XM Satellite Radio
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| XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. | |
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| Type | Public (NASDAQ: XMSR) |
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| Founded | 1988 |
| Headquarters | Washington, DC, USA |
| Key people | Hugh Panero, President and CEO Nate Davis, President and COO Gary Parsons, Chairman Lee Abrams, Chief Creative Officer |
| Industry | Broadcasting - Radio |
| Products | Satellite Radio |
| Revenue |  US$558.266 Million (2005) |
| Net income |  -US$675.312 Million (2005) |
| Employees | 710 (2005) |
| Website | XMradio.com XMwxweather.com |
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"XM" redirects here. For other uses, see XM (disambiguation).
XM Satellite Radio Holdings (XM) (NASDAQ: XMSR) is one of two satellite radio (SDARS) services in the United States and Canada, along with SIRIUS Satellite Radio. XM provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to premium cable television. Its service includes 73 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. "XM142", "XM7", "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 1988 as American Mobile Radio Corporation.
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[edit] Services
XM-capable receivers cost US$30 – US$400. 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 multi-year packages at a discount.
XM also offers most of its channels via 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. Some of XM's more general music channels are available free of charge via AOL Radio and Winamp.
XM offers "true" mobile services, utilizing the built in antenna in its XM2go receivers to transmit a live satellite signal to iPod-sized battery operated devices. Sound Quality and signal issues continue to plague these 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 some of 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 2005, AirTran Airways began putting XM Satellite Radio on their aircraft, while in January 2006, JetBlue Airways added XM Radio to their aircraft. United Airlines started carrying prerecorded XM content in March 2006.
In 2006, the service "XM for Business" was launched on the DirecTV platform to provide 15 channels of interruption-free background music. This service replaces the Music Choice business audio service formerly offered by DirecTV. The XM for Business channels are in the upper 500s as of August 2006 and include an exclusive "Taste of Italy" channel. The channels are programmed separately from the consumer service, but share the same names, themes, and playlists. More importantly for the background music needs of business audio these channels do not feature any kind of interruption and do not feature radio hosts, imaging, or sounders.
Effective 1 October, 2006 the 15 channels of interruption-free background music formerly part of "XM for Business" were moved from satellite 101 to satellite 119 (DirecTV-7S at 119°W). Reception now requires a single 18" dish aimed at 119°W or a Phase3 oval dish with three LNBFs and a multi-satellite-capable receiver. Long-popular receivers such as the RCA Model DRD430RG are not compatible with the new satellite service.[citation needed]
[edit] Company timeline
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[edit] Technology
XM provides digital programming directly from three high-powered satellites in geostationary orbit above the equator. XM-1 ("Roll") and XM-2 ("Rock") are co-located at 115° west longitude and XM-3 ("Rhythm") is located 85° 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., the southern tip of Alaska, and in the southern part of Canada. The signal can also be received in the Caribbean Islands and most of Mexico (reports have stated that areas north of Acapulco are able to receive a steady signal[2]), however XM is not yet licensed for reception by paid subscribers living in these areas.
Unfortunately, XM-1 and XM-2 are suffering from a generic design fault on the Boeing 702 series of satellites (fogging of the solar panels), 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 on February 28, 2005 and moved into XM-1's previous location of 85° WL. XM-1 was then moved to be co-located with XM-2 at 115° WL, where each satellite operates only one transponder (thus broadcasting half the bandwidth each) to conserve energy and cut the power consumption in half. XM has current plans to launch XM-4 ("Blues") as early as September 2006 into the 115° WL location to complete their satellite replacement program. Provided the launch and handover of the satellite are successful, XM-1 will then be powered down and drifted back to its original location at 85° WL, where it will remain as a backup to XM-3. XM-2 will be powered down as well and remain as a backup to XM-4.[3]
On June 7, 2005, Space Systems/Loral announced that it had been awarded a contract for XM-5 [4]. XM-5 will feature two large unfurlable antennas. Sirius 5, also to be built by Loral, will have a similar single large antenna.
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. Due to a FCC filing in October 2006, the latest list of XM's US terrestrial repeater network was made available to the public. This data is available now in both Google Maps and Google Earth formats.
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.
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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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. One consequence of this was that XM had (and still has) exclusive programming rights to all Clear Channel content, including popular national shows like Glenn Beck and Coast to Coast AM. 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 kbit/s 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 plus the existing talk channel programming (XM165 Talk Radio, XM152 Extreme XM, XM142 Fox Sports Radio, and XM173 WLW). Plans to introduce new regional based talk channels, which would have featured a local 2-3 minute newscast for each area of the country, were cancelled. 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 US Country (XM17), Flight 26 (XM26), XM Hitlist (XM30) and Escape (XM78) to provide commercial free music in the formats of the Clear Channel programmed music channels which were going to begin airing commercials. 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 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.
[edit] Subscribers
[edit] XM vs RIAA
In 2006, XM Satellite Radio was sued by the RIAA over XM's new portable devices the Inno and Helix. The RIAA claims these devices are equivalent to a downloading service, whereas XM contends the devices are protected as fair use under the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act. In July, XM requested that a federal judge dismiss the case. It should be noted that XM's subscribers can only save songs they hear on the radio, and cannot request a specific song to be downloaded, or program their radios to record specific artists. XM's portable devices allow the consumer to record a portion of their broadcast much like a VCR, DVR, or cassette player would allow.
[edit] 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.
[edit] See also
- List of XM Satellite Radio channels
- XM Radio Canada
- XM Satellite Radio channel history
- WorldSpace
- Boeing Satellite Systems
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Official XM Radio websites
- Fan sites
- Orbitcast popular Satellite Radio blog.
- XM411 XM fansite plus store.
- XMFan XM fansite plus store.
- XM Living XM blog and store
- WhatsOnMyXM.com An XM programming community.
- Satellite Radio Government Filings Watchdog
(Investor related)
