XM Satellite Radio
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Template:Infobox Company$558.266 Million USD (2005) |
net_income =Template:Loss-$675.312 Million USD (2005)| num_employees = 710 (2005)| homepage = www.xmradio.com, www.xmwxweather.com
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XM Satellite Radio Holdings (XM) Template:NASDAQ is a satellite radio (DARS) service in the United States and Canada. XM provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to premium cable television. Its service includes 69 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional traffic and weather channels and 23 play-by-play sports channels. XM channels are identified by Arbitron with the label "XM" (e.g. "XM175", "XM4", "XM32"). Meanwhile, AOL Radio, a division of America Online's media sector, offers select XM Satellite Radio channels streamed live through Winamp, AOL Instant Messenger Triton, and AOL Radio, free of charge.
XM was founded in 1992 as American Mobile Radio Corporation.
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Services
XM-capable receivers cost US$30 – US$300. If opting for the month-to-month plan, service fees are US$12.95 for the first receiver, and US$6.99 each for up to four additional receivers on the same account. Subscribers may opt to purchase one-, two-, three-, four-, or five-year packages, in which the average monthly cost would be under US$10.00 per month. XM Satellite Radio produces the majority of its channels, as well as a few others that are not available via satellite, available on the Internet. The Internet-only subscription fee is US$7.99 per month; those with an active satellite subscription do not need to pay an additional charge. XM is currently the only satellite radio service to offer true mobile services, utilizing the built in antenna in its MyFi to transmit a live satellite signal to iPod-sized battery operated devices.
XM also provides data services such as weather information for pilots and weather spotters through its XM WX Satellite Weather datacasting service, in addition to real-time weather and traffic updates aired every two minutes for major metropolitan areas on some of XM's audio channels.
DirecTV now gives listeners as part of its service the music and talk channels of XM, but not the news or traffic channels.
XM also offers music downloads though XM+Napster. This service is being integrated with XM Online and the new XM receivers, Inno & Helix.
In January 2006, JetBlue Airways started carrying XM Radio on their aircraft. United Airlines followed suit, starting in March 2006.
Company timeline
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Technology
Image:Xm radio headquarters2.jpg XM provides digital programming directly from three satellites in geostationary orbit above the equator. XM-1 ("Roll") and XM-2 ("Rock") are co-located at 115 degrees west longitude and XM-3 ("Rhythm") is located 85 degrees west longitude in addition to a network of ground-based repeaters. The combination of three satellites and a ground-based repeater network is designed to provide gap-free coverage anywhere within the continental U.S. Unfortunately, XM-1 and XM-2 are suffering from a generic design fault on the Boeing 702 series of satellites, which means that their lifetimes will be shortened to approximately six years (instead of the design goal of 15 years). To compensate for this flaw, XM-3 was launched earlier than anticipated and moved into XM-1's previous location. XM-1 was then moved over next to XM-2, where each satellite operates only one transponder to conserve energy.
In American and Canadian metropolitan areas, XM and its Canadian Licensee known as Canadian Satellite Radio (CSR), own and operate a network of approximately 900 terrestrial repeater stations, meant to compensate for satellite signal blockage by buildings, tunnels, and bridges. In the United States XM owns and operates approximately 800 repeater sites covering 60 markets; in Canada CSR is installing approximately 80 to 100 repeaters that will be owned and operated by CSR in the 16 largest Canadian cities. The actual number of repeater sites varies as the signal is regularly tested and monitored for optimal performance. The actual number of sites in the United States has dropped from the original 1,000 installed when the service first launched in 2001. The repeaters transmit in the same frequency band as the satellites. A typical city contains 20 or more terrestrial stations. Typically the receiver owner is unaware when a terrestrial station is being used, unless he or she checks antenna information from the receiver being used.
The XM signal uses 12.5 MHz of the S band: 2332.5 to 2345.0 MHz. XM has agreed to provide 128 kilobits per second of its bandwidth to OnStar Corporation for use with XM-enabled GM vehicles, regardless of whether their owners are XM subscribers. American Honda also retains the right to some of the company's bandwidth to transmit coded traffic information directly to navigation systems using TMC technology.
Audio channels on XM are digitally compressed using the aacPlus codec from Coding Technologies for most channels, and the AMBE codec from Digital Voice Systems for some voice channels. Due to bandwidth restrictions and a large channel load, the maximum bitrate XM broadcast from its satellite per music channel is limited to 64kbps.
