XM Satellite Radio
From Freepedia
| Image:Xmlogo.png | |
| Type | Satellite radio |
| Founded | 1992 |
| Location | Washington, DC |
| Key people | Hugh Panero, President and CEO Gary Parsons, Chairman Eric Logan, Vice President, Programming |
| Industry | Broadcasting |
| Products | Satellite Radio, Advertising airtime |
| Revenue | Image:Green up.png$244.44 million USD (2004) |
| Employees | 577 (2004) |
| Website | www.xmradio.com |
XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR) is a satellite radio (DARS) service in the United States based in Washington, DC and controlled by News Corporation's DirecTV, General Motors, American Honda, Hughes Electronics, and several private investment groups.
XM provides pay-for-service radio, with commercial-free music channels, analogous to premium cable television. Their service includes 67 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional traffic and weather channels and 23 play-by-play sports channels.
As of October 2005, XM leads Sirius Satellite Radio in subscriptions in the U.S. satellite radio market. XM was founded in 1992 as American Mobile Radio Corporation.
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Services
XM-capable receivers cost $50–300. If opting for the month-to-month plan, service fees are $12.95 for the first receiver, and $6.99 each for up to four additional receivers on the same account. Subscribers may opt to purchase 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, or 5-year packages, in which the average monthly cost would be under $10.00 per month. XM Satellite Radio makes the majority of its stations, as well as a few others that are not available via satellite, available on the Internet. The Internet-only subscription fee is $7.99 per month; those with an active satellite subscription do not need to pay an additional charge.
XM also provides data services such as weather information for pilots and weather spotters, in addition to real-time weather and traffic updates every two minutes for major metropolitan areas.
Timeline
- In October 1997 the company obtained one of only two satellite digital audio radio service licenses offered by the Federal Communications Commission.
- In June 1999, Clear Channel Communications, DirecTV, General Motors, and a private investment group invested $250 million in XM Radio convertible debt. Both Clear Channel and DIRECTV agreed to develop services for XM.
- In July 2000, American Honda joined several private investors in a $235 million preferred stock investment in the company.
- In 2001, XM service was launched, first in San Diego and Dallas/Fort Worth and then nationwide.
- In December 2002, revenues were lower than expected, and the company obtained $200 million in new funds and a $250 million payment deferral from General Motors.
- In July 2003 the company had nearly 700,000 subscribers.
- On February 2, 2004, XM Radio launched 100% commercial-free music programming on its original channels.
- On March 1, 2004, XM Radio launched Instant Traffic and Weather Channels for major metropolitan markets in the United States.
- On August 11, 2004, XM's subscriber base broke the 2.5 million mark. The company partnered with both luxury automakers: (Acura and Audi) as well as others: (General Motors, Honda, Isuzu, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen, and SAAB) to offer in-dash XM receivers on an OEM basis. The Acura TL was the first luxury automobile to offer XM radio as "standard" in every vehicle.
- On October 4, 2004, controversial shock jocks Opie and Anthony began broadcasting on XM Satellite Radio. They were the first major show to make the move from terrestrial radio to satellite radio.
- On October 4, 2004, former National Public Radio host Bob Edwards broadcast the first Bob Edwards Show on XM Public Radio, channel 133.
- On December 30, 2004, XM announced that it had 3.1 million subscribers.
- As of the 2005 season, XM had exclusive satellite radio broadcast rights to all Major League Baseball games.
- On February 28, 2005, XM's third satellite, Rhythm, was launched successfully.
- On April 1, 2005, XM announced that it had added 540,000 subscribers in Q1 2005, pushing their total subscriber base to 3.77 million.
- On April 11, 2005, XM announced that a deal had been reached to be the official satellite radio network of Air America Radio.
- On May 16, 2005, XM announced that subscribership topped the 4 million mark. This indicates exponential growth for the company. In 5 weeks time, they have added 230,000 subscribers — almost 50% the subscribers added in the previous quarter.
- On May 28, 2005, the Wall Street Journal reported that XM had awarded the contract for the XM 5 spacecraft to Space Systems/Loral (see also [1]).
