XM is switching its subscription plan to bring them more revenue but they’re also cutting the price of unbundled
services by making them standard features. XM formerly cost $9.99 per month for the first radio and an additional $3.99
per month for Internet streaming (70 channels out of their lineup) and $1.99 per month for High Voltage, which includes
Anthony and Opie.
The new $12.95 per month price bundles that all together, but XM is offering the chance for existing subscribers to
buy one to five year subscriptions at the current price. This is definitely a price increase for subscribers who don’t
about or for streaming XM—I, for one, don’t yet—but a price drop for what is a reasonable subset of their users. The
new pricing goes into effect on April 2.
Sirius charges $12.95 per month including streaming (65 channels, but who is counting, really?). They’ve trumpeted the
price difference on their Web site against “Brand X.” I guess they’ll have to revise that page.
It’s probably not bad timing for XM to make this switch: they have millions of locked-in subscribers who will be vaguely annoyed and then (if they check) discover that Sirius has the same prices and a similar line-up. If you’ve already bought XM equipment, are you going to sell it, buy Sirius, and pay the same subscription fee?
1. This reeks of price fixing. Particularly when XM licensees some of it's streaming tech to Sirius and therefore has a stake in their rivals survival. Why should they lower their prices when we can raise ours. And just to really tic me off I can't use their streaming service on my mac, what's the point anyway? And I really don't want to pay for Opie and Anthony.
Posted at 6:06PM on Dec 5th 2005 by Mark