News and musings on Sirius, XM, DirecTV and the DISH Network.

So we finally turned in our first generation Sirius satellite radio (which was big and bulky and never really had a good fit in our car) to get a free Stratus 4 from Sirius (free because they nearly always have an offer to get a free radio). The old maxim, You get what you pay for, couldn’t be more true.

The Stratus 4 is probably considered the new entry level radio, because it doesn’t have features like recording of up to 30 minutes (which is cool, letting you pause the live radio feed and pick it up again when you un-pause it). My wife’s radio has that. The Stratus 4 is about 1/3 the size of the first generation unit it is replacing.

Installation was a breeze and took about 20 minutes, done myself in my driveway. Since it could use the same satellite antenna from the old radio, it was really just removing the old radio, its mount, and installing the new mount and radio. Boom, it was done.

But there was another wire in the box that I didn’t recognize. I put it aside for the time being, swapped activation from the old radio to the new (another cost-cutting area for Sirius — support personnel from India — so I had to speak slowly and repeat nearly every other sentence… Fun!).

After driving out for the first day with the Sirius Stratus 4 installed, I was dismayed at the lack of power from the FM transmitter built into the receiver. This allows you to send the Sirius signal to your car’s radio. Even an iPod adapter has a stronger signal than the Stratus 4! All I heard was a lot of hissing behind the music (and yes, I tried all the frequencies available to find an FM frequency that didn’t have a radio station on it).

Sirius’ cost-cutting measures apparently extend to its hardware too. In an effort to reduce costs, they put a smaller FM transmitter in the radio and then, get this, expect you to run ANOTHER wire to wherever your FM antenna is!

Apparently the geniuses at Sirius don’t understand that most consumers don’t want to spend their weekends running yet another thin antenna wire all around their car and back. My FM antenna is in the rear, so that means threading that damned wire through consoles, seats, under floor trim, you name it. Another Saturday will be spent doing this, all in the name of saving $3 or $4 (my time alone is worth more than that, but scheduling to get into the radio installation shop, dropping off the car, and then getting it back 2 hours later is just as much hassle).

Thanks Sirius for really screwing the consumer with the Stratus 4. Crappy FM reception means this radio is a sad piece of engineering. I almost wish I had my first generation radio back (a unit that *never* had any problem transmitting a nice clear FM signal).

With high-end products like Sonos being marketed as a good way to get whole-house satellite radio, the inexpensive option is so much easier and uses the thing you already have — ordinary radios!

Simply Google for an FM transmitter (like this one or this one or one of these — all under $100). Make sure you do NOT purchase something for an iPod (won’t have enough power). It should be a transmitter under 1 watt of power (in the U.S. — anything more and you might bump into some FCC problems).

Now here’s the best part… Since satellite radio can be listened to online and most people have a broadband connection in their home, you can hook this up to your computer and avoid purchasing another radio and monthly subscription.

To get the audio from your computer to the whole-house FM transmitter, purchase the cables you need and splitter from Radio Shack. They have everything you need.

The rough diagram is:

Internet --> Computer --> Computer Speakers
                     |
                     V
               FM transmitter
                     |
                     V
           Any radio in your house

The FM transmitter will allow you to choose a regular FM frequency to transmit on. Simply choose one that doesn’t have a radio station in your area on it. Also, stay away from any other station’s frequencies — especially strong or weak ones. Strong ones may interfere with your signal, and you may interfere with weak ones’ signals.

Fire up your satellite radio online player, then tune a radio to the FM frequency you set.

Whole-house satellite radio for under $100.

John Caldwell over at Electronic House has a lengthy blog entry about the quality (or lack thereof) in satellite radio. It’s a quiet problem few people are willing to talk about.

His rant is directed at XM and not owning XM, we can’t comment about XM’s sound quality. But the inventor of satellite radio, Sirius, was interviewed today on the Howard Stern show and spoke to this issue. He said that XM used cheaper components and a cheaper, easier technology to implement its radio broadcasting via satellite, which affects things like sound quality and reception.

Sirius, on the other hand, spent more time in development and working on quality (realizing that quality does indeed matter). And so while it hurt their business to be second to market, anybody who’s listened to the two in side-by-side comparisons notices the sound quality difference.

That said, both technologies, we believe, allow for “high” and “low” fidelity broadcasts. Stern is broadcast like the music channels on Sirius, in “high” quality fidelity. Having been a listener now for years, I have to say I’m hard pressed to tell the difference between Sirius and an FM station or even a CD while in my car.

My biggest problem is I live in an area where a lot of the roads have trees and other obstructions overhanging them. I get dropouts regularly, and that is my biggest pet peeve with satellite radio. There’s little that can be done about drop-outs (times when the sound just cuts out for a second or two), since it is a satellite line-of-sight issue. In cities, the companies fix this with repeaters, but that doesn’t help the majority of Americans who live outside a big urban center.

