You may have woken up to news that we’ll all be standing in bread lines in just a few short weeks—I’ll be back in the US of A in just about a month to witness the country’s unraveling in person—so credit to Sirius XM’s Mel Karmazin for trying to keep the company afloat. Sirius XM is, after all, a luxury expense; when there’s proper bills to pay, listening to commercial-free music all of sudden becomes a hell of a lot less relevant.
How does Sirius XM plan to whether to coming storm, to convince people this holiday season that spending X amount on a receiver, plus monthly fee, is worth the trouble?
• Special programming promotions and radios that, finally, can receive both XM and Sirius
• Did you cancel your previous account, but still have a radio? The company may well reactivate your radio, giving you a few channels for free for a bit, in order to whet your appetite, brining you back into the fold
• It will be easier to find in stores, making it easier for you to try before you buy. The company is currently negotiating with the likes of Best Buy and Circuit City to have better, more prominent placement for the holiday shopping season. (The XM-Sirius confusion apparently killed the retail market.)
• A $6.99 a month, 50-channel subscription options. Include Opie and Anthony and I may well re-sub, especially if I can listen online.
So if the gathering storm doesn’t hurt your financial situation too much, you may just be able to find some pretty decent Sirius SM deals in the weeks and months to come.