I have 4 subscriptions to XM. I mounted the XM reciever in my Mini since I had it and was not willing to pay $500 for the Serius option. The Wall Street Journal has had two frontpage "Marketplace" articles in the last two days regarding Sirius/XM. Basicly they have to raise $175 million by Feb. 17 to fend of bankruptcy. Also EchoStar has bought out most of their outstanding debt most likely to either force them into bankruptcy or take over the company. If EchoStar takes over Serius XM then all bets are off on whether they will continue the service and since the company will be in bankruptcy it will eliminate the liability of having to honor the lifetime subscriptions. If you commit to extending your contracts by March 10th you can lock in the current rates before the price increase. I am going to wait until at least Feb. 17th before I commit to extending my contracts. I drive long distances though the middle of nowhere and would hate to loss the service, but I am glad I also have ipod integration.

 

Sirius XM preparing for bankruptcy

 

I live in Canada, where Sirius and XM are technically still different companies so it should be interesting to see how this would affect service here. Although, it appears to be more of a tactical move to fend off a takeover... or at least get more money from one than it does a strictly financial matter.

 

I've watched this company with interest for quite awhile. I don't subscribe btw. The way I see it is they owe about 3 bil, and are having trouble refinincing this time around for obvious reasons. EchoStar bought the paper, probably because Sirius has a potload of cashflow, maybe as much as 250mil/month. Even if people jump off the ship bigtime that still leaves a lot of people with the gear in their cars and homes that they want to continue to use, and with enough money to use it. So what if the stock isn't worth jack, the folks still want the service. I like Echostar's position, assuming they got the debt paper cheaply enough. This is a company that could be (to use Warren Buffet's phrase) "worth more dead than alive". I wouldn't worry about the service ceasing to exist. I would worry a little about a lifetime subscription going bye-bye though, and under no circumstances would I buy the gear right now until the thing gets stable. Buy an iPod until then .

 

I called Morristown Mini yesterday to order the retrofit Sirius Kit for my 09 JCW. Apparently MINI has stopped making them and/or making new modules. They have also unlisted the unit from its accessory site.

 

My wife wanted me to add Sirius to the JCW for road trips (we had it in the M3). I was not about to spend $500 for an outdated unit (with no support for the XM channels) for a service that is bankruptcy bound.

 

In my newspaper this morning is a small story about Sirius possibly heading into bankruptcy. They have 20 MILLION subscribers and say they can't cover the bonds they sold. A bunch of "M"--"F"&^%)$ing thieves if you ask me. All the top CEO's need to be rounded up and sent to jail.
What the hell besides paying theirselves way to much money happened to all of the profits.
It does not take a genuis to figure out why our country is screwed.
The artical says that Dish Network is looking into taking over "MAYBE"
The artical is also in the wall street journal according to my newspaper story.
All of these CEO's in all of these companys need to be held accountable for their thieving, stealing actions. It's just to bad most of them work in our government and call all the shots.
Ronnie948

 

Hundreds of millions went to Howard Stern. He has a $500M contract with Sirius, and it is hurting them in a big way.

 

I was considering at some point retrofit the OEM Sirius receiver in my 2005 R53 S but I am glad I never got around it in light of the Sirius/XM bankruptcy news.

Internet radio sooner or later will make it inside the car as well as other myriad of upcoming technologies that likely will not require a paid subscription base like satellite radio.

For now, I am happy with my iPod and free Podcasts.

 

Slightly off topic.... but yesterday, Sirius stock was $0.055 per share... yes, that's 5 1/2 cents per share. Anyone worried about those "lifetime" subscriptions?

 

You could do it now with an iPhone and pandora.com through the aux port.

 

Sounds like there is a lot of confusion about Sirius radio in the MINI. I've had my 09 JCW since October and I listen to Sirius everyday. I also listen to the Sirius Internet feed on my computer at work all day. I love Sirius and truly hope they can overcome the financial obstacles they are currently facing. Here is some information which may help some of you:

Cost & Length of Service- $500 gets you an integrated Sirius receiver and 12 months of service included.

What about Lifetime Subscriptions?- You can still purchase a lifetime subscription through Sirius, on their website or by calling customer service. Online, if you log onto their web site you can go to your account and change the length of your contract. It shows a few options listed and below that there is a link that shows other options...click that link and you will find lifetime subscriptions as well as multi-year contracts. (Like Daviddl I am going to wait at least until Feb. 17th to decide whether or not I want to extend my contract before they raise prices)

Commercials on Satellite Radio!?!- Yes, this is the case on all talk radio stations but not on the music stations.

Sirius doesn't support XM Channels- On Sirius they now have "The Best of XM" so all the "best" XM channels are also available on Sirius now.

Other Ways to get Sirius in your car- If you have an iPhone there is a program called uSirius Starplayr that will be released in the App Store within the next week or two. Once this App comes out you will no longer need a satellite receiver since it depends on the SiriusXM Internet feed.

I personally really enjoy the mix of music channels they have on Sirius radio and Howard Stern's channels are incredible! In addition to Howard's show, the Bubba the Love Sponge show is one of the best radio shows I've ever heard.

