Things are looking up all over. Sirius just reported that they had a great quarter thanks to new car sales. They are up 118% new subscribers from Q1 2010 and hit 20 million subscribers, up 2 million from the same period last year.
Subscriber growth accelerates. Strong auto sales drove net subscriber additions in the first quarter of 2011 to 373,064, up 118% from 171,441 in the first quarter of 2010. Ending subscribers as of March 31, 2011 were 20,564,028, up 9% from the 18,944,199 subscribers reported as of March 31, 2010.
Clearly the small uptick in buying is improving the outlook for cars and the radios inside them alike. → Read More
Another day, another lawsuit, this time starring Sirius XM (named after a star) and its biggest star in Howard Stern (which, incidentally, means star in German). Stars all over the place. Stern’s production company alleges that Sirius XM hasn’t paid it the stock awards that it’s due based on having attracted a number of subscribers to the company. The lawsuit also alleges that Stern’s agent hasn’t been paid a required consulting fee. → Read More
There’s a fair bit of controversy surrounding Sirius XM today. The company has recently made some changes to its online feed, changes that, for the moment, have locked out third-party application access. That means users can’t listen to the service with applications like Radium for Mac OS X. → Read More
Sirius XM has updated its iOS app, but it doesn’t look to be all that great of an update. Normally I wouldn’t even notice this, seeing as though I primarily use Radium to listen to the one channel I listen to (The Virus for O&A and R&F), but this new update broke third-party access to the streams. Sigh. Anyhow, the app now stands at version 1.4, and the first thing you notice is that the icon has changed to reflect the new Sirius XM logo. → Read More
Sirius XM are on the cutting edge of entertainment. The company will launch a new channel called Tiger Blood Radio tomorrow at 6am ET. If you don’t know what the “tiger blood” is in reference to I salute you for avoiding the silliest aspects of popular American culture. → Read More
The following probably speaks to Sirius XM silliness more than anything else, but what are you gonna do? Sonos’ Multi-Room Music System is now fully compatible with the “new and improved” Sirius XM stream. The system had worked on the Sirius side of things just fine, but now it works on the XM side of things, too. → Read More
The Big Game is this Sunday (remember: Madden already told us the winner), and our amigos at Sirius XM‘s Ron & Fez Show have a little Twitter contest that may interest you. Like all their Twitter contests it’s pretty easy to play. Step One: follow @202friends on Twitter. → Read More
The last vestiges of XM Radio (and Sirius) are no more, and we are now living in a decidedly Sirius XM world The old Web site, xmradio.com, now re-directs to siriusxm.com, and there’s a new Flash-based player to replace the old player. How I yearn for the days when Team XM feuded with the little doggy company! → Read More
Howard Stern, arguably the biggest “name” on Sirius XM, has signed a new five-year contract with the company, keeping him on satellite radio for the next half-decade. I’m sure some of the Sirius XM management are jumping for joy right now. → Read More
A new DVD release has captured the attention of the American nation. The Six Million Dollar Man, one of the first prominent science fiction-y television shows in history, is now available. The new collection, officially called The Six Million Dollar Man: The Complete Collection, includes 40 DVDs with every single episode of the show right there for you. It’s the first time the complete collection has been made available. → Read More
Look at Sirius XM, taking advantage of the big Beatles-iTunes story this morning to promote their programming! Synergy! Anyhow, Sir Paul McCartney will play a concert at the Apollo Theater in New York on December 13, and the only way you’ll be able to hear it is to listen on Sirius XM. → Read More
Your iPhone, now a musical instrument. Musician slash comic Reggie Watts was recently interviewed by Ron Bennington (of Ron & Fez fame) on Sirius XM’s Unmasked. (Unmasked is a series of long-form interviews, hosted by Bennington, with comics, musicians, writers, etc. It’s quite good, and is a pretty much proof positive that, for all its faults, Sirius XM can actually be worth a damn every once in a while.) This bit, I thought, would be particularly interesting to you iPhone fans out there. It may also interest those of you who like pancakes. → Read More
Batman fans reacted with anger on Thursday upon learning that director Christopher Nolan has ruled out using The Riddle in the upcoming movie The Dark Knight Rises. The movie, the third Batman under Nolan and currently scheduled to be released on July 20, 2012, will instead “introduce some new [characters]” as well as use some of the existing ones. → Read More
Put down your pitchforks, fellow pests! Opie and Anthony have re-signed with Sirius XM. It’s a two-year deal, so you’ll be able to listen to Op, Ant, and Chip for many months hereafter. Can someone bring me back my money please? → Read More
Sirius XM has a new radio that’s poised to solve all of their problems. It’s called the XM Snap (first discovered, and erroneously thought to be a dock, a few weeks ago), and it marks the first time I’ve seen the XM brand name used in quite some time. SIRIUS xm, in other words. → Read More
So now that we’re very much approaching Opie & Anthony D-Day—Friday is the contract deadline, even though the contract actually expires on October 1—we need to ask ourselves: are we ready to drop Sirius XM if the boys don’t sign another contract? → Read More
Something called the XM Snap has appeared on the FCC’s Web site, and we have no idea what it does! I mean, all signs point to it being a dock of some sort for Android-based phones, but who knows? → Read More
Sirius XM appears to be at a bit of a crossroads. Howard Stern, arguably the company’s most recognizable on-air talent, has all but decided to negotiate his new contract in public, recently stating that “I do get a little charge out of thinking that in December we might be done. I get a little turned on by that.” Mere negotiating tactics, or a genuine feeling of wanting out? Who’s to say? I’m certainly no mind reader. Stern’s current contract has him making around $100m per year, and that’s something Sirius XM would like to change. → Read More
I’d just like to point out that it’s 12:15pm ET on June 25, 2010, and XM Radio Online has once again crashed and burned. That’s with the iPhone App, the plain on’ Web site, and my third-party application that I use because the plain ol’ Web site is terrible on a Mac. Good service you’ve got here, Sirius XM. Third time this week it’s happened to me (but I only listen a few hours per day, so who knows how often the stream is really down). And to be clear this only seems to affect XM Radio Online users, not Sirius folks. At what point can you reasonably say, “Well, your honor, I paid for a service that patently didn’t work. I’d just like my money back is all”? And… she’s back. That only took 30+ minutes. Cool. → Read More
And look at that, XM Radio Online is down for the second time this week. That’s as of 11:15am ET. Good thing we’re paying for this, right guys? (For the record, I’m trying to access XMRO using Radium for Mac OS X, my iPod touch, and the Web site. All down. Lovely.) Update: Success! As of 12:30pm ET I can now connect fine on my iPod touch and the Web site. Glorious day! → Read More
