Archive for May, 2005

Color Match Antenna Review

Tuesday, May 31st, 2005

The kind folks at ColorMatchAntenna recently sent me a Sirius antenna color-coded to my car, a Mazda 6 S in grey metallic. The package came in a USPS envelope and appeared to be the standard Sirius radio car antenna. It was carefully wrapped in cloth within a well-packaged box.

After unwrapping it, I placed […]

Apple Not Serious About Sirius

Tuesday, May 31st, 2005

Apple Not Serious About Sirius

Sirius is refusing to confirm reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has taken a fancy to the idea of partnering with the satellite radio provider. On Thursday, reports circulated around the Web claiming Mel Karmazin, Sirius chief executive officer, had discussions with Jobs during the D conference in California.

However, Sirius has […]

The future looks bright for Sirius

Tuesday, May 31st, 2005

The future looks bright for Sirius

In early May, my esteemed colleague here at Strategy lab, Jon Markman, wrote a rather scathing piece regarding the valuation and future prospects of Sirius Satellite Radio. In the fairly emotional piece, Markman suggested that investors may finally be realizing the errors of their ways as the company continues to […]

XM Radio asking interesting questions

Tuesday, May 31st, 2005

XM Radio asking interesting questions

XM Satellite Radio emailed me, one of their “selected XM Subscribers,” a little survey today. I thought I’d share some of it with you to give you something to speculate and pontificate about. So here are the juicy parts:

Suppose that XM Radio were to offer you a service that would allow […]

DirecTV Pulls Mega Project Together

Tuesday, May 31st, 2005

DirecTV Pulls Mega Project Together

DirecTV Group kicked off its enterprise architecture project last July with the idea of putting silos of information into a uniformed system.

The provider of digital satellite television launched its service in 1994, and since grew from 1 million customers to more than 14 million. News Corp. owns a 34-percent share of […]

DIRECTV 8 Satellite Successfully Launched

Tuesday, May 24th, 2005

DIRECTV 8 Satellite Successfully Launched

DIRECTV 8, a high-power Ku/Ka-band, direct broadcast satellite built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Proton M/Breeze M launch vehicle provided by International Launch Services (ILS).

The satellite will provide selectable medium- and high-power Ku-band broadcast services to the U.S. on up to […]

Cost Question Orbits Sirius Satellite

Tuesday, May 24th, 2005

Cost Question Orbits Sirius Satellite

As Sirius Satellite Radio debates the launch of another satellite, investors mull the costs.

Already burning through piles of cash to fund its money-losing subscription radio business, Sirius now faces a big capital spending decision. The New York-based pay radio shop is considering what to do with its fourth satellite, which currently […]

Sirius Considering New Satellite Launch, Investors Weigh Cost

Monday, May 23rd, 2005

Sirius Considering New Satellite Launch, Investors Weigh Cost

Sirius Satellite Radio is considering the option of launching its fourth satellite into space, but it would be an expensive undertaking for a company that is not yet making a profit. TheStreet.com reports that Sirius could launch the satellite to boost its signal coverage, but the job could […]

XM Radio Opens Lincoln Center Studio, Sirius Announces Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Deal

Monday, May 23rd, 2005

XM Radio Opens Lincoln Center Studio

In what may be described as an answer to the Sirius announcement about using the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame studio, XM Satellite Radio came back with word it has signed to produce programming from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s studio.

Highlighting the press release is this (rightful) claim that XM […]

Look at the big picture when deciding on cable or satellite

Monday, May 23rd, 2005

Look at the big picture when deciding on cable or satellite

Q: I am thinking of changing from cable TV to satellite and would like to know what you think about Dish Network versus Comcast. I’ve seen a lot of advertisement spam and snail mail about Dish that promises the world, and I need the real […]