, the Howard Stern channels were added on Tuesday, December 21.
for the Android Smartphone platform. This app is available free of charge in the market, and requires an additional US$2.99/mo to subscribe to. The app features all of the content available on a standard Sirius receiver.
enabled Rim BlackBerry
smartphones. Much like its iPhone and iPod Touch counterpart, it features a restricted 120 channel lineup featuring most of the music channels and selected talk programming. As with the iPhone app, some select programming, including MLB Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play, SIRIUS NASCAR Radio are not available on the Blackberry. Shortly after signing a new contract, Howard Stern began promoting the mobile app, and his content was added to the mobile offerings.
Blackberry smartphones currently compatible with the Sirius app:
1 If OS version is above 5.0.239
and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
filed an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to introduce Sirius in Canada. The application was approved on June 16, 2005. The decision was appealed to the Canadian federal cabinet
by a number of broadcasting, labour, and arts and culture organizations, including the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting
, CHUM Limited
, and the National Campus and Community Radio Association
. The groups objected to Sirius’ approach to and reduced levels of Canadian content
and French language
programming, along with the exclusion of Canadian non-commercial broadcasting. After a lengthy debate, cabinet rejected the appeals on September 9, 2005. Sirius Canada
was officially launched December 1, 2005.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has reported poor reception in northern Canada
.
The commission did so over the objections of the Puerto Rico Radio Broadcasters Association
(Asociación de Radiodifusores de Puerto Rico), who said the approval in essence expands the Sirius XM footprint outside its authorized coverage area and that the satcaster would compete with terrestrial broadcasters for listeners.
After receiving communications by public officials in opposition to the broadcasters, such as Puerto Rico
Secretary of State
Kenneth McClintock
, in rejecting those arguments, the commission said Sirius XM's footprint already covers the island but the signal is weak and blocked by tall buildings and foliage. As for the impact on competition, the FCC said it has considered these arguments before and "declined to find that" satellite radio would harm local broadcasters.
The Sirius full terrestrial coverage is available in select sites in the cities of San Juan, Carolina, Bayamón, Cataño, Caguas and Ponce. In the rest of Puerto Rico, coverage is provided by Sirius' constellation of satellites.
. The service also expands the number of channels that are available to Sirius Stiletto
100 users via WiFi
.
The company announced in early February 2009 that it may file for bankruptcy "as early as" Tuesday, February 17, 2009.
On February 17, 2009, Sirius entered into an investment agreement with Liberty Media Corporation. Sirius received 550 million dollars to pay off maturing debt in exchange for 40% of its convertible preferred stock.
Satellite radio
Satellite radio is an analogue or digital radio signal that is relayed through one or more satellites and thus can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations...
(SDARS) service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.
Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams (channels) of music and 65 streams of sports, news and entertainment to listeners. Music streams on Sirius carry a wide variety of genres, broadcasting 24 hours daily, commercial-free, and uncensored. A subset of Sirius music channels is included as part of the Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
service. Sirius channels are identified by Arbitron
Arbitron
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...
with the label "SR" (e.g. "SR120", "SR9", "SR17").
Its business model
Business model
A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...
is to provide pay-for-service radio, analogous to the business model for premium cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
. Music channels are presented without commercials while talk channels, such as Howard Stern
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
's Howard 100 and Howard 101
Howard 100 and Howard 101
Howard 100 and Howard 101 are two uncensored channels on Sirius XM, a satellite radio service that broadcasts programming affiliated with Howard Stern and The Howard Stern Show...
and Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show, a talk radio program airing in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Since the merger of the two satellite companies, this is now called Sirius/XM...
's The Virus, do have regular commercials. At approximately 6 minutes per hour, the number of commercials are still less than the average on terrestrial radio or television. Furthermore, all channels are free from FCC content regulation, thus songs are played unedited for language, and talk programs may feature explicit content if they wish. Subscriptions are prepaid and range in price from US$12.95 monthly (US$8.99 for each additional receiver) to US$499.99 for lifetime (of the receiver equipment) subscription. There is a US$15 activation fee for every radio activated. Sirius announced it had achieved its first positive cash flow
Cash flow
Cash flow is the movement of money into or out of a business, project, or financial product. It is usually measured during a specified, finite period of time. Measurement of cash flow can be used for calculating other parameters that give information on a company's value and situation.Cash flow...
quarter for the period ending December 2006.
Sirius was founded in July 1990 by Martine Rothblatt
Martine Rothblatt
Martine Aliana Rothblatt Ph.D, MBA, J.D. is an American lawyer, author, and entrepreneur. Rothblatt graduated from UCLA with a combined law and MBA degree in 1981, then began work in Washington, D.C., first in the field of communication satellite law, and eventually in life sciences projects like...
as Satellite CD Radio, Inc.. In that month she also petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to create a Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service in an underutilized portion of the 2300 MHz frequency band. Her vision was to adapt GPS patch antennas to a national, digital, radio service, for which she claimed in her Petition for Rulemaking that there was a large, unmet public need. Rothblatt first demonstrated the service via terrestrial emulators of a satellite to FCC officials in 1992 outside the offices of WPFW in Washington, DC. In that year her daughter was diagnosed with life-threatening pulmonary arterial hypertension, and she resigned as Chairman & CEO to focus on finding a cure for the medical condition. She selected David Margolese to succeed her, and he subsequently venture capitalized US$20 million over the next five years lobbying the Federal Communications Commission to allow satellite radio to be deployed.
In 1999, marketing chief, Ira Bahr, developed and championed the name "Sirius". Margolese was reluctant to re-name the company, but Bahr convinced him the current name "CD Radio" did not work well. Margolese wanted to use the name "Orbital" but it was unavailable, and he acceded to Bahr's name.
Sirius launched its radio service in four states on February 14, 2002, expanding service to the rest of the contiguous U.S. by July of that year.
On October 16, 2006, Sirius announced that it would be launching Sirius Internet Radio, with 78 of its 135 channels being available worldwide on the internet to any of its subscribers with a valid user name and password.
On July 29, 2008, Sirius formally completed its merger with former competitor XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
. The combined company began operating under the name Sirius XM Radio. On November 12, 2008, Sirius and XM began broadcasting with their new, combined channel lineups.
As of December 31, 2008, Sirius XM had a total of 19,003,856 subscribers.
Early Days of Sirius
Sirius was founded by satellite industry veteran Martine Rothblatt in 1990 as Satellite CD Radio, but changed its name to CD Radio in 1992, and to Sirius on November 18, 1999. Rothblatt had previously co-founded the PanAmSat international satellite television system and launched the Geostar satellite navigation system. In late 1992 she resigned as Chairman & CEO to start a medical research foundation for the benefit of a daughter who was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. She selected David Margolese, a co-founder of Rogers Wireless, to succeed her. He raised and spent over US$20 million lobbying the Federal Communications Commission to allow satellite radio to be deployed. Opposition from traditional broadcasters was fierce and the process took until 1997, at which time the FCC had moved to auctions rather than awards when licensing spectrum. The company then bid $83 million to successfully purchase one of two satellite radio licenses in an auction, both of which existed within the frequency band Rothblatt proposed in her July 1990 Petition for Rulemaking to the FCC.After Margolese had run the regulatory steeplechase and effectively created the industry, the FCC also sold a license to XM Satellite Radio, which sailed along in Sirius's wake. Sirius then built and launched three satellites, constructed a coast to coast transmitter network for urban coverage, partnered with automakers to include satellite radios in their cars, and raised approximately $2 billion. This remains the largest amount of financing that a pre-operational start-up, with no proven market for its service, has ever raised. In 2001 Margolese stepped down as CEO, with Sirius issuing the following statement: "The Board warmly thanks David for his great vision, leadership and dedication in creating both Sirius and the satellite radio industry; as Chairman, we will continue to benefit from [his] strategic thinking". Joe Clayton, former CEO of Global Crossing, took the reins until Mel Karmazin, former President of Viacom, replaced him in 2004. Sirius acquired XM in 2008 and the company was re-named Sirius XM Radio.
Initially the company was truly at the forefront of technical achievements and innovation. The service availability goals, satellite configuration, were new and no prior standard allowed verification of the system. Its unprecedented satellite orbits and systems were developed by satellite industry legend, Robert Briskman. Even the studio layout and acoustics were developed from new techniques, where the audacity of glass walled studios was implemented. There was much press about initial delays, citing the company's chipset supplier as the cause, but nevertheless by Valentine's Day 2002, Sirius had put together a remarkable system, full of innovation, with excellent performance.
XM Satellite merger
On February 19, 2007, Sirius announced a merger deal with XM Satellite RadioXM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
. Upon government approval, the merger combined the two radio services and created a single satellite radio network in the United States, named SIRIUS XM Radio.
On March 24, 2008, the United States Justice Department approved the merger of Sirius and XM. The approval process for this merger was the longest in United States history. Approval from the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
cleared on July 25, 2008.
One of the issues that the FCC has been called to resolve is the fact that, 10 years after initiating operations, both Sirius and XM have kept the United States' outlying states and territories in the dark. Rep. José E. Serrano, several members of the Outlying Areas Senate Presidents Caucus
Outlying Areas Senate Presidents Caucus
The Outlying Areas Senate Presidents Caucus is an informal legislative organization created in 2007 by leaders of the Senates of the U.S. states of Alaska and Hawai'i and the United States territories of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Northern Marianas Islands...
