XM or Sirius

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Here are more distinctions, by category of programming:

ROCK AND POP
Both services devote a disproportionate number of channels to various forms of rock, and both slice the niches awfully thin (is a channel playing nothing but '80s hair bands really necessary?). Sirius (19 rock channels) dedicates some channels entirely to one artist -- there's 24/7 Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley and Jimmy Buffett, though Buffett's channel stretches to include similar artists. And Sirius has more channels devoted to soft rock, love songs and what used to be called beautiful music. Sirius's cool exclusive: Super Shuffle, which appeals to the iPod generation by switching randomly among all genres of popular music. XM's background music channel, programmed by Starbucks, features music heard in the coffee shops. Some aficionados say XM's rockers (14 channels) go deeper into the archives, playing more surprises than you'll hear on Sirius. Edge: XM .

URBAN/SOUL/HIP-HOPSirius is heavy on hip-hop, with four channels, including one that serves as a clubhouse for performers who leave no word unspoken, no accusation against their rivals unhurled. XM -- which has two channels of contemporary hip-hop and one of classic hip-hop -- does a much better job with old-school sounds, offering three channels of black hits from decades past. The legendary Washington deejay Bobby "The Mighty Burner" Bennett is the voice of XM's "Soul Street," a terrific trip back to the soul stations of the '60s and '70s. Edge: XM .

CLASSICAL
Both services have surprisingly limited choices of classical music. Though each service offers separate channels for symphonic sounds, voice and pops, chamber music gets short shrift, as do contemporary classical compositions. XM, reflecting its devotion to live broadcasts and concerts, has a more interesting selection of full-length performances, while Sirius generally offers more daring and edgy choices. Sirius carries NPR's fine classical programs, including "Performance Today" and "SymphonyCast," which are no longer heard on Washington's talk-oriented public stations. XM counters with "Exploring Music," hosted by Bill McGlaughlin (long-time host of public radio's riveting "St. Paul Sunday") and Davis's weekly focus on early music, "Millennium of Music." Edge: Sirius .

JAZZ
Both services have channels for classic jazz, fusion and contemporary sounds, and the background music known on FM as smooth jazz. XM's fusion channel sounds more like a jazz station circa 1978, while Sirius's plays more current electrified jazz. XM's straight-ahead channel is the better place to pick up on new artists, while Sirius shows greater range, from New Orleans through bebop all the way to today's players. In addition, both have channels of blues and American standards (Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Mel Tormé). Sirius oddly lumps a channel of New Age and ambient sound (Enya, Yanni, Ottmar Liebert) into its jazz category. Edge: Sirius .

NEWS
A weak spot for both services. News is the most expensive programming to produce; as a result, neither XM nor Sirius has its own news operation.

Rather, both mainly use audio from TV. Both services have similar lineups of CNN, Fox, ABC, BBC World Service and C-SPAN. XM adds MSNBC, while Sirius carries Canadian and European radio services.

TV programming makes for awkward, sometimes infuriating radio, as anchors and reporters refer to visuals that listeners cannot see.

An exclusive contract with National Public Radio gives Sirius a big advantage; its three public radio channels offer fine news and talk shows not heard on Washington's FM public stations.

But the NPR deal prohibits use of the network's flagship shows, "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition." XM's single-channel attempt to compete consists of Bob Edwards's excellent hour of interviews and some fine programs from non-NPR producers such as Public Radio International ("This American Life," "Sounds Eclectic.") Edge: Sirius .

DANCE/ELECTRONICA
Both have disco, chill, trance and dance hits channels. XM also has a channel for ravers, while Sirius adds nonstop breakbeats and mash-ups on its Boombox channel. XM's disco channel sticks closely to '70s tunes, both the hits and club favorites, while Sirius combines those oldies with '80s dance hits. Most of Sirius's dance channels are hosted by knowledgeable deejays; XM's are almost entirely nonstop music. Edge: XM .

