XM Radio

XM Satellite Radio Holdings (XM) (NASDAQ: XMSR) is one of two satellite radio (SDARS) services in the United States and Canada, along with SIRIUS Satellite Radio. XM provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to premium cable television. more...

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Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional traffic and weather channels and 23 play-by-play sports channels. XM channels are identified by Arbitron with the label "XM" (e.g. "XM142", "XM7", "XM32"). Meanwhile, AOL Radio, a division of America Online's media sector, offers select XM Satellite Radio channels streamed live through Winamp, AOL Instant Messenger Triton, and AOL Radio, free of charge.

XM was founded in 1988 as American Mobile Radio Corporation.

Services

XM-capable receivers cost US$30 – US$400. If opting for the month-to-month plan, service fees are US$12.95 for the first receiver, and US$6.99 each for up to four additional receivers on the same account. Subscribers may opt to purchase multi-year packages at a discount.

XM also offers most of its channels via the Internet. The Internet-only subscription fee is US$7.99 per month; those with an active satellite subscription do not need to pay an additional charge. Some of XM's more general music channels are available free of charge via AOL Radio and Winamp.

XM offers "true" mobile services, utilizing the built in antenna in its XM2go receivers to transmit a live satellite signal to iPod-sized battery operated devices. Sound Quality and signal issues continue to plague these devices.

XM also provides data services such as weather information for pilots and weather spotters through its XM WX Satellite Weather datacasting service, in addition to real-time weather and traffic updates aired every two minutes for major metropolitan areas on some of XM's audio channels.

DirecTV now gives listeners as part of its service some of the music and talk channels of XM, but not the news or traffic channels.

XM also offers music downloads though XM+Napster. This service is being integrated with XM Online and the new XM receivers, Inno & Helix.

In 2005, AirTran Airways began putting XM Satellite Radio on their aircraft, while in January 2006, JetBlue Airways added XM Radio to their aircraft. United Airlines started carrying prerecorded XM content in March 2006. Zipcar, a national (US) urban car-sharing service, has XM receivers in all of their vehicles available for daily or hourly rental.

In 2006, the service "XM for Business" was launched on the DirecTV platform to provide 15 channels of interruption-free background music. This service replaces the Music Choice business audio service formerly offered by DirecTV. The XM for Business channels are in the upper 500s as of August 2006 and include an exclusive "Taste of Italy" channel. The channels are programmed separately from the consumer service, but share the same names, themes, and playlists. More importantly for the background music needs of business audio these channels do not feature any kind of interruption and do not feature radio hosts, imaging, or sounders.

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