, headed by Senate of Puerto Rico
Senate of Puerto Rico
The Senate of Puerto Rico is the upper house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The Senate is composed of 27 senators, representing eight constituent senatorial districts across the commonwealth, with two senators elected per district; an...
President Kenneth McClintock
Kenneth McClintock
Kenneth D. McClintock-Hernández is the current Secretary of State of Puerto Rico. Mr. McClintock served as co-chair of Hillary Clinton presidential campaign's National Hispanic Leadership Council in 2008, co-chaired Clinton's successful Puerto Rico primary campaign that year and served as the...
and a resolution of the Puerto Rico Senate have called upon the FCC to require the merged company to offer service to the outlying areas of the US within a given timeframe as a condition for the merger.
As a result of Serrano and McClintock's efforts, Sirius made a written commitment in the FCC docket to offer service in Puerto Rico within three months of the merger approval. The application with the FCC for 20 additional repeaters in Puerto Rico was filed on October 27, 2008. Sirius XM was granted temporary authority for these repeaters in September 2009.
On July 25, 2008, after 17 months, the merger was approved in a 3–2 vote by the FCC. The companies voluntarily agreed to stipulations that include setting aside 8% of their channels for public interest and minority programming, 3 year price cap, as well as a A-La-Carte pricing available within 3 months of deal closure.
Channels
According to a Spring 2007 Arbitron report, the five most listened to channels on Sirius based on their Average Quarterly Hour (AQH) Share
AQH Share
-Definition:AQH is an abbreviation for Average Quarter-Hour Persons , defined by Arbitron as the average number of persons listening to a particular station for at least five minutes during a 15-minute period....
are Howard 100, Howard 101, The Highway (60), Sirius Hits 1 and Octane (37).
Programming content
A major component of Sirius business strategy has been to execute far-reaching and exclusive deals with big-name entertainers and personalities to create and build broadcast streams, from the ground up. Sirius has reached extensive deals with domestic diva Martha StewartMartha Stewart
Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...
, E Street Band
E Street Band
The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.The band has also recorded with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian...
member Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt is an Italian-American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve...
, aka Little Steven, Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett
James William "Jimmy" Buffett is a singer-songwriter, author, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett's musical hits include "Margaritaville" , and "Come Monday"...
, and Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
to executive-produce streams or entire channels on Sirius. Van Zandt was the first major musician recruited by Sirius or XM to create branded music channels and he has created two distinct stations for Sirius, the Underground Garage
Underground Garage
Underground Garage is the name shared by two related but different radio outlets, a syndicated show and a satellite radio station, both created and supervised by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt to present rock 'n' roll and garage rock on radio...
dedicated to garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
, and Outlaw Country with its focus on alternative country music
Outlaw country
Outlaw country is a subgenre of country music, most popular during the late 1960s and the 1970s , sometimes referred to as the outlaw movement or simply outlaw music...
.
By far the largest of these deals was announced on October 6, 2004 when Sirius announced that it signed a five-year, US$100 million per year agreement with Howard Stern
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
to move his radio show, The Howard Stern Show, to Sirius starting on January 9, 2006. The deal, which gave Sirius exclusive rights to Stern’s radio show, also gave Stern the right to build three full-time programming channels. Currently, Stern has two operating channels on Sirius, but still retains the right to a third. Stern said his move was forced by the stringent regulations of the FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
whose enforcement was intensified following the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show
Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy
Super Bowl XXXVIII, which was broadcast live on February 1, 2004 from Houston, Texas on the CBS television network in the United States, was noted for a controversial halftime show in which Janet Jackson's breast, adorned with a nipple shield, was exposed by Justin Timberlake for about half a...
. Beginning with the announcement of his imminent departure, Stern complained Infinity Broadcasting
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
was making his departure more acrimonious than was necessary.
Sirius presents an extensive array of programming on multiple channels that cover a wide variety of genres. The overall categories include: Music, News/Talk, Sports, Entertainment. Within each category there are multiple channels that present a wide variety of sub-genres. For example the Music category sub-divides into streams for Rock, Pop, Country, Hip-Hop/R&B, Jazz/Blues – and within each stream there are channels for various sub-sections. An example of the variety of music offerings available would be the 22 channels playing different sub-genres of rock.
The vast majority of its programming is self-produced exclusively for Sirius. However, there are some shows—especially in the Talk genre—that are syndicated programs originally created for terrestrial radio that now air on traditional radio and Sirius simultaneously, for example, the Eternal Word Television Network
Eternal Word Television Network
The Eternal Word Television Network is an American cable television network which presents Catholic-themed programming. It was founded in 1980 by Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, PCPA...
which broadcasts on channel 160.
Among the hosts who present shows heard on Sirius, there are many high-profile personalities:
- Sports figures such as seven-time Tour de France champion Lance ArmstrongLance ArmstrongLance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, after having survived testicular cancer. He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support...
, NBANational Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
Hall of Famer Bill WaltonBill WaltonWilliam Theodore "Bill" Walton III is a retired American basketball player and television sportscaster. The "Big Red-Head", as he was called, achieved superstardom playing for John Wooden's powerhouse UCLA Bruins in the early '70s, winning three straight College Player of the Year Awards, while...
, sports show host Scott FerrallScott FerrallScott Ferrall is an American sports talk radio personality who currently broadcasts for Sirius XM Radio on Howard 101. His voice is easily recognizable by his crackling....
, fantasy football experts John HansenJohn Hansen-Association football:* John Hansen , Danish Olympic footballer* Johnny Hansen , Danish international footballer* John Hansen , Scottish professional footballer...
and Adam Caplan from FantasyGuru.comFantasyGuru.comFantasyGuru.com, launched in 1995, is a subscription-based fantasy football website. The company, which originated as a newsletter published by owner John Hansen, entered its 17th year in business in 2011. Specializing in the National Football League, the site provides projections, statistical...
, notable skateboarder Tony HawkTony HawkAnthony Frank "Tony" Hawk , nicknamed "The Birdman" is an American retired professional skateboarder and actor. Hawk gained significant fame for completing the first 900 as well as his licensed video game titles distributed by Activision...
, skateboarder/MTV personality Bam MargeraBam MargeraBrandon Cole "Bam" Margera is an American professional skateboarder, television and radio personality, actor and daredevil. He released a series of videos under the CKY banner and came to prominence after being drafted into MTV's Jackass crew...
, and skateboarder Jason EllisJason EllisJason Ellis is an Australian professional skateboarder, mixed martial artist, radio host, and actor. Ellis hosts The Jason Ellis Show weekdays on Sirius XM Radio channel Faction...
. - Musicians such as Joan JettJoan JettJoan Jett is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and actress.She is best known for her work with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts including their hit cover "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from March 20 to May 1, 1982, as well as for their other popular...
, Keith MorrisKeith MorrisKeith Morris is an American singer and songwriter known for his role as frontman of the hardcore punk bands Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, and Off! Born and raised in Hermosa Beach, California, he formed Black Flag at the age of 21 with guitarist Greg Ginn and performed on the band's 1978 debut EP...
of Black FlagBlack Flag (band)Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
, the B-52'sThe B-52'sThe B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar...
lead singer Fred SchneiderFred SchneiderFrederick William "Fred" Schneider III is an American rock singer, best known as the frontman of the rock band The B-52's, of which he is a founding member. Schneider is well-known for his sprechgesang which he developed from reciting poetry over guitars.-Early life:Schneider was born in Newark,...
, Marky RamoneMarky RamoneMarky Ramone is an American musician. He is best known for being the drummer for the Ramones, but has also played in other notable bands like Dust, Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, and the Misfits.Although he is not the original drummer , Marky is the only living...
of The Ramones, and New York DollsNew York DollsThe New York Dolls is an American rock band, formed in New York in 1971. The band's protopunk sound prefigured much of what was to come in the punk rock era; their visual style influenced the look of many new wave and 1980s-era glam metal groups, and they began the local New York scene that later...
singer David JohansenDavid JohansenDavid Roger Johansen is an American rock, protopunk, blues, and pop singer, as well as a songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the seminal protopunk band The New York Dolls and also achieved commercial success under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter.-Early life:Johansen was born in...
. - Veteran deejays including: New York City DJ "Bruce MorrowBruce MorrowBruce Morrow is an American radio personality known to many listeners as Cousin Brucie.-Radio work:...
", freeform radio pioneer Vin ScelsaVin ScelsaVincent Anthony Scelsa, better known as "Vin," was born on December 12, 1947 in Bayonne, New Jersey. He is the host of a freeform radio show known as Idiot's Delight....
, Richard BladeRichard BladeRichard Blade is a popular Los Angeles radio, television, and film personality from Torquay, England. He is best known for his radio programs that feature New Wave and Popular music from the 1980s...
, Joe Causi and Kid Leo. - Original MTV veejays Mark GoodmanMark GoodmanMark Goodman is a radio DJ, TV personality, and actor. He is best known as one of the original five VJs on MTV, from 1981-1987. He was supposed to be the first of the five to be broadcast at MTV's premier on August 1, 1981...
, Nina BlackwoodNina BlackwoodNina Blackwood is an American disc jockey and music journalist, who was the first of the original five MTV VJs. She has also been an actress and model.-Early life and career:...
, Alan Hunter and Martha QuinnMartha QuinnMartha Quinn is best known as one of the original video jockeys on MTV .-Early life:...