COUNTRY
Today's hits, classic cuts and the real gritty stuff -- both services offer the basic flavors. Sirius's music choices are often more creative and surprising. Sirius adds Outlaw Country, where Fred Imus (Don's brother) does a weekend show for honky-tonk lovers, while XM's Willie's Place offers a Willie Nelson-branded selection of classics from the '50s and '60s. Edge: Sirius .

SPORTS
XM broadcasts every single Major League Baseball game all season long, bliss for fans who don't live in their team's home city. There's also an excellent 24/7 baseball talk station. Football isn't much of a radio sport, but Sirius broadcasts every NFL game, as well as the NBA. Both companies have a selection of college hoops and gridiron coverage, but XM has the corner on ACC, Big Ten and Pac-10 games. Both XM and Sirius carry ESPN's talk shows, and both air NHL games. XM adds talk channels from Fox Sports and the Sporting News; Sirius counters with a talk channel that's heavy on golf, wrestling, gambling and poker. Poker: not a radio sport. Edge: XM .

KIDS
Both services have Radio Disney and each has its own kids' channel. Sirius's is heavy on pop music and TV fare, such as audio from "Sesame Street" and "The Care Bears." Oriented toward the youngest set, the channel has lots of the Raffi and Barney fare that drives parents to reconsider the miracle of childbirth. XM Kids, by contrast, features Kenny Curtis, a veteran of Washington's 1990s experiment in kids' radio, the Radio Zone, on a morning show with running characters, sketches and contests; as well as radio theater, kids' concerts, science shows and a nightly lullaby hour. Edge: XM .

TALK
Sirius is trying to carve out an advantage in lifestyle talk with a Martha Stewart home channel, a health channel and stations programmed by Cosmopolitan and Maxim magazines. But the content is largely unlistenable, a nonstop parade of perkiness.

OutQ, Sirius's all-gay channel, is a great idea, but too often I heard club music rather than the talk shows promised in promotions. XM focuses more on advice, with financial experts Bruce Williams and Dave Ramsey, and all-night conspiracy mavens such as Art Bell and George Noory.

Both services feature political talkers from right and left, many of them syndicated hosts available on free radio -- Bill Bennett, the "NRA News" team, Bill Press and Stephanie Miller on Sirius; Dr. Laura, Laura Ingraham, Jerry Springer and Al Franken on XM. And both have channels of Christian talk and shows for truckers.

Since FCC regulations on obscenity don't apply, satellite has become the refuge for the raunch radio of the '90s.

Beyond round-the-clock Stern, Sirius has former Tampa bad boy Bubba the Love Sponge, and XM has added Ron and Fez, late of Washington's WJFK, to its anything-goes talk channel. Edge: XM .

COMEDY
Of all the programming satellite offers, the comedy channels are the biggest step away from traditional broadcast formats.

Both XM and Sirius have three channels of comedy routines; both have a choice of clean or uncensored stand-up.

Sirius has the channel Blue Collar Comedy (Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, Kathleen Madigan) while XM devotes a channel to Canadian comedy. (A very high-concept joke? No, the channel exists because XM sells its wares in Canada, where the government insists on a certain amount of Canadian content.)

On its clean, family-oriented channel, XM relies heavily on classic bits (Bill Cosby, Rodney Dangerfield, Jonathan Winters and comics familiar to viewers of "The Ed Sullivan Show" in the 1960s), while Sirius seeks a more contemporary sound by using audio from more recent TV shows ("The Simpsons," "Monty Python's Flying Circus"). On the explicit-language channel, Sirius picks up audio from HBO's "Def Comedy Jam" shows, while XM plays more live appearances recorded at nightclubs in Washington and elsewhere. Sirius's admirable attempt to expand the form fails for the same reason all that TV news audio flops: Too often, you can't see what the joke is about. Sirius's edgier approach means that rather than sticking to stand-up, the channel also plays songs that weren't meant to be funny but are, such as Pat Boone's rendition of "Stairway to Heaven." You need to hear that once in your life. Edge: XM .