 

Ronnie, calm down! Relax! Crack open a cold one!

XM/Sirius have never made any profits, and their business models relied on unrealistic growth forecasts and the availability of low-cost credit to finance all their debt. They also spent millions outbidding one another for sports and radio talent.
Turns out the growth forecasts didn't pan out, and their debt is now very expensive to carry.
Bankruptcy might just save XM/Sirius, if it lets them jettison all those expensive sports / shock jock contracts, and get out from under that mountain of debt. That's what bankruptcy is for.
I'd like to see XM/Sirius survive, because I enjoy the service, and the variety. If it's not to be, then I'll learn to live without it. What I won't do is have a stroke because another business model has proven to be wrong, that happens all the time.
For now, I'll keep giving them $12.95 a month for as long as they can maintain service. As long as I get what I'm paying for, I'd say I'm a satisfied XM/Sirius customer.
If they go belly-up, I'll miss them, but it certainly won't get me angry.

 

 

Also, good luck with your MINI, you're going to love it! My 3.5 month wait felt like a year or two, but it was totally worth it.

I'm assuming your screenname is a Phish reference. If so, I may see you in Hampton in a few weeks!

 

I have a lifetime subscription and I'm not worried about it. I like it a lot. If it goes away, it goes away. What can I do? Worry? Be mad? How is that going to help?

 

Yeah, you could die before your lifetime Sirius subscription ends anyway.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the Iphone App!

I love SiriusMac to listen on my Mac. nice little program

 

I've been using pandora radio over 3g with my iPhone and an aux cable in the MINI and it works out pretty great.

I think their deal with Howard Stern is what's killing the company. The man simply has not brought enough listeners to the party to cover the exorbitant fee that Sirius is paying him. Sirius should have made sure they had an escape clause in their contract with him in the event that he didn't bring in the amount of listeners they needed in order to keep cutting him a check and still turn a profit.

It's sad, but I think that if Sirius dies, satellite radio will be a thing of the past. It really had a lot of potential, but services like Pandora and Slacker are growing quickly in terms of listeners and are so convenient because you can use them with hardware you already own and don't have to tack on another monthly bill to use them. Podcasts already have more diversity available amongst them to outstrip any kind of gains that Sirius could try to make in terms of their offerings. So, I'm just not seeing a place where Sirius can regain a foothold in the market.

 

Who in their right mind thought that enough people would listen to Howard Stern to bankroll a $500 M debt service ! Music and sports are the mainstays of radio of any kind.

 

Not to rain on the anti-SiriusXM parade, but Howard Stern is not bankrupting SiriusXM. The cost of putting satellites into orbit is into the billion dollar range and they did this because they could pay off that debt in the long term. They paid Howard Stern such a high amount, about $100 million dollars a year, because he has loyal listeners that followed him to satellite.

One of the things that really hurt the earning power of both companies is the fact that they had to outbid each other and drive up the price to get new talent for their stations. Since they don't have to compete anymore, I think they should save a lot of money.

They paid Oprah $86 million dollars for a radio show and she's on air once a week...and has zero radio experience. She also drew practically zero subscribers to the station. The story is pretty much the same with Martha Stuart and her huge salary for a radio show nobody listens to....I mean the lady shows people how to make cool things and they paid her millions for a show where people can hear her talk about crafts. It's mistakes like this

Conservative estimates are that 2 million subscribers joined the service for Howard Stern when he initially signed on. That equals just under $26 million a month in subscriber fees alone (2M subscriptions at $12.95 each) on the conservative side of things, but the real money comes from on-air advertisers. Remember that Sirius has commercials on talk stations and Howard has advertisers that have been with him over 25 years. I don't want to start an argument and I really hope that Sirius can sustain, but Howard makes Sirius a lot more than $100 million dollars a year!

 

It looks like SiriusXM is going to be around a little while longer after all!

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/0...1th-hour-deal/

 

It's certainly not that I feel that Sirius should fail, but that I feel that it will fail. In light of the ease of access to internet radio stations, satellite radio is a venture that is simply doomed to fail. Cheaper (read free here) and better sounding alternatives are already available for every smart phone user on the planet.

Sirius XM at 12.95$ a month, cannot beat free. They also kind of made a big no no and ticked off Clear Channel, who, last I checked, was still trying to get the FCC to rule that all satellite radio receivers must be HD radio compatible. If they win that, Sirius XM will certainly fall apart because... let's face it folks, the new Sirius XM... sounds no better than the FM radio you already pick up in your car for free.

The internet has killed several businesses and is causing many others, (the Music Industry and the Publishing Industry just for starters) to rethink the way they do business. Radio and Television are also affected by this with Local TV viewership being the lowest it has ever been. Most people get their TV and radio from the Internet these days.

It's just the nature of the Brave New World that we live in. Sirius XM is sort of a throw back and would have been really great if it had taken off in the 90's. Now, it's too late for satellite radio to live a long, prosperous life.

 

I agree. It would have done better in the 90s before smartphones. That's where the subscription money is, in the $20-30/mo data charges.

 

WOOHOO!!!!!