. - Hip Hop superstars including EminemEminemMarshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
and 50 Cent50 CentCurtis James Jackson III , better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, record producer, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin and The Massacre . Get Rich or Die Tryin has been certified eight times platinum by...
along with legends like Grandmaster FlashGrandmaster FlashJoseph Saddler better known as King Grandmaster Flash, is an American hip hop musician and DJ; one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing....
, Kool DJ Red Alert, Kurtis BlowKurtis BlowKurt Walker , better known by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapper and record producer. He is one of the first commercially successful rappers and the first to sign with a major record label...
and DJ PremierDJ PremierChristopher Edward Martin , better known by his stage name DJ Premier , is an American record producer and DJ, and was the instrumental half of the hip hop duo Gang Starr, together with emcee Guru...
. - Popular dance music artists and DJs like Paul OakenfoldPaul OakenfoldPaul Mark Oakenfold is a British record producer and a trance DJ.-Early Career: 1979–84:Paul Oakenfold's career was set to be a chef, after having hopes of becoming part of a band. He describes his early life as a "bedroom deejay" in a podcasted interview with Vancouver's 24 Hours, stating he grew...
, Paul Van DykPaul van DykMatthias Paul, better known by his stage name Paul van Dyk is a German Grammy Award-winning Electronic Dance Music DJ, musician and record producer...
, Liquid Todd, Pete TongPete TongPeter "Pete" Tong is an English DJ who works for BBC Radio 1. He is known worldwide by fans of electronic music for hosting programmes such as Essential Mix and Essential Selection on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio streams, for his record label FFRR Records, and for...
, The Riddler and DJ IceyDJ IceyDJ Icey, , is a DJ and electronic music producer, credited by Allmusic as having helped to "jump-start the increasingly fertile dance scene in and around Orlando, FL, during the '90s". E, the Incredibly Strange History of Ecstasy credits him as "the prime founder of the Funky Breaks and the Florida...
. - Political commentators including Bill PressBill PressWilliam "Bill" Press is a US talk radio host, political commentator and author.-Career:Press has a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Niagara University and Bachelor of Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg. He started his broadcasting career in Los Angeles for TV stations KABC-TV and...
, Andrew WilkowAndrew WilkowAndrew Wilkow is a conservative political talk radio host on the Sirius XM Patriot channel on SIRIUS channel 125 and XM channel 125. Until July 2006, Wilkow had been on WGY in Schenectady, New York, and WABC in New York City...
, Mike ChurchMike ChurchMike Church is a radio talk show host, and singer/songwriter. In 2006 Church was named to Askmen.com's list of the "Top Ten Shock Jocks in America . He has been called the "American Badass of Talk Radio" and has been called the "The King Dude" by listeners since 2001.The Mike Church Show was the...
, Rusty HumphriesRusty HumphriesRalph E. "Rusty" Humphries is an American radio host, conservative political commentator, and songwriter. Humphries' nationally-syndicated radio show, The Rusty Humphries Show, based in Atlanta, Georgia, airs on over 250 stations through Talk Radio Network.-Career:Humphries has hosted as a...
, Mike MalloyMike MalloyMichael Dennis Malloy is an American radio broadcaster from Atlanta, Georgia. Previously his show has been carried by WSB Atlanta, WLS Chicago, the I.E. America Radio Network, the Air America Radio network, Nova M Radio and the On Second Thought network. He is now self-syndicated...
, Lynn SamuelsLynn SamuelsLynn Margaret Samuels is an American radio personality based in New York City who currently hosts a weekend talk show on Sirius XM Stars channel 107.-External links:****...
, Glenn BeckGlenn BeckGlenn Edward Lee Beck is an American conservative radio host, vlogger, author, entrepreneur, political commentator and former television host. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks...
and Sean HannitySean HannitySean Hannity is an American radio and television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Hannity also hosts a cable news show, Hannity,...
. - Comedians and satirists include Harry ShearerHarry ShearerHarry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice artist, musician, author, radio host and director. He is known for his long-running role on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show...
, Duane Cahill, Mojo NixonMojo NixonMojo Nixon is an American musician, known for playing psychobilly music...
, and Jim BreuerJim BreuerJim Breuer is an American stand-up comedian, actor and radio host. He is most noted for his time as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and starring in the 1998 cult "stoner comedy" Half Baked, alongside Dave Chappelle....
. - Entertainment such as Cosmo and Maxim Radio featuring Covino and RichCovino and RichCovino & Rich are radio personalities and the hosts of The Covino & Rich Show. The talk radio show currently airs on subscription-based SIRIUS XM Radio from 12:00PM–3:00PM EST on Sirius XM channel 104...
.
On November 18, 2004 the former COO
Chief operating officer
A Chief Operating Officer or Director of Operations can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the "C-Suite"...
and President of Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
, Mel Karmazin
Mel Karmazin
Melvin Alan "Mel" Karmazin is an American executive. He co-founded and was the president of Infinity Broadcasting and eventually became the president and chief executive officer of CBS. As of 2008, he is the CEO of Sirius XM Radio....
, was named the CEO of Sirius. Stern worked under Karmazin at Infinity Radio and the two appeared to always have a great deal of mutual respect. It was Karmazin who fiercely protected Stern in the wake of the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show (produced by MTV and aired by CBS, both co-owned with Infinity-now CBS Radio-until CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
split off in 2006) and the FCC crackdown on shock jocks and obscenity, in general.
On October 25, 2005 Sirius announced that "E Street Radio", the exclusive channel of artist Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, would air from November 1, 2005 to January 31, 2006 on the Bridge – Channel 10. On September 14, 2006, The Bridge was replaced again, by The Who Channel
The Who Channel
The Who Channel plays music from The Who on SIRIUS Satellite Radio channel 29. The channel was a temporary replacement for The Bridge on channel 10 and started on September 21, 2006. On January 1, 2007, The Who Channel moved from channel 10 to channel 98 to replace Rolling Stones Radio.On February...
. This special limited-run channel was moved to channel 98, replacing Rolling Stones Radio, and the Bridge restored, on January 1, 2007, But was turned back into E Street Radio again on October 5, 2007.
Sports
Another cornerstone of Sirius’ business strategy has been to pursue exclusive sports content. Currently, Sirius has exclusive satellite radio broadcasting rights to all NFLNational Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
, CFL
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
and NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
games. Sirius also announced in December 2005 a multi-year deal with the NBA, which made the satellite radio company the broadcaster of more live NBA games than any other radio outlet. Sirius airs Full Court Press
Full Court Press
A full-court press is a basketball term that refers to a defensive style in which the defense applies man-to-man or zone defense to pressure the offensive team the entire length of the court before and after the inbound pass. Some presses attempt to deny the initial inbounds pass and trap ball...
, weekdays from 12 pm – 3 pm ET; FCP is the only all-NBA show on Sirius. The agreement also created a 24-hour NBA Radio Channel, which was located on channel 127. However, as of November 12, 2008, NBA games have switched to XM and are therefore now part of Sirius as part of the "Best of XM" package and the 24-hour NBA channel no longer airs, replaced by Sporting News Radio
Sporting News Radio
Yahoo! Sports Radio, formerly Sporting News Radio is a United States sports radio network that broadcasts sports news, talk, scores, and highlights 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On August 1, 2011, it was announced the network would change its name to Yahoo! Sports Radio, effective...
. NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
games were shared with XM for the 2005–2006 season, and XM now holds exclusive rights. Sirius currently has full NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
coverage, including, among other programs, a two hour weekly show hosted by NASCAR driver Tony Stewart
Tony Stewart
Anthony Wayne "Tony" Stewart is an American auto racing driver and owner. Throughout his racing career, Stewart has won titles in Indy cars and stock cars as well as midget, sprint and USAC Silver Crown cars, giving him the recognition of "one of the finest racers of his generation."Stewart...
. In 2009, for the first time, it carried live coverage of the Le Mans 24 hour race from Radio Le Mans
Radio Le Mans
Radio Le Mans is the English language radio service for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.It first broadcast at the 1987 24 Hours of Le Mans.- History :...
.
Sirius also has rights to a number of major college sports teams, including teams in the Big East
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of sixteen universities in the eastern half of the United States. The conference's 17 members participate in 24 NCAA sports...
, Big Ten
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
and Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
s as well as The University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Notre Dame's nickname is inherited from Irish immigrant soldiers who fought in the Civil War with the Union's Irish Brigade, , recollected among other places in the poetry of Joyce Kilmer who served with one of the Irish Brigade regiments during World War I...
. Beginning in 2005 Sirius also has exclusive radio rights to cover the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
. In August 2004, Sirius launched Sirius NFL Radio
Sirius NFL Radio
Sirius XM NFL Radio is a Sirius XM Radio channel on 88 completely dedicated to the National Football League. Its personalities include Marty Schottenheimer, Shannon Sharpe, Pat Kirwan, Adam Schein, Peter King, Randy Cross and Bob Papa....
, a 24-hour radio stream dedicated exclusively to covering the NFL. Sirius has also been aggressive in creating its own in-house produced studio sports radio content.
Sirius also has the only national Horse racing
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
talk show, At the Races, hosted by noted racing handicapper, Steve Byk. The show which airs weekdays between 4 and 7, is unique in the horseracing world.
The Hardcore Poker Show, Wednesday night at 8 p.m. (eastern), hosted by Rob Pizzo and Chris Tessaro
Chris Tessaro
Chris Tessaro is a radio personality, journalist, and actor in Canada. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, he now makes his home in Toronto. He hosts the North American wide The Hardcore Poker Show along with his co-host, Rob Pizzo, on Hardcore Sports Radio on Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 98, and also...