These are someone else's opinion, and means nothing, other than it gives a decent explanation of what each service offers.

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Another interesting article from Business Week....
XM and Sirius Should Join Bands
The satellite-radio rivals might find that with growing competition and changing market conditions, a deal makes a lot more sense than a brawl


The idea of America's major two satellite-radio providers merging has been tossed around almost from the moment Sirius launched its service against XM back in 2002. XM (XMSR ) had a year's head start, but as Sirius' (SIRI ) share of the market surged, many analysts predicted a duopoly, with both companies eventually splitting the market in half. After all, Sirius' share has gone from about 11% in 2003 to 26% last year and is expected to approach 33% by the end of this year.

Yet, Sirius' surprising strength suggests it might be time for both companies to consider an alliance again. Continued head-butting could slow down both companies' quests to reach profitability. And they'll need financial stamina in the coming months, as they face a mounting threat from a slew of emerging audio technologies. "Financially, [a merger or an alliance] would make a lot of sense," says Craig Mathias, founder of wireless consultancy Farpoint Group.

Both XM and Sirius deny any talk of a combo. But after a year of hand-to-hand combat over programming and subscribers, the rhetoric between the two players is softening -- and that could indicate they might be amenable to hooking up at some point in the future. "It's more important to differentiate ourselves from the other technologies and services that are out there than for either Sirius or us to differentiate ourselves from one another," XM Chairman Gary Parsons told BusinessWeek Online.

DROP IN THE OCEAN. Indeed, a trickle of alternatives is turning into a flood. Digital radio broadcasts, podcasts (recordings of music or talk than can be downloaded onto PCs or portable MP3 players), and song download services via wireless networks are taking off. Come 2006, wireless-network owner Crown Castle is expected to launch an audio and TV service for cell phones -- a market that XM and Sirius are also interested in developing. Worse yet for the satellite boys, Motorola (MOT ) is planning to bring out an ad-free wireless audio service for the car market -- XM's and Sirius' bread and butter.

Just like that, the $310 million satellite-radio business is looking like a pond compared to the wider wireless ocean -- and the pond is getting crowded. Rather than duke it out, XM and Sirius may find it more advantageous to present a joint front to competitors.

XM believes it'll reach free cash flows in 2006, and Sirius insists it will break even in 2007. Yet the continuing rivalry could push their break-even targets off by a year, some analysts now estimate.

SNOWBALLING SUBSIDIES. It's not that they're hurting for cash. Each holds more than $630 million in cash and equivalents, and the satellite-radio subscriber base is exploding. On July 1, XM reported that it added 640,000 subscribers in its second quarter, 100,000 above analyst expectations.

But any delay in reaching profitability could mean XM and Sirius would need to raise additional funds on top of mounting debts -- either by floating stock or by selling a chunk of equity to a telco or a cable company. They'll each also need more capital to continue bidding for content and offering radio-hardware subsidies, designed to encourage auto makers and consumers to choose one service over the other.

These subsidies have been snowballing recently -- and they're costly. Both companies underwrite radio hardware and offer several months of service for free to entice subscribers, which means they lose money on each added subscriber for months. So in a strange twist, the recent growth spurt could lead to higher losses. Already, Sirius has offered investors guidance for more red ink this year than previously expected -- $510 million.

SHOCKS TO THE SYSTEM. Content spending is spiraling upward, too. Sirius has scored two giant deals, signing up domestic diva Martha Stewart in April to run a special channel due to launch in the fall, just months after it signed shock jock Howard Stern, whose program is due to start in January, 2006. In February, 2005, Sirius outbid XM for exclusive rights to NASCAR broadcasts from 2007 to 2011, a deal valued at more than $100 million.

