Xm Radio and Sirius

About Sirius

The concept of satellite radio started in 1992, it began with two companies which were DARS (XM satellite radio), and CD Radio( Sirius satellite radio). Sirius formally known as CD Radio spent 1.5 billion dollars for the start up of the company. In February of 2002, Sirius launched its service in four markets, Denver, Houston, Phoenix, and Jackson, Miss. Then the nationwide implementation was completed during the summer of 2002. In the begging Sirius only launched two satellites but then went on to purchase another, this is a key benefit of Sirius over the competition. Currently Sirius is using three rotating satellites which makes for better reception and quality, compared to the competition XM with only two satellites.

Sirius Satellite Radio has changed the way people listen to music, sports, and news in their cars, homes, and just about anywhere. Satellite radio has taken over the radio industry; we are seeing that terrestrial radio stations are slowly falling apart, due to declining ratings and sales. This is due in part to the fact that many car manufactures are now making satellite radio standard in new cars. Satellite radio caters to various types of people such as; people who travel, truck drivers, boaters, business and just the regular radio listener. Unlike terrestrial radio someone driving from Florida to New York can listen to the same thing the entire way and in complete digital quality.

Sirius is responsible for the survival of satellite radio in general. In 2006 Sirius signed a 500,000,000 dollar contract with radio disc jockey howard stern, which created a surge in subscriptions. When stern joined Sirius they had 300,000 subscribers, after two years they had over 8 million. Now Sirius the previously inferior company is looking to purchase the big brother company, and makes plans to merge the two of companies.

About XM

XM Satellite Radio pioneered Satellite radio. Starting in October of 1999, they have grown to become the industry leader, with over 3 million subscribers. XM was the first to market, in 2001 they launched their two satellites “rock” and “roll”. With two satellites, XM Radio has 68 channels of commercial free music, and more than 50 channels of news, sports, talk, and traffic. Truck drivers were the first to take notice of satellite radio, XM catered to them when