, is the only syndicated poker talk show in North America.
Sirius also broadcasts select Premier League matches which generally air on Saturday and Sunday Mornings during the season, but there are occasional games on weekday afternoons. Continuing their major expansion of soccer coverage, Sirius announced a deal to add UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
soccer to their lineup on September 27, 2006. As of recently Sirius also had exclusive radio rights to broadcast the ESPN television feed of the Euro 2008 championships. . Rounding out their coverage Sirius also airs a two hour soccer talk show on Wednesday nights on channel 125 called "The Football Show" with former Metrostars GM Charlie Stillitano and former International Italian star Giorgio Chinaglia
Giorgio Chinaglia
Giorgio Chinaglia is a former football striker from Italy. He grew up and played his early football in Cardiff, Wales and began his career with Swansea Town in 1964. A year later at age 19, Chinaglia returned to Italy to play for Massese, and then Internapoli, before joining S.S. Lazio in 1969...
. The show also airs on Tuesday evenings after UEFA Champions League Matches. On Saturdays and Sundays during premier league season, Sirius airs Radio 606
6-0-6
6-0-6 is a football phone-in, broadcast on BBC Radio Five Live throughout the football season; when the programme started, it typically went on air at 6:06pm on a matchday . It covers topics relating to the current affairs of football in the United Kingdom. It currently airs on Saturdays and...
, a classic radio call in show from the UK discussing all of the days top matches.
On September 15, Chris Russo
Chris Russo
Christopher Michael Russo , known as the "Mad Dog," is an American sports radio personality who is best known as the former co-host of the widely popular Mike and the Mad Dog sports radio show with Mike Francesa, which was broadcast on WFAN in New York City and simulcast on the YES Network...
launched his own show called Mad Dog Unleashed.
As of March 2009, Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
games remain exclusive to XM Radio as a result of an arrangement dispute between MLB and Sirius XM. It is currently unclear if and when baseball games will be available to Sirius subscribers.
SIRIUS Music for Business
In August 2003, Sirius partnered with Clearwater, FloridaClearwater, Florida
Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, US, nearly due west of Tampa and northwest of St. Petersburg. In the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and in the east lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 108,787. It is the county seat of...
-based Applied Media Technologies Corporation
Applied Media Technologies Corporation
Applied Media Technologies Corporation is a Tampa, Florida-based provider of commercial sound equipment, "on hold" messaging to US and Canadian businesses under the brand name TelAdvantage, and background music for businesses as a partner of SIRIUS Satellite Radio and Eos Music Corporation.-...
, a provider of telephone "on hold" messaging. AMTC provides Sirius service in a package branded as Sirius Music for Business. For US$29.95 per month, AMTC provides all of Sirius' streams of commercial-free music, and pays all performance royalties to ASCAP, Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
, and SESAC
SESAC
SESAC, originally the Society of European Stage Authors & Composers, is the smallest of the three performance rights organizations in the United States. SESAC was founded in 1930, making it the second-oldest performing rights organization in the U.S. SESAC is also the fastest-growing PRO in the...
, so that business owners may legally play Sirius' music in their establishments.
Unlike the music services Muzak / DMX Music
DMX (music)
DMX is a "multi-sensory" branding agency based in Austin, Texas. DMX also provides music for cable and satellite television networks worldwide, including DirecTV.-History:...
or Music Choice
Music Choice
Music Choice is a United States company that programs music and produces music-related content for digital cable, cell phones, and cable modem subscribers in the US. Music Choice programs dozens of audio music channels for digital cable subscribers, as well as programs and produces music-related...
, the Sirius business music services use the same channels and SDARS delivery platform as the consumer Sirius service. The SDARS delivery platform, on the other hand, is more reliable than any of the other services in that it is not subject to satellite dish rain fade
Rain fade
Rain fade refers primarily to the absorption of a microwave radio frequency signal by atmospheric rain, snow or ice, and losses are especially prevalent at frequencies above 11 GHz. It also refers to the degradation of a signal caused by the electromagnetic interference of the leading edge of a...
. Unfortunately, the highly elliptical orbit
Highly Elliptical Orbit
A highly elliptical orbit is an elliptic orbit with a low-altitude perigee and a high-altitude apogee. It is a type of high Earth orbit....
of the Sirius satellite constellation can pose difficulties for the reliable delivery of the signal to stationary antennas in certain parts of the country. To eliminate this potential problem, Sirius launched a new geostationary satellite, FM-5, to improve service to non-mobile customers such as those of Sirius Music for Business. The service can also be accessed online using Sirius' online streaming technology, allowing any business with a broadband Internet connection to overcome any potential reception issues. Additionally, Sirius is applying for repeaters in Hawaii and Alaska and has already been granted authority for 20 repeaters covering the island of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
by the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC).
Sirius Backseat TV
In March 2007, Sirius announced the upcoming availability of its first video service called "Backseat TV". In August 2007, the company revealed details of the first receiver, the SVC1, was originally offered exclusively through Chrysler OEM factory units. The service includes streaming video from three "family" television channels: NickelodeonNickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
, Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
and Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
Mobile. There will be a single screen (or a dual screen option in the Chrysler Town and Country
Chrysler Town and Country
The first Chrysler Town & Country minivan was introduced in 1989 alongside the Plymouth Voyager and Dodge Caravan. Sharing the body of the long-wheelbase Grand Voyager/Grand Caravan's Chrysler S platform, the Town & Country was externally distinguished by its chrome waterfall grille, crystal...
and Dodge Grand Caravan) for back seat passengers to watch while front seat passengers have the option of simultaneously listening to any normal Sirius radio channel. The service is reported to cost an additional US$6.99 per month on top of the standard Sirius subscription price. The MSRP of the factory installed units is US$470 and the aftermarket unit has an MSRP of US$299.99. Both were made available in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Other content
In June 2005, Sirius signed an agreement with BBC Radio 1BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
in the UK to rebroadcast the station to an American audience. In August of 2011 Sirius abruptly dropped BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
leading to thousands of angry customers, as evidenced by the facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
groups that soon emerged.
Sirius also has exclusive satellite radio rights to National Public Radio, carrying two separate streams (whereas XM's XM Public Radio
XM Public Radio
XM Public Radio is a 24/7 Sirius XM Satellite Radio channel dedicated to public radio programming. Broadcasting in stereo, XM Public Radio is one of two talk channels on the XM platform which broadcasts 2-channel audio—the other being the ViRUS...
channel carries only programming not produced by NPR, such as by PRI
Public Radio International
Public Radio International is a Minneapolis-based American public radio organization, with locations in Boston, New York, London and Beijing. PRI's tagline is "Hear a different voice." PRI is a major public media content creator and also distributes programs from many sources...
). The deal with NPR was the first high-profile deal entered into by Sirius. The Sirius NPR NOW (now available on XM) programming does not include the popular programs All Things Considered
All Things Considered
All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
and Morning Edition
Morning Edition
Morning Edition is an American radio news program produced and distributed by National Public Radio . It airs weekday mornings and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 05:00 to 09:00 ET, with feeds and updates as required until noon...
.
With the launch of Sirius Canada in December 2005, American listeners gained five Canadian-produced stations including CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...
, CBC Radio Three and Iceberg Radio
Iceberg Radio
Iceberg Radio is a Canadian Internet radio service, which provides more than 100 channels of streaming audio. Founded in 1997 by the late John Walters and DJ Hedley Jones as the Virtual Canadian Broadcast Network, it was one of the first major ventures into large-scale Internet audio broadcasting...
, and Première Plus, Énergie2, and Bande à part
Bande à part (radio)
Bande à part is the name of a website and a Sirius Satellite Radio station in Canada that are devoted primarily to French Canadian arts and music....
for French listeners. Iceberg Radio is programmed by Standard Broadcasting
Standard Broadcasting
Slaight Communications is a Canadian radio broadcasting company. The company was first formed as Slaight Broadcasting in 1971, when owner J. Allan Slaight acquired CFGM in Richmond Hill...
, which also provides a number of additional channels exclusive to Canada; the other four come from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
. After a delay and outcry from Canadian subscribers, Sirius Canada added Howard Stern's Channel 100 to their lineup in early 2006. Channel 101
Howard 100 and Howard 101
Howard 100 and Howard 101 are two uncensored channels on Sirius XM, a satellite radio service that broadcasts programming affiliated with Howard Stern and The Howard Stern Show...
, Stern's other channel (featuring Bubba the Love Sponge
Bubba the Love Sponge
Todd Alan Clem is an American radio personality better known by his Legal name Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. He is the host of The Bubba the Love Sponge Show on various Cox Radio and Beasley Broadcast Group stations, formerly on Sirius XM Howard 101, as well as on RadioIO.-Early career and the...
, Scott Ferrall
Scott Ferrall
Scott Ferrall is an American sports talk radio personality who currently broadcasts for Sirius XM Radio on Howard 101. His voice is easily recognizable by his crackling....
, and other personalities), were made available in late June 2006.
Talk radio content recently added onto Sirius Satellite Radio include the ABC News and Talk channel 143(since having ceased operations), including live feeds of Sean Hannity and Larry Elder's syndicated radio shows, Patriot Talk channel 144 (which includes Michael Reagan's syndicated radio show) and Fox News Talk channel 145 (which includes syndicated radio hosts such as Alan Colmes and John Gibson).
