Sirius-XM Rates Increase Planned for March

[Guest]

Rumors of the only satellite radio provider in North America increasing its rates have been confirmed. While certain included services will no longer be free as well. The company is advising customers to "lock in" now.

Sirius-XM Rates Increase Planned for March : Read more

 

[captaincharisma]

you would think Sirius-XM is trying to fail then trying to survive. first the channel's merging and the subscribers disgust over that making many long time subs cancel there subscription now they are raising prices. all i know Canadian subscribers are still getting screwed out of programming options

 

[Guest]

Funny that. Companies merge. Monopoly. Price hike. Me, still not buying. I'll stick to my static free radio thank you.

 

[Tekkamanraiden]

I'm curious how much longer they're gonna be around.

 

[AndrewMD]

I guess if you can't live without CableTV, you have to have Cable"Radio"....

 

[Guest]

If they are reading this, I will be cancelling my membership that I have had with them for almost 6 years after my contract expires in March. I have never gotten a notice that this would be happening, and I am really ticked off. I use the service at work to listen to music daily, and taking that away and increasing my monthy rate is really stupid.

I home their stock goes even lower....I don't that's possible given that its almost worthless to begin with, but you can always hope.

Hope you enjoyed my money while it lastest, because that's the last you'll see of it.

 

[Darkk]

What's wrong with MP3s over digital radio? Seems they screwed this up royally by not listening to the customers of what they want and now raising the rates. Guess it's a matter of time before the giant falls over....

 

[viewwin]

I called last Monday to cancel my service. They would not let me cancel, and I gave in to getting the next 3 months free. I plan on calling back when the bill is due to cancel again. I rather not pay for radio or just burn my own music with no commercial interruption, stupid emtabs commercials.

 

[nekatreven]

[citation][nom]Menotyou[/nom]Funny that. Companies merge. Monopoly. Price hike. Me, still not buying. I'll stick to my static free radio thank you.[/citation]

Generally speaking I'd have to agree with you. I will say though that considering the times, I think part of the rate hike is related to them just staying solvent; and not as much a greedy grab at more profit due to no competition. At this point their biggest threat is themselves!

They may have a monopoly, but its not a "lets swim in our pool full of money" type of monopoly (like MS). The whole 'putting things in space' part of their business is real damn expensive. They have billions in debt and seem to be just trying to stay afloat, their stock is worth almost nothing, etc.

I'm sure they have plenty of fault for all of their problems, and it may be better for them to just go under (probably would be). Regardless though, I think this one is an attempt at just surviving more than it is greed.

 

[TwoDigital]

Nearly $1 billion in debt means they are not charging for their service what it really costs for them to provide it. Since customers aren't willing to pay a higher price, I'd assume they don't value the system for what it costs to provide.

This is a perfect example of the market WORKING. Sirius needs to change something to get back in the black or they will go out of business. Customers have spoken. (Please PLEASE don't let these guys get in line for a 'bailout'...)

 

[TwoDigital]

Are these satellites just in geo-sync over the United States or are they truly a global company? They may want to consider broadcasting a few hundred channels in Chinese or various forms of Hindi to try and capture a few billion more potential customers.

 

[Guest]

Gee, never could have seen this coming...I thought they said the merger would be GOOD for consumers. Hardly.

 

[dacman61]

There are a few crappy reasons why the Sirius-XM company is going through crap right now... There merger that was held up by the government caused tons of wasted money spent of each company doing advertising to compete each other just in case the merger didn't go through. Sirius and XM have made some dumb decisions signing people who aren't radio people, or radio people who suck on terrestrial radio. XM signed Oprah for $50 million, and Sirius signed MadDog (some sports talk guy) for tons of money, and a stupid snowboarded for too much money as well for a crappy "Ask Boady" show (however you spell his name). Why are they signing non-radio people on Sirius-XM? Who's going to sign up to Sirius-XM because Jamie Foxx, Oprah, Boady or some other moron is going to have one half hour show a week for ridiculous amounts of money.

The only good investment was when Sirius signed Howard Stern who took them from 600,000 customers to over 2 million+. This alone made up for the $500 million investment.

Overall, the crappy signing choices of non-radio people, and the debacle of the merger caused the downfall of this company and its stock.

Just my opinion...

 

[dacman61]

@TwoDigital

Are these satellites just in geo-sync over the United States or are they truly a global company?

Yes, they are in geo-sync orbit. You can see where they are located on www.nasa.gov on some page on their site. It's kind of cool.

 

[nekatreven]

[citation][nom]TwoDigital[/nom]Nearly $1 billion in debt means they are not charging for their service what it really costs for them to provide it.[/citation]

HEY ALL!! Uh...Just a note on their debt...thats not 1 billion in debt total. Thats 1 billion due for payoff or renewal THIS year.


"At last quarter's end, Sirius had $360 million in cash versus $3.37 billion in debt."
http/www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28897337/

 

[Guest]

Sirius just continues to upset memore and more every day. I originally got my subscription for two reasons. 1- Howard Stern. 2- All the sports that Sirius had to offer. They had every sport except for baseball which was fine for me because I am a Yankee fan in CT so I can listen to those games on my regular radio. Then all of a sudden after the merger went through tey pulled the NBA, NHL, Nascar, and a lot of the college sports and switched them over to XM. Now I can still listen to those sports but I will have to pay an extra $4.00 a month to buy the best of XM package. That's bull. Now I get the message telling me that I will lose my internet connection unless I pay an additional $2.99 a month for internet radio. So basically what it all comes down to is a 50% markup on my price for what I am already accustomed to. I listen to Howard every day at work and I remember when they were promoting this merger every day and he kept pointing out that they would not raise the prices at all. Baloney.

 

[spyder699]

After installing an indash nav system with optional XM and SIRIUS sat radio and traffic data, I researched the possible returns on such an investment. I learned that the radio quality would not be great and while the traffic data could be received everywhere albeit limited to the major cities. I have also learned that additional data services could become available and that receivers will become available that not only would receive both XM and SIRIUS and that could be enjoyed when not in the car on the same subscription. I would also receive stock information such that I would be able to see the fate of XM-SIRIUS unravel while I was driving. I understand that XM could enter into bankruptcy which is different than going out of business in that they would continue to broadcast so that my investment into XM or SIRIUS would not suddenly become worthless junk. So now my main problem is deciding which receiver to buy and whether to go with a lifetime subscription before the rates go up.