Sirius XM Seeking to Move to XM

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Sirius XM chief financial officer David Frear admitted by all appearances that the satellite radio company expects to convert to one platform—most likely XM.

At a Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference Thursday Frear was asked, “Are you are you going to choose one operating platform?”

Frear did not say “no.” He said this: “…The advantage of the XM platform is that 60 percent of the auto industry is already on it, so if you’re going to try and get all of your electronics manufacturing on one platform, it’s easier to have 40 percent flip to what 60 percent are doing….but at the end of the day it’s a decision to be made by the auto makers. We’ll certainly encourage them to go in a direction…”

Really?

This may be a 10 year process however. Frear continued, “It’s a long term implementation. The exciting part of it is really 10 years out. We would ultimately be able to open up one set of spectrum for another set of revenue generating purposes.”

This confirms what a number of industry sources have told us in the past and a trusty source confirmed today. Sirius XM is looking to gradually steer new and current customers to the XM platform. The company sees this as a very long term migration, but it wants to get it done.

We have to admit that one Sirius XM executive denied the move to XM to us about a month ago.

So call us crazy, but the movement to XM seems to be a foot.

Frear also said there are currently 32 to 33 million satellite radios in cars on the road. By 2015 that number will multiply to 70 million and the opportunity to turn on radios in second hand cars will be huge.

If Sirius XM is to shift to XM, then millions of consumers with Sirius radios will be shut out, according to our trusty source. It is possible that Sirius XM, after years of pushing XM over to Sirius, could finally offer a special deal on Sirius radios to get the job done.

There was no immediate response to our inquiry on the matter today from Sirius XM.

Source: CEoutlook

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5 Comments

  1. I’m a huge fan of drive time radio and I don’t have Sirius or Sirius XM yet. I think that millions of consumers still on the fence like myself will now see an opportunity to be frugal and still treat ones self to a luxury item. I will start shopping retailers for the best buy because it will only be on the planet for the next 10 years. The selling point is the signal is less enterrupted than XM. I like the idea of becoming a Sirius man.

  2. In view of this, how can a retailer today in good faith sell a customer a Sirius receiver, knowing that it will stop working in ten years or less. More importantly, how about a car dealer? Most CE products today have useful life spans of less than ten years, but today\’s cars last longer than the used to.

  3. Uhhh this sounds like a no brainer to me and since the company has amalgamated wouldn’t it be beneficial to use XM satellites to broadcast SIRIUS or vice versa depending what they actually decide to use for there sole platform

  4. This may be a good move for some but not for others. I hear weekly from my customers and others about how XM cuts out because of trees buildings and such obstructions that Sirius doesn’t seem to have a problem with. I have tried different receivers in my own vehicle and experienced similar results. Switching over to XM satellites is a bad idea that will cost Sirius/XM subscribers. This is a fact!!

  5. Smart Move !!! To open the Sirius spectrum for another set of revenue generating purposes gives them unlimited possibilities for new revenue and services.

    Great news for the Aftermarket… So many cars on the Sirius platform that will need to convert over to XM.

    Here at Blitzsafe we have been doing just that for years !

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