Ah well. The joy of satellite is the commercial-free aspect and the ability to listen to the same stations (and shows like Howard Stern) anywhere in the country. That is a very big, positive freedom to have, and one we here at Satellite Blog very much enjoy!!

If the FCC approves the Sirius and XM Radio merger, they would only do so because they consider their competition to be “all of radio,” including terrestrial radio.

But, if they are on the same playing field as terrestrial radio, then shouldn’t they have to play by the same rules as traditional radio, including FCC oversight?

The Sirius and XM merger can’t have their cake and eat it too. If they are not creating a monopoly (and only an idiot would think they aren’t — how many other satellite radio operators are there?), then they should be regulated as all radio is regulated (for better or worse).

Otherwise, it’s clear they’re creating a monopoly and consumer prices will rise.

Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin joined the cast of “The Howard Stern Show” this morning to share with the shock-jock’s audience his reasons for the merger with XM and how it will be “good for subscribers.”

First of all, he eschewed the suggestion that the combined company would be a monopoly, thus allowing it to raise prices. “We still compete with terrestrial radio,” he said, reiterating the fact that his biggest competition offers its service for free. In addition, he mentioned Apple’s iPod as a competitor to satellite radio.

He even said that, if it would assure the passage of the merger through the appropriate regulatory commissions, he would make promises concerning subscription prices.

One question that’s been on the minds of subscribers and dealers has been whether they’ll have access to both services, or will they need to purchase additional equipment. Karmazin, who would be the CEO of the combined company, said that the immediate intention is to offer both services to both subscriber bases, by piggybacking the channels from one service onto another. However, it’s true that the direct connections between satellites and receivers are not compatible and new equipment will be required to do that.

In fact, one sticking point in the merger, Karmazin said, was the fact that XM has forged more deals with automotive manufacturers than Sirius, leading the former to demand a bigger share of the combined company’s value. The two companies ended up going 50-50.

Another problem Karmazin feels the merger solves is the fact that sports fans have to choose which service they want, depending on the sport they enjoy most, since XM and Sirius combined carry the NHL, NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball, but not individually.

Other issues Karmazin and the self-described “King of All Media” discussed were Stern’s wedding plans and Stern sidekick Artie Lange’s concerns about how the merger will affect the selection available in the company’s vending machines.

Dish Network shut off access to out-of-local-market network stations to 900,000 people nationwide this week. For many, morning rituals of watching New York City morning news, or catching tidbits from ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox stations from outside their local markets.

DirecTV generated about $1 billion of free cash flow before interest and taxes this year, doubling last year’s output, and analysts expect earnings per share to jump 21% next year, to $1.31.

In the 2006 third quarter, DirecTV’s customer churn rate was a higher-than-expected 1.8%, and the company added fewer new subscribers than expected. But it was able to boost its percentage of higher-quality customers while containing subscriber-acquisition costs. Also, satellite-TV players continue to win “eyeballs,” despite intensifying competition from cable. DirecTV has 15.68 million subscribers, up from 14.9 million last spring.

Barron’s noted the stock is up more than 60% this year — and argues investors still might not sell, despite the run-up in price. I’ve kept my entire position intact, thinking we’ve got more upside.

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. announced that it would cut year-end 2006 subscriber guidance to between 5.9 and 6.1 million. Sirius shares closed lower by 7.67%. This year’s retail sales results will be hurt by lackluster holiday sales.

This bad news for Sirius is also bad news for RadioShack Corp. According to DowJones, BMO Capital Markets believes that RadioShack has “significant exposure to Sirius at an estimated 5-10% of revenues and one of the only categories that was growing this year for the company.” BMO concludes that the Sirius subscriber cut could put a drag on RadioShack fourth quarter sales and put in jeopardy BMO’s 2007 full year earnings outlook.

In 2004, RadioShack agreed with Sirius to begin selling and marketing satellite radio in which Sirius would pay RadioShack based on how many new subscribers the company signs up in its 7,000 stores nationwide.

XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. on Tuesday said that automaker General Motors Corp. plans to make over 1.8 million vehicles with the XM radio-service built-in in 2007.

Every GM vehicle with factory-installed XM radio includes a three-month trial service period. After that period, customers typically pay about $13 a month for the nationwide system, which features music, news, talk and sports channels, many of them commercial-free.

XM and rival Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. see factory-installed units in millions of new cars as an important means of gaining new subscribers, and between them have signed deals with all the major car makers. In many cases, consumers can also have their choice of satellite service installed at a local dealer.