On March 14, 2006, Sirius added Cosmo Radio
Cosmo Radio
COSMO Radio is a channel on Sirius XM Radio. The station launched on March 14, 2006 as a collaboration between SIRIUS Satellite Radio and Cosmopolitan magazine...
, Playboy Radio
Playboy Radio
Playboy Radio is a radio station on Sirius Satellite Radio. Playboy Radio was originally launched on XM Satellite Radio in September 2002. Included were programs such as Night Calls Radio, originally hosted by adult film star Juli Ashton and Playboy TV star Tiffany Granath...
, and returned the audio simulcast of the Fox News Channel TV feed, which was previously removed during a contract dispute. The service also added Fox's satellite talk radio channel, Fox News Talk
Fox News Talk
Fox News Talk is a satellite radio channel that showcases talk shows and news reports from Fox News Channel personalities, along with other Fox News and talk programming...
.
In April 2003 Sirius launched Sirius OutQ
SIRIUS OutQ
OutQ is a news, talk and entertainment channel on Sirius XM Radio, geared for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender audiences. The channel is available to Sirius and XM subscribers in both the United States and Canada....
, the first ever 24/7 talk channel designed for the LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
audience. Personalities associated with the channel include Frank DeCaro
Frank DeCaro
Frank DeCaro is an American writer, performer and radio show host.The New York-born DeCaro is the author of The Dead Celebrity Cookbook: A Resurrection of Recipes From More Than 145 Stars of Stage and Screen , Unmistakably Mackie: The Fashion and Fantasy of Bob Mackie , and A Boy Named Phyllis: A...
, Michelangelo Signorile
Michelangelo Signorile
Michelangelo Signorile is a gay American writer, a national talk radio host whose program is aired each weekday across the United States and Canada. He is a political liberal, and covers a wide variety of political and cultural issues...
, Derek Hartley
Derek Hartley
Derek Hartley is an American talk show host, who serves as co-host of the Derek and Romaine Show, a talk radio show on Sirius XM Satellite Radio's Gay/Lesbian channel, OutQ. The show has a national audience with a potential reach of 18,000,000 listeners. The show can also be heard worldwide on the...
, and Romaine Patterson
Romaine Patterson
Romaine Patterson is an American gay rights activist, radio personality, and author. She first received national attention for her activism at the funeral of murdered gay student Matthew Shepard; the two were friends in high school...
.
In addition to the audio programming, the Sirius broadcast stream also carries a Data Services channel that is utilized by capable receivers and graphical display hardware. Some of the data services offered are traffic speed and flow, marine weather, and fuel prices to name just a few. Examples of capable hardware are the Raymarine SR100 Satellite Weather receiver and the Alpine NVE-N872A Satellite Traffic Ready navigation system.
Exclusive channels
- The Howard Stern Show aka Howard 100 and Howard 101
- Iceberg RadioIceberg RadioIceberg Radio is a Canadian Internet radio service, which provides more than 100 channels of streaming audio. Founded in 1997 by the late John Walters and DJ Hedley Jones as the Virtual Canadian Broadcast Network, it was one of the first major ventures into large-scale Internet audio broadcasting...
- CBC Radio 3CBC Radio 3CBC Radio 3 is a radio station that consists of two parts devoted to Canadian arts and music: a radio service which is available on Sirius Satellite Radio and streaming audio, and several daily and weekly podcasts from the CBC Radio 3 website...
- Rock Velours
- Énergie2
- Sports extra
- Hardcore Sports Radio
- Sports express
- ESPN All Access
- Radio Korea
- NPR Talk
- RCI +Radio Canada InternationalRadio Canada International is the international broadcasting service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . Until 1970, it was known as the CBC International Service and was sometimes referred to as the "Voice of Canada" in its early years.- The early years :The idea for creating an...
- CBC Radio OneCBC Radio OneCBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...
- The Weather NetworkThe Weather NetworkThe Weather Network is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel that broadcasts weather-related news and information 24 hours a day....
Satellite Radio Service - Sporting News RadioSporting News RadioYahoo! Sports Radio, formerly Sporting News Radio is a United States sports radio network that broadcasts sports news, talk, scores, and highlights 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On August 1, 2011, it was announced the network would change its name to Yahoo! Sports Radio, effective...
Technology
The Sirius signal is separated into three carriers, one each for the two satellites, and the third for the terrestrial repeater network where available. Sirius receivers decode all three 4 MHz carrier signals at once to achieve signal diversityDiversity combining
Diversity combining is the technique applied to combine the multiple received signals of a diversity reception device into a single improved signal.- Various techniques :Various diversity combining techniques can be distinguished:...
. This is in contrast to XM which uses six carriers and decodes three 2 MHz carriers to economize on receiver power consumption and complexity at the cost of channel-changing speed. There is an intentional four-second delay between the two satellite carrier signals. This enables the receiver to maintain a large buffer of the audio stream, which, along with forward error correction
Forward error correction
In telecommunication, information theory, and coding theory, forward error correction or channel coding is a technique used for controlling errors in data transmission over unreliable or noisy communication channels....
, helps keep the audio playing in the event that the signal is temporarily lost, such as when driving under an overpass or otherwise losing line-of-sight
Line-of-sight propagation
Line-of-sight propagation refers to electro-magnetic radiation or acoustic wave propagation. Electromagnetic transmission includes light emissions traveling in a straight line...
of any of the satellites or ground repeater stations.
A third, separate signal is uplinked to the AMC-6 Ku-band satellite and received by 36 inches (914.4 mm) satellite dish
Satellite dish
A satellite dish is a dish-shaped type of parabolic antenna designed to receive microwaves from communications satellites, which transmit data transmissions or broadcasts, such as satellite television.-Principle of operation:...
es for the ground repeater network. This third signal is broadcast on a third segment of the signal.
Signal architecture and early prototypes
The technology for Sirius Satellite Radio receivers as well as some of the uplink equipment, and the studio encoder, originated at Bell Labs in the late 1990s and subsequent years. The studio encoder was a result of Bell Labs efforts in statistical multiplexing of perceptual audio coded signals, a cousin of the MP3 standards. The waveform design for the terrestrial and satellite signals, as well as the early prototype receivers, were implemented in a FPGA logic and tested in the field to verify the performance of the receivers. This work was contracted by Sirius to Lucent TechnologiesLucent Technologies
Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...
, at the time a spinoff of AT&T. Early prototypes were followed by a number of generations of ASIC
ASIC
ASIC may refer to:* Application-specific integrated circuit, an integrated circuit developed for a particular use, as opposed to a customised general-purpose device.* ASIC programming language, a dialect of BASIC...
custom designed chipsets, supplied at first by Agere Systems and later supplied by Agere Systems and their competitor ST microelectronics.
Three signals from three different sources (satellite, satellite, and terrestrial) are therefore combined in the receiver as radio signals, (not as audio signals). The three signals need to be combined constructively (avoiding situations where bad signals pollute good signals) in the receiver before being decoded. Heavy error correction is applied to the signals. All three signals contain the same audio content on all the channels that the receiver can receive, with the exception of one audio program waveform being transmitted ahead of the other two by approximately four seconds. With this time skew, the signals, once realigned, need to see an 8 second obstruction of overpass fade in order to lose audio content. This increases the robustness of the signal delivery in most driving conditions.
In order to recover meaningful signal and error free audio from a signal impaired by interference and fading, the receiver uses concatenated Reed-Solomon block coding and Forward Error Correction encoding and decoding (codec). This technique was proven in the early days of satellite modems in the late 1970s. Linkabit, then run by Ira Jacobs prior to his involvement with Qualcomm, offered such a codec for rack mounting in satellite earth stations. The Sirius signal uses more robust error correction on control channels than on the audio content, trading off error correction and bandwidth differently for separate categories of bits in the signal waveform.
The terrestrial carrier is a OFDM QPSK signal, cousin to WiMax and LTE, with the particular feature that more than one transmitter operates on the same frequency, forming a single frequency network. A number of transmitters can be placed around a city to create coverage that is less subject to fading than if a single transmitter were used. The satellite signal is QPSK. Both satellite and terrestrial signals have hierarchical modulation superposed on the original signal, a measure created to add bandwidth at a small expense in the satellite link budget for decoding the core audio content.
This architecture has worked remarkably well in avoiding drop out of audio signal when driving under highway overpasses, and when scintillating (very deep and frequent losses in signal strength caused by radio fading from trees) conditions exist. Since Sirius and XM separately entered the market with incompatible waveforms on the satellite, one would logically conclude that the merged company will eventually evolve the signal format again to take advantage of their size, but this is a speculative statement. The use of satellite and terrestrial combined service has been adopted by the DVB-SH
DVB-SH
DVB-SH, Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite services to Handhelds, is a physical layer standard for delivering IP based media content and data to handheld terminals such as mobile phones or PDAs, based on a hybrid satellite/terrestrial downlink and for example a GPRS uplink...
standard, and companies such as ICO communications who cooperated with Alcatel-Lucent on system design and field trials. ONDAS, a Madrid based company, also adopted this pioneering system architecture.