XM channels XM Pops and Fine Tuning are broadcast in 5.1 surround sound audio quality. The technology, titled XM HD Surround, is a partnership between XM and Neural Audio Corporation which provides content with six discrete channels of digital full fidelity audio powered by Neural Audio technology. XM Live also broadcasts in this format for select concerts and studio performances. XM manufacturing partners such as Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc., and Yamaha have introduced home audio systems capable of playing XM HD Surround powered by Neural Audio.
Controlling interest
The company's May 2004 proxy statement notes that four directors are subject to director designation agreements with GM, American Honda, the chairman, and the CEO. Four additional directors are investors, and two are not affiliated with any significant stockholders.
At that time, GM owned 8.6% of the Class A common stock (a voting percentage of less than 1%) and Honda owned 13% (with a voting percentage of 3.6%).
Unless they unaminously agree otherwise, control of the company remains with the preferred shareholder and noteholders of the company, including Hughes Electronics, GM, Honda, and several private investment groups.
Clear Channel programming agreement
As part of terrestrial radio giant Clear Channel Communications' early investment into XM in 1998, the companies entered into agreements which provided for certain programming and director designation arrangements as long as Clear Channel retained the full amount of its original investment in XM. In June 2003, Clear Channel entered into a forward sales agreement relating to its ownership of XM. During the third quarter of 2005, Clear Channel and XM arbitrated the impact of this agreement on the Operational Assistance Agreement and the Director Designation Agreement. The Arbitration Panel decided that the Operational Assistance Agreement would remain in effect, including Clear Channel's right to receive a revenue share of commercial advertising on programming it provides to XM, but declined to enforce the Director Designation Agreement. Per the original agreement, Clear Channel has the right to program 409.6 kbps of XM bandwidth, including forcing XM to include commercial advertising. The current plans for this bandwidth will include up to 5 music channels including: XM11 Nashville!, XM21 KISS, XM22 Mix, XM24 Sunny, and the relaunch of WSIX on XM161 - the existing talk channel programming (XM165 Ask!, XM166 America Right, XM152 Extreme XM, XM142 Fox Sports Radio, XM173 WLW) and new regional based talk channels - all of which will begin airing commercials. The music channel advertising is expected to be limited to the 5-6 minute per hour maximum that was in place prior to XM taking its music channels commercial-free in 2004.
Seen as a blow to XM's 100% commercial-free music channel status, XM Executive Vice President of Programming Eric Logan released a programming announcementto XM subscribers on the company's website that reiterated XM's commitment to commercial-free music while noting that XM still had the most commercial-free music and that more commercial-free music channels will be added in the near future to ensure that XM will still have more commercial-free music than competitor Sirius Satellite Radio. On April 17, 2006, XM launched 10 new music channels. Some of these include XM Liquid Metal, ch 42; XM Hit List, ch 30; and Flight 26, ch 26. Other channels are expected to be in the genres of country, pop/hits, R&B, and latin. In response, Sirius has displayed that they are the only satellite radio provider that is 100% commercial free with music. Both XM and Sirius air commercials currently on their news, talk, and sports channels.
The Clear Channel forward sales agreement with Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc is set to expire in 2008, at which time Clear Channel is expected to deliver to Bear Stearns over 8.3 million shares in XM — which is their original investment — however Clear Channel withholds the right to settle with cash. If Clear Channel settles with shares, then it would be expected at that time that Clear Channels' Operational Assistance Agreement with XM would terminate, along with any and all programming provided by Clear Channel.
XM in Canada
In November 2004, Canadian Satellite Radio filed an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to bring the XM service to Canada. Along with Sirius Canada and CHUM Subscription Radio Canada, CSR was one of three applications for national subscription radio services submitted to the CRTC.
On June 16, 2005, the CRTC approved all three applications. The decisions were appealed to the Canadian federal Cabinet by a number of broadcasting, labour, and arts and culture organizations, including the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, CHUM Limited, and the National Campus and Community Radio Association. The groups objected to the satellite radio applicants' approach to and reduced levels of Canadian Content and French-language programming, along with the exclusion of Canadian non-commercial broadcasting. After a lengthy debate, Cabinet rejected the appeals on September 9, 2005.
XM's Canadian channels appeared on US receivers on November 17, 2005. On November 29, 2005, XM Canada officially launched.
See also
External links
Official XM Radio websites
Fan sites
In alphabetical order:
- OnXm XM Radio news site.
- Orbitcast popular Satellite Radio blog.
- XM411 XM fansite (with over 18,739 members) plus store.
- XMFan XM fansite (with over 38,294 members) plus store.
- WhatsOnMyXM.com An XM programming community with show programming grid, RSS feeds and shows wiki.
- T.O. Talk (www.totalk.ca), the Toronto talk radio forum, hosts an XM discussion area.fr:XM Satellite Radio