- On July 1, 2005, XM announced that it had added more than 640,000 subscribers in Q2 2005, pushing their total subscriber base to over 4.4 million.
- On August 1, 2005, XM announced the addition of popular radio hosts Ron and Fez. They join Opie and Anthony on High Voltage XM 202 on September 12th, 2005.
- On September 13, 2005, XM announced a multi-year deal to carry National Hockey League broadcasts beginning with the 2005-06 season, initially sharing the coverage with Sirius but gaining satellite-radio exclusivity from 2007 onward.
- On September 27, 2005, XM announced that it surpassed the 5 million subscriber mark.
- On September 27, 2005, XM announced that starting on November 15th, 2005, DirecTV will carry 72 channels as part of their audio programming. This includes music channels, "Home Plate" (XM 175), and "High Voltage" (XM 202)
- On October 3, 2005, XM announced that it had added more than 617,000 subscribers in Q3 2005, pushing their total subscriber base to over 5.03 million.
- On October 3, 2005, XM Radio launches channel Take 5 (XM 155). This channel is geared toward Women's Programming and features replays of the Ellen DeGeneres Show, the Tyra Banks Show, syndicated and original programming, as well as programming from Food Network and HGTV.
- On November 15, 2005, DirecTV will begin carrying 72 channels of XM programming.
- On October 27, 2005, XM released its Q3 results. XM says they are well on their way to 6 million subs by the end of Q4, 2006.
Technology
XM provides digital programming directly from three satellites in geostationary orbit above the equator. XM-1 ("Rock") and XM-2 ("Roll") are co-located at 85 degrees west longitude and XM-3 ("Rhythm") is located 115 degrees west longitude in addition to a network of ground-based repeaters. The combination of three satellites and a ground-based repeater network is designed to provide gap-free coverage anywhere within the continental U.S. Unfortunately, XM-1 and XM-2 are suffering from a generic design fault on the Boeing 702 series of satellites, which means that their lifetimes will be shortened to approximately six years (instead of the design goal of 15 years). To compensate for this flaw, XM-3 was launched earlier than anticipated and moved into XM-2's previous location. XM-2 was then moved over next to XM-1, where each satellite operates only one transponder to conserve energy.
The XM signal uses 12.5 MHz of the S band: 2332.5 to 2345.0 MHz. XM has agreed to provide 128 kilobits per second of its bandwidth to OnStar Corporation for use with XM-enabled GM vehicles, regardless of whether their owners are XM subscribers. American Honda also retains the right to some of the company's bandwidth to transmit coded traffic information directly to navigation systems using TMC technology.
Audio channels on XM are digitally compressed using the aacPlus codec from Coding Technologies for most channels, and the AMBE codec from Digital Voice Systems for some voice channels.
Controlling interest
The company's May 2004 proxy statement notes that four directors are subject to director designation agreements with GM, American Honda, the chairman, and the CEO. Four additional directors are investors, and two are not affiliated with any significant stockholders.
At that time, GM owned 8.6% of the Class A common stock (a voting percentage of less than 1%) and Honda owned 13% (with a voting percentage of 3.6%).
Unless they unaminously agree otherwise, control of the company remains with the preferred shareholder and noteholders of the company, including Hughes Electronics, GM, Honda, and several private investment groups.
XM in Canada
In November 2004, Canadian Satellite Radio filed an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to bring the XM service to Canada. Along with SIRIUS Canada and CHUM Subscription Radio Canada, CSR was one of three applications for national subscription radio services submitted to the CRTC.
On June 16, 2005, the CRTC approved all three applications. XM is currently working on XM Canada, and has started to test repeaters in Toronto, and Ottawa.
An official launch date for XM Canada has not yet been announced, however its estimated that it will be somewhere around December 16, 2005.
XM Radio Channels
See List of XM Satellite Radio channels.
Trivia
- Presented the 2nd season premiere of Nip/Tuck without commercial interuption.
- Because of its involvment with Nip/Tuck, the Parents Television Council is advising everyone not to subscribe to XM Radio for its so-called "Sinful" sponsorship.