Receiver technology
The receiver is designed to mitigate and retain signal quality in hostile signal conditions and the relatively weak signal levels from distant satellites. Because the satellites are not all geostationary they appear and disappear over the horizon. Terrestrial signals are present only in major cities to augment the satellite signals.Approximately five chipset versions were built by Agere and approximately 4 versions were built by STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics is an Italian-French electronics and semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.While STMicroelectronics corporate headquarters and the headquarters for EMEA region are based in Geneva, the holding company, STMicroelectronics N.V. is registered in Amsterdam,...
after the initial prototypes, although all of the early receivers included an Agere chipset known as Northstar. This platform enjoyed the highest volume of chipsets to date, representing the bulk of total production from 2002 to 2010. As of 2010, most of the chipsets are produced by STMicroelectronics.
At the heart of a Sirius receiver is a custom application specific integrated circuit (ASIC
ASIC
ASIC may refer to:* Application-specific integrated circuit, an integrated circuit developed for a particular use, as opposed to a customised general-purpose device.* ASIC programming language, a dialect of BASIC...
) chip called the Baseband Integrated Circuit currently the STA240, which is produced by STMicroelectronics. The chip contains embedded ARM7TDMI
ARM7TDMI
ARM7 is a generation of ARM processor designs. This generation introduced the Thumb 16-bit instruction set providing improved code density compared to previous designs. The most widely used ARM7 designs implement the ARMv4T architecture, but some implement ARMv3 or ARMv5TEJ...
and ARM946E-S microprocessors synthesized from IP cores. Every baseband has a unique Electronic Serial Number (or Sirius ID). Another major section of a Sirius receiver is the tuner. The tuner is also a custom ASIC
ASIC
ASIC may refer to:* Application-specific integrated circuit, an integrated circuit developed for a particular use, as opposed to a customised general-purpose device.* ASIC programming language, a dialect of BASIC...
, the STA210. The tuner connects to the antenna, and receives the incoming satellite and terrestrial signals at 2.315 GHz and downconverts them to intermediate frequency
Intermediate frequency
In communications and electronic engineering, an intermediate frequency is a frequency to which a carrier frequency is shifted as an intermediate step in transmission or reception. The intermediate frequency is created by mixing the carrier signal with a local oscillator signal in a process called...
signals at around 75 MHz. The strength of the signals is approximately −50dBm in clear-sky conditions. The IF signals are fed to the STA240, which are digitized, demodulated, error-corrected, de-interleaved, and decrypted using specialized circuits on the chip. The baseband processor utilizes a 16 MB SDRAM
SDRAM
Synchronous dynamic random access memory is dynamic random access memory that is synchronized with the system bus. Classic DRAM has an asynchronous interface, which means that it responds as quickly as possible to changes in control inputs...
memory to buffer four seconds of one of the satellite signals in order to bring it into time coincidence with the other for Maximal-ratio combining
Maximal-ratio combining
In telecommunications, maximal-ratio combining is a method of diversity combining in which: the signals from each channel are added together, the gain of each channel is made proportional to the rms signal level and inversely proportional to the mean square noise level in that channel. different...
. On newer receivers with a "pause" feature, a dual-port PSRAM is employed to store up to 60 minutes of the selected channel. The baseband processor outputs digital audio over a Serial Peripheral Interface, which is fed to a D/A converter to produce the analog audio signal. The front-end of a Sirius receiver is called the head unit, required to display descriptive text (such as the category, channel, artist, and song name) and provide controls to the user. This is implemented by the third-party designers of Sirius-ready receivers, using a microprocessor of their choice.
Sirius offers car radios and home entertainment systems, as well as car and home kits for portable use. The Sirius receiver includes the antenna module and the receiver module. The antenna module picks up signals from the ground repeaters or the satellite, amplifies the signal and filters out any interference. The signal is then passed on to the receiver module. Inside the receiver module is a chipset consisting of eight chips. The chipset converts the signals from 2.3 gigahertz (GHz) to a lower intermediate frequency. Sirius also offers an adapter that allows conventional car radios to receive satellite signals.
Sirius broadcasts using 12.5 MHz of the S band
S band
The S band is defined by an IEEE standard for radio waves with frequencies that range from 2 to 4 GHz, crossing the conventional boundary between UHF and SHF at 3.0 GHz. It is part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum...
between 2320 and 2332.5 MHz. Audio channels are digitally compressed using a proprietary variant of Lucent's Perceptual audio coder
Perceptual audio coder
Perceptual Audio Coder is an algorithm, like MPEG's MP3 standard, used to compress digital audio by removing extraneous information not perceived by most people. It is used by Sirius Satellite Radio for their DARS service....
compression algorithm and encrypted with a proprietary conditional access
Conditional access
Conditional Access is the protection of content by requiring certain criteria to be met before granting access to this content...
system. Sirius has announced that they intend to implement hierarchical modulation
Hierarchical modulation
Hierarchical modulation, also called layered modulation, is one of the signal processing techniques for multiplexing and modulating multiple data streams into one single symbol stream, where base-layer symbols and enhancement-layer symbols are synchronously overplayed before...
technology to economize on bandwidth up to 25%.
Each receiver must be connected to an external antenna, which is included with the receiver. Antenna placement is crucial to receiving a clear signal. In some locations users have experienced difficulty receiving the Sirius programming because the signal is not consistently strong. For best reception, antennas should be placed such that they have an unobstructed view of the sky (preferably on rooftops without overhanging eaves
Eaves
The eaves of a roof are its lower edges. They usually project beyond the walls of the building to carry rain water away.-Etymology:"Eaves" is derived from Old English and is both the singular and plural form of the word.- Function :...
or trees). If this is not an option, the antenna should be placed on an exterior wall. When placing on an exterior wall, the antenna should be mounted to a wall which faces the center of the continental United States in order to minimize the likelihood of the building itself blocking the signal.
Satellite technology
Sirius' satellites are named Radiosat because there is already a fleet of satellites named SiriusSIRIUS (satellite)
Sirius was a constellation of communications satellites operated at 5°E in geostationary orbit by SES Sirius . They carried digital satellite television to the countries of Scandinavia, Baltic states, eastern Europe and Africa, including the Viasat pay TV system, along with several pay TV...
, launched by Sweden's NSAB (Nordiska Satellitaktiebolaget, or Nordic Satellite AB, and known today as SES Sirius
SES SIRIUS
SES Sirius, formerly called Nordic Satellite AB is the owner and operator of the two Sirius satellites, which provide the Nordic countries and the Baltic states, with TV, radio, data and communications solutions...
) and used for general telecommunications and satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
throughout Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
The current primary uplink facility for Sirius is located in Vernon, Sussex County
Sussex County, New Jersey
The County of Sussex is the northernmost county in the State of New Jersey. It is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 Federal decennial census, 149,265 persons resided in Sussex County...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. The original facility was located on the roof of the building housing the Sirius studios in Rockefeller Center in New York City but has since been decommissioned.
Space Systems/Loral
Space Systems/Loral , of Palo Alto, California, is the wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications. It was acquired in 1990 for $715 million by Loral Corp. from Ford Motor Company as the Space Systems Division of Ford Aerospace...
. The first three of the series were orbited in 2000 by Proton-K Block-DM3 launch vehicles, with the final three-satellite constellation completed on November 30, 2000. Radiosat 4 is a ground spare, in storage at Space Systems/Loral’s facility in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
, ready to be launched if any of the three active satellites encounter transmission problems. The satellites are based on the Space Systems/Loral 1300 platform. All three satellites broadcast directly to the consumer's receiver, but due to the highly elliptical orbit only two of them broadcast at any given time.
Satellites Radiosat 1 through Radiosat 3 fly in geosynchronous highly elliptical orbit
Highly Elliptical Orbit
A highly elliptical orbit is an elliptic orbit with a low-altitude perigee and a high-altitude apogee. It is a type of high Earth orbit....
(Tundra orbit
Tundra orbit
Tundra orbit is a type of highly elliptical geosynchronous orbit with a high inclination and an orbital period of one sidereal day . A satellite placed in this orbit spends most of its time over a chosen area of the Earth, a phenomenon known as apogee dwell...
) in a 24-hour orbital period. The elliptical path of its satellite constellation ensures that each satellite spends about 16 hours a day over the continental United States, with at least one satellite over the country at all times. The orbit allows the satellites to broadcast from directly overhead the continental United States, avoiding the problem of large buildings or objects blocking the signal and requiring a much smaller terrestrial repeater network than does sister network XM.
On June 8, 2006, Space Systems/Loral announced that it was awarded a contract for the fifth Sirius spacecraft. The new spacecraft features a nine-meter unfurlable reflector. The first four Sirius spacecraft used more traditional parabolic reflectors. The new satellite has been designed for geostationary orbit, unlike the other satellites in the constellation; the different orbit has the stated purpose of allowing for more consistent reception for fixed location users (many subscribers have reported having to regularly reposition their antennas for optimal reception). Radiosat 5 is in a geostationary orbit at 96 degrees west. It was launched July 9, 2009, and announced to be in service as of September 9, 2009. http://investor.sirius.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=407919
Future fleet
On February 29, 2008, the launch service provider International Launch ServicesInternational Launch Services
International Launch Services is a U.S.-Russian joint venture with exclusive rights to the worldwide sale of commercial Proton rocket launch services from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.- Ownership :...
(ILS) announced a contract which includes launch of the SIRIUS FM-6 satellite on a Proton
Proton rocket
Proton is an expendable launch system used for both commercial and Russian government space launches. The first Proton rocket was launched in 1965 and the launch system is still in use as of 2011, which makes it one of the most successful heavy boosters in the history of spaceflight...
