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Originally Posted by mountainbiker
How about our fellow HUMMER owners in Europe--I wonder what they are listening to for satellite radio, or if XM or Sirrus has any plans to extend their coverage? I thought I read somewhere there is a huge satellite radio company in Europe called WorldSpace that supplied technology to XM in exchange for stock.
http://radio.about.com/od/worldspace/ |
Reason XM, in the beginning, had better receivers for sale. Worldspace did invest in XM, as well as GM. I know of no one who actually has Worldspace, so I have no idea what they play. I'm not too sure if Worldspace still retains any ownership or large stock of XM.
Personal opinion is all that matters in this area. I work with people who will argue for hours as to which is best, and all it boils down to is personal opinion of what is being playing by each company, and are you satisfied with what you are paying for.
Who knows, someday I may go back to Sirius, but right now, I'm satisfied with XM, and I don't consider it a JOKE, anymore than I think Sirius is a joke. They are different, and for that reason we have some competition in the satellite radio market, while the rest of the world doesn't. Imagine, if Sirius and XM merged, the costs would go up dramatically. So let's all hope both companies stay in business, remain close to the number of subscribers, and keep the prices down for all.
Arguing about this is like being in a redneck bar watching to rednecks argue about Ford vs. Chevy trucks.
The reason XM was required to change some stations (4) to commercial stations:
"In March of this year, an arbitration panel settled a legal dispute between Clear Channel and XM. The panel decided that Clear Channel had the right to include commercials on 4 music channels which it gained (and programmed) from a 1998 investment in XM Satellite Radio.
XM?s response was to launch 4 new music channels, in the same respective genre, to compensate for this loss of commercial-free status. As a matter of fact, it added even more than four.
A March 27, 2006 News Release from XM stated ?XM added two new commercial-free music channels on March 1: Big Tracks (XM Channel 49), focusing on classic rock from the late 70's onward, and XM Chill (XM Channel 84), devoted to Chill music. During April and May, XM will bring the total number of new commercial-free music channels to 10??
The service positions this change by stating it has ??the most commercial-free music channels in satellite radio.? Notice it doesn?t flat out state they are all commercial-free. Increasing the number of channels allowed the company to boast of quantity ? which can easily be misinterpreted by an average listener to mean they are all commercial-free.
The Clear Channel/XM relationship is supposed to end in 2008. Then, XM can once again go back to real commercial-free music programming, should it wish."