At this rate, Sirius' content spending will reach $130 million -- twice 2004 revenue -- by 2007, according to J.P. Morgan estimates. And XM has been striking deals of its own, such as signing up Opie and Anthony to compete with Stern.

Still, differentiating the companies' offerings is becoming increasingly difficult. Today, "there's no structural reason why one of us wouldn't be able to copy what the other one does," allows Jim Meyer, president of operations and sales at Sirius.

PLENTY OF SAVINGS. Indeed, XM introduced its MyFi wearable device last year. Sirius will unveil its own version, which will allow consumers to listen to its broadcasts live or store them for another time, later this year, says Meyer. Both companies are developing technology to stream video to cars and audio to cell phones. "Sirius has historically been behind XM in hardware development, but they've cut the gap considerably," says David Schrier, an analyst with consultancy ABI Research. They've even recently reached parity on rates -- $12.95 a month for month-to-month subscribers for both XM and Sirius.

If they join forces, their subscriber-acquisition costs, ranging from just over $50 for XM and $190 for Sirius, would fall. They wouldn't need all their costly satellites. And their programming costs would also likely plummet.

Such reductions would allow XM and Sirius to better compete with companies offering alternative digital audio options, such as terrestrial radio, which is free and has been cutting back on commercials to battle the competition in the sky.

THE BIG DIFFERENCE. The two companies would have two options for joining forces. First, they could merge. True, they would face antitrust scrutiny from federal regulators. But chances are, the combo would pass muster.

Here's why: Unlike satellite-video companies EchoStar (DISH ) and DirecTV, whose merger proposal was rejected back in 2002 because it would have created a monopoly in rural areas, XM and Sirius aren't profitable. They could argue that competition puts a financial strain on their business. Moreover, they don't control a large chunk of the consumer market anywhere.

What's more, the licenses XM and Sirius received from the Federal Communications Commission back in 1997 don't specifically prohibit a merger, says Harold Furchtgott-Roth, a former FCC commissioner who's now president of economics consultancy Furchtgott-Roth Economic Enterprises.

BRANCHING OUT. A content alliance is the other possibility, since Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin, a key architect in the CBS-Viacom merger, might be determined to keep Sirius growing on his own. In that case, perhaps Sirius and XM might agree to pool their programming resources, says ABI's Schrier.

An alliance like this would allow them to focus on rivals as well as opening up new markets, such as delivering satellite radio to cell phone -- a potentially costly undertaking. On July 13, XM announced that it acquired WCS Wireless, which owns wireless licenses that would enable XM to offer additional data and video services. The all-stock deal is valued at nearly $200 million. Both XM and Sirius may have to make more acquisitions to address competitive threats in the coming months.

"The [satellite-radio] market is barely scratched," says Tuna Amobi, an analyst with Standard & Poor's. And with the market expected to grow tenfold by 2009, XM and Sirius could find they're better suitors than fighters.

[BlueHUMMERH2]

I hope they don't merge. I really hate XM, and would be pissed if a merger was in the works.

Sorry, I was trying to remain objective... But I really do hate XM..

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Originally Posted by BlueHUMMERH2

Sorry, I was trying to remain objective... But I really do hate XM..

Yea, that sounds really objective, but is only subjective.

[BlueHUMMERH2]

Originally Posted by f5fstop

Yea, that sounds really objective, but is only subjective.

I meant prior to that post. But I guess you're right, it would be more subjective...

I'm more familiar with the terms quanitative and qualitative. My comments were more qualitative that quanitative.

[wingnut2u]

Wow, a lot of good info here. I realize listening preferences are totally subjective but you can still get a good general idea of the overall qualities of both Sirius and XM.

Based on the comments posted, I am leaning towards Sirius. I have the XM stations on my Directv and I have been underwhelmed.

I just installed the Alpine W200 head unit, he said head, which I love, and I have the option to add either Sirius or XM.

What are the contracts like for each? Do they offer trial runs?

[bparker]

if you are serious go with sirius