Breeze M rocket. SIRIUS FM-6 is currently under construction at Space Systems/Loral. ILS anticipates the launch will take place in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Receivers
As of 2005, Sirius receivers are available for various new AudiAudi
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....
, BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...
, Chrysler
Chrysler
Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....
, Dodge
Dodge
Dodge is a United States-based brand of automobiles, minivans, and sport utility vehicles, manufactured and marketed by Chrysler Group LLC in more than 60 different countries and territories worldwide....
, Ford
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
, Infiniti
Infiniti
is the luxury division of automaker Nissan. Infiniti officially started selling vehicles on November 8, 1989 in North America. Marketing operations have since grown to include the Middle East, South Korea, Russia, Taiwan, China, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. Infiniti began sales in additional...
, Jaguar, Jeep
Jeep
Jeep is an automobile marque of Chrysler . The first Willys Jeeps were produced in 1941 with the first civilian models in 1945, making it the oldest off-road vehicle and sport utility vehicle brand. It inspired a number of other light utility vehicles, such as the Land Rover which is the second...
, Land Rover
Land Rover
Land Rover is a British car manufacturer with its headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, United Kingdom which specialises in four-wheel-drive vehicles. It is owned by the Indian company Tata Motors, forming part of their Jaguar Land Rover group...
, Lexus
Lexus
is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. First introduced in 1989 in the United States, Lexus is now sold globally and has become Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. The Lexus marque is marketed in over 70 countries and territories worldwide, and has...
, Lincoln
Lincoln (automobile)
Lincoln is an American luxury vehicle brand of the Ford Motor Company. Lincoln vehicles are sold mostly in North America.-History:The company was founded in August 1915 by Henry M. Leland, one of the founders of Cadillac . During World War I, he left Cadillac which was sold to General Motors...
, Mazda
Mazda
is a Japanese automotive manufacturer based in Fuchū, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan.In 2007, Mazda produced almost 1.3 million vehicles for global sales...
, Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
, Mercury
Mercury (automobile)
Mercury was an automobile marque of the Ford Motor Company launched in 1938 by Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford, to market entry-level luxury cars slotted between Ford-branded regular models and Lincoln-branded luxury vehicles, similar to General Motors' Buick brand, and Chrysler's namesake brand...
, MINI, Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi Motors
is a multinational automaker headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. In 2009 it was the fifth-largest Japan-based automaker and the 17th-largest in the world measured by production...
, Nissan, Scion, Toyota (except Corolla
Toyota Corolla
The Toyota Corolla is a line of subcompact and compact cars manufactured by the Japanese automaker Toyota, which has become very popular throughout the world since the nameplate was first introduced in 1966. In 1997, the Corolla became the best selling nameplate in the world, with over 35 million...
), Porsche
Porsche
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....
, Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
, and Volvo
Volvo Cars
Volvo Car Corporation, or Volvo Personvagnar AB, is a Swedish automobile manufacturer founded in 1927, in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Volvo was originally formed as a subsidiary company to the ball bearing maker SKF. When Volvo AB was introduced on the Swedish...
vehicles, and the service plans on adding availability for portable use. Subaru
Subaru
; is the automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries .Subaru is internationally known for their use of the boxer engine layout popularized in cars by the Volkswagen Beetle and Porsche 911, in most of their vehicles above 1500 cc as well as...
offers Sirius on the Forester and Impreza. Starting in 2006, all Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is a British manufacturer of luxury automobiles based at the Goodwood plant in West Sussex, England. It is the current producer of Rolls-Royce branded automobiles, whose historical production dates back to 1904. The factory is located across from the historic Goodwood Circuit...
vehicles sold in the United States come with a Sirius radio and lifetime subscription as standard equipment. Sirius has an exclusive contract for VW and Audi vehicles from 2007 through 2012, and with Kia Motors
Kia Motors
Kia Motors , headquartered in Seoul, is South Korea's second-largest automobile manufacturer, following the Hyundai Motor Company, with sales of over 1.4 million vehicles in 2010...
from 2008 through 2014, with an optional extension to 2017. Beginning in the 2007 model year, Bentley
Bentley
Bentley Motors Limited is a British manufacturer of automobiles founded on 18 January 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley known as W.O. Bentley or just "W O". Bentley had been previously known for his range of rotary aero-engines in World War I, the most famous being the Bentley BR1 as used in later...
vehicles will have Sirius as an option, and it will be standard equipment in several models beginning in 2008. Porsche
Porsche
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....
switched to XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
on their vehicles beginning with the 2007 model year. Currently, only Toyota (including its Lexus and Scion divisions) and Subaru offer both Sirius and XM contracts.
Sirius also makes several receivers for aftermarket installations such as the Sportster4, Starmate Replay, Sirius S50 with built in 1 GB MP3 player, and the Sirius One.
Radios from Sirius:
- Sportster 5 – plug and play radio with a color screen and one hour of storage
- Sirius Stiletto 100Sirius StilettoSirius Stiletto is a brand of satellite radio portable media players from Sirius Satellite Radio. The original model, the Stiletto 100, was launched in October 2006...
– the first portable Sirius radio that allows subscribers to listen to live Sirius programming. The Stiletto boasts a 2 gigabyte memory, which is roughly equivalent to 100 hours of recording time. The unit's batteries give the user approximately 30 hours of life. The unit also features Wi-Fi technology, which is used as a backup to stream music from the Internet when a clear signal strength is not readily available from the built-in antenna. Sirius' partnerships with Napster and Yahoo Music provide additional content for Stiletto users. - Sirius Stiletto 10Sirius StilettoSirius Stiletto is a brand of satellite radio portable media players from Sirius Satellite Radio. The original model, the Stiletto 100, was launched in October 2006...
-The "feature"-lite version to the Stiletto 100. The Stiletto 10 offers all that the Stiletto 100 offers but does not offer Wi-Fi, MP3/WMA playback and only offers 256 megabytes of storage space (about 10 hours of Sirius programming). The Stiletto 10 offers Artist and Song Seek – Not featured on the Stiletto 100 or Stiletto 2. This seek function will watch for your favorite artists and songs that you want to hear and will let you know when they are playing on any other station. - Sirius Stiletto 2Sirius StilettoSirius Stiletto is a brand of satellite radio portable media players from Sirius Satellite Radio. The original model, the Stiletto 100, was launched in October 2006...
– the newest portable Sirius radio. A slimmer, improved version of the Stilleto 100. Has microSD slot behind battery for storing MP3/WMA files and playlists (not Sirius content). Wi-Fi support expanded to handle WPA and WPA2 (non-Enterprise) with passcodes.
- Sportster 3 was the first radio to use the new universal dock station.
- Sirius S50 – the first portable Sirius radio – which is not a LIVE portable, it has to be plugged in to a home or car dock where content can be downloaded for later listening. The RIAA through its efforts to amend the Audio Home Recording Act and its lawsuit against XM Radio has crippled the S50 as it tried to limit the number and quality of downloads available to consumers.
- Sirius Starmate ST1 (note: ST1C is the Canadian version)
- Sirius Starmate Replay ST2
- Sirius Sportster Exec. Docking Station Package
- Sirius Sportster Radio with Boombox Package
- Tivoli Sirius Table Radio
- Kenwood H2EV Radio with Car and Home Kits
- ClarionClarion (car audio)is a Japanese manufacturer of car audio, automotive navigation systems, AutoPCs, visual equipment, bus equipment, and communication equipment.Up until the end of 2005, products in Japan were marketed under the brand name AddZest, while outside of Japan the same product typically carried the Clarion...
Calypso Sirius Radio with Car Kit - XACT XTR1 Radio with Car Kit
- SiriusConnect for Pioneer SIR-PNR1 which can be modified to provide a Serial or USB Serial interface to control the radio.
On-line media streaming options
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
through Sirius.com. A standard 64 kbit/s and "Premium" 128 kbit/s feed are available; the latter costs an additional $12.95 fee per month.
Alternatives to the browser based player are available such as a Yahoo! Widget (designed to look like a miniature Sportster model receiver), and SIRIUS Internet Radio Player (based on Windows Media Player and available as plug-in or standalone application). Both alternatives are gaining popularity with streaming listeners, and offer artist and track name information updated in real time, which is an improvement from the online Sirius player.
Recently, SiriusXMStream has come available as a replacement to Usirius. It offers a server capaility to stream sirius and xm programming to game consoles and mobile phones as an alternative to the iPhone And Blackberry app.
NiceMac LLC, creator of the StarPlayr and StarLightXM product lines have created clients for Mac, PC, Windows Mobile and iPhone. The company recently merged with Jason Millard of Millard Software and plans to release uSirius StarPlayr, a Sirius XM iPhone client in 2009. http://StarPlayr.com
CatPig Studios Inc. has also released Radium
Radium (software)
Radium is a proprietary Internet radio player application, used for listening to internet radio streams. It emphasizes a minimalist user interface. The application does not have a main window, instead opting to provide the entire user interface through its main menu...
for Mac, a general-purpose internet radio player that supports XM and Sirius. In early 2010, Rogue Amoeba software released Pulsar, a standalone Sirius-XM player for Mac OSX. http://www.rogueamoeba.com/pulsar
In addition to being available through Sirius.com, Howard Stern's website offers a Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
application that streams the two Stern-themed channels. The site also states that Stern-specific video and audio clips will be made available at a later date.
iPhone and iPod Touch application
Sirius XM has developed a software application for use on the Apple iPhoneIPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and Apple iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
devices that allows its subscribers and users of those devices to listen to its programming. The application was released and available for download on the evening of June 17, 2009. The Sirius XM app is available at the iTunes App Store. Also integrated into the app is a "click to buy" function where if a user clicks any song title playing on Sirius XM they are given the option to be taken to the iTunes Music Store where they can purchase the track or album. Some select programming, including MLB Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play, and SIRIUS NASCAR Radio are not available at this time. Due to the terms of a new contract, the Howard Stern channels were added on Tuesday, December 21.
Android Application
Sirius XM has developed a streaming appApplication software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
for the Android Smartphone platform. This app is available free of charge in the market, and requires an additional US$2.99/mo to subscribe to. The app features all of the content available on a standard Sirius receiver.
BlackBerry application
Sirius XM has also developed an application for use on certain 3G3G
3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...
enabled Rim BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
smartphones. Much like its iPhone and iPod Touch counterpart, it features a restricted 120 channel lineup featuring most of the music channels and selected talk programming. As with the iPhone app, some select programming, including MLB Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play, SIRIUS NASCAR Radio are not available on the Blackberry. Shortly after signing a new contract, Howard Stern began promoting the mobile app, and his content was added to the mobile offerings.
Blackberry smartphones currently compatible with the Sirius app:
- BlackBerry Curve 8500
- BlackBerry Curve 8900
- BlackBerry BoldBlackBerry BoldThe BlackBerry Bold 9000 is a line of smartphones developed by Research in Motion. The family includes the 9000 , the 9700 , the 9650 and 9780, both of which were released in 2010, 9788 released in 2011 and the 9900/9930, the first touchscreen Bold, released in August 2011...
- BlackBerry Storm
- BlackBerry Storm 2BlackBerry Storm 2The BlackBerry Storm 2 is the second full touchscreen smartphone developed by Research In Motion .-Introduction:The BlackBerry Storm 2 is the first and only smartphone in the world to have a full clickable touchscreen powered by its piezoelectric sensors underneath the screen...
- BlackBerry TourBlackBerry TourThe BlackBerry Tour is a mobile phone developed by Research In Motion and is part of the 9600 device series. This high-end messaging phone combines the multimedia features of the Curve with the global roaming of the 8830 , plus a higher-resolution display, 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera, 3G data...
- BlackBerry Curve 83301
1 If OS version is above 5.0.239
Sirius in Canada
In November 2004, a partnership between Sirius, Standard BroadcastingStandard Broadcasting
Slaight Communications is a Canadian radio broadcasting company. The company was first formed as Slaight Broadcasting in 1971, when owner J. Allan Slaight acquired CFGM in Richmond Hill...
and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
filed an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to introduce Sirius in Canada. The application was approved on June 16, 2005. The decision was appealed to the Canadian federal cabinet
Cabinet of Canada
The Cabinet of Canada is a body of ministers of the Crown that, along with the Canadian monarch, and within the tenets of the Westminster system, forms the government of Canada...
by a number of broadcasting, labour, and arts and culture organizations, including the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting is a Canadian public interest group.The group monitors developments in the Canadian television and radio broadcasting industries, and organizes action campaigns when broadcasters engage in activities which are deemed contrary to the public interest.FRIENDS is...
, CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a media company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1945 to 2007. Immediately prior to its acquisition, it held full or joint control of two Canadian television systems — Citytv and A-Channel — comprising 11 local stations, and one CBC Television affiliate, one...
, and the National Campus and Community Radio Association
National Campus and Community Radio Association
The National Campus and Community Radio Association/L'Association nationale des radios étudiantes et communautaires is a non-profit organization of campus radio and community radio stations in Canada....
. The groups objected to Sirius’ approach to and reduced levels of Canadian content
Canadian content
Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from...
and French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
programming, along with the exclusion of Canadian non-commercial broadcasting. After a lengthy debate, cabinet rejected the appeals on September 9, 2005. Sirius Canada
Sirius Canada
Sirius Canada is a Canadian company, a partnership between Slaight Communications, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Sirius Satellite Radio, which was one of three services licensed by the CRTC on June 16, 2005 to introduce satellite radio service to Canada.On November 24, 2010, following...
was officially launched December 1, 2005.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has reported poor reception in northern Canada
Northern Canada
Northern Canada, colloquially the North, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut...
.
Sirius in Puerto Rico
in September 2009, The Federal Communications Commission said "yes" to Sirius XM's request for Special Temporary Authority temporarily to operate 20 terrestrial repeaters for the satellite radio service in Puerto Rico.The commission did so over the objections of the Puerto Rico Radio Broadcasters Association
Puerto Rico Radio Broadcasters Association
The Puerto Rico Radio Broadcasters Association is non-profit entity, registered with the Puerto Rico Department of State with most, but not all, radio broadcasters from the Commonwealth as members, that represents the industry's interests before the local government as well as the Federal...
(Asociación de Radiodifusores de Puerto Rico), who said the approval in essence expands the Sirius XM footprint outside its authorized coverage area and that the satcaster would compete with terrestrial broadcasters for listeners.
After receiving communications by public officials in opposition to the broadcasters, such as Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
Kenneth McClintock
Kenneth McClintock
Kenneth D. McClintock-Hernández is the current Secretary of State of Puerto Rico. Mr. McClintock served as co-chair of Hillary Clinton presidential campaign's National Hispanic Leadership Council in 2008, co-chaired Clinton's successful Puerto Rico primary campaign that year and served as the...
, in rejecting those arguments, the commission said Sirius XM's footprint already covers the island but the signal is weak and blocked by tall buildings and foliage. As for the impact on competition, the FCC said it has considered these arguments before and "declined to find that" satellite radio would harm local broadcasters.
The Sirius full terrestrial coverage is available in select sites in the cities of San Juan, Carolina, Bayamón, Cataño, Caguas and Ponce. In the rest of Puerto Rico, coverage is provided by Sirius' constellation of satellites.
Sirius Internet Radio
In October 2006, Sirius announced that it was launching a new service named Sirius Internet Radio that offered approximately 75 of the 135 Sirius channels worldwide to people other than subscribers to its satellite radio service. Prior to this, Sirius subscribers who had a satellite radio were also able to access many of the Sirius channels via the internet, using a special password, but the service operated at 32kbit/s and was only available to those who purchased a satellite radio receiver. Sirius Internet Radio (SIR) is an internet-only subscription, allowing worldwide listeners to listen to the content without having to purchase a satellite radio receiver, the internet subscription can also be heard on WiFi enabled internet radio such as those designed by Grace DigitalGrace Digital
Grace Digital Inc is a consumer electronics company based in San Diego, CA. Grace Digital, Inc. was founded in 2007, by James D. Palmer and Greg Fadul...
. The service also expands the number of channels that are available to Sirius Stiletto
Sirius Stiletto
Sirius Stiletto is a brand of satellite radio portable media players from Sirius Satellite Radio. The original model, the Stiletto 100, was launched in October 2006...
100 users via WiFi
WIFI
WIFI is a radio station broadcasting a brokered format. Licensed to Florence, New Jersey, USA, the station is currently operated by Florence Broadcasting Partners, LLC.This station was previously owned by Real Life Broadcasting...
.
Liberty Media Corporation investment
As of February 11, 2009, Sirius XM had $3.25 billion in total debt and had until February 17, 2009 to repay $175 million in bonds held by EchoStar. EchoStar has been buying Sirius XM's debt since an unsuccessful December 2008 takeover bid. Shares of Sirius XM had been trading for less than $1 from September 10, 2008 until February 2010.The company announced in early February 2009 that it may file for bankruptcy "as early as" Tuesday, February 17, 2009.
On February 17, 2009, Sirius entered into an investment agreement with Liberty Media Corporation. Sirius received 550 million dollars to pay off maturing debt in exchange for 40% of its convertible preferred stock.
See also
- Applied Media Technologies CorporationApplied Media Technologies CorporationApplied Media Technologies Corporation is a Tampa, Florida-based provider of commercial sound equipment, "on hold" messaging to US and Canadian businesses under the brand name TelAdvantage, and background music for businesses as a partner of SIRIUS Satellite Radio and Eos Music Corporation.-...
– Primary distribution partner for SIRIUS commercial accounts - Commercialization of spaceCommercialization of spaceCommercialization of space is the use of equipment sent into or through outer space to provide goods or services of commercial value, either by a corporation or state. Examples of the commercial use of space include satellite navigation systems, satellite television and satellite radio...
- Dish NetworkDish NetworkDish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
- WorldSpaceWorldSpace1worldspace, formerly known as 'WorldSpace', is a currently defunct satellite radio network that provided service to over 170,000 subscribers in eastern and southern Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia with 96% coming from India...
- Primosphere Limited PartnershipPrimosphere Limited PartnershipPrimosphere Limited Partnership was one of four companies bidding for Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service, or SDARS, licenses in the United States...
, a SDARS license auction participant - Digital Satellite Broadcasting CorporationDigital Satellite Broadcasting CorporationDigital Satellite Broadcasting Corporation was one of four companies bidding for Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service, or SDARS, licenses in the United States...
, a SDARS license auction participant
External links
- Sirius Satellite Radio Official website (United States)
- Sirius Satellite Radio Official website (Canada)
- Sirius Satellite Radio Official channel guide
- Sirius Satellite Radio Blog and Fan Website
- FCC Spectrum Award http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/International/News_Releases/1997/nrin7036.html