Hardly sounds like a balanced analysis. Why so sour on Sirius? To me,
the latter has better and more diverse overall content--including
sports. But I wouldn't trash XM as a result.

John Figliozzi

On Wednesday, December 8, 2004, at 06:15 AM, airwaves-digest wrote:

Date: Tue, 07 Dec 2004 14:31:25 -0500
From: "H Glazer"
Subject: [Airwaves] Sirius Satellite Radio Sports and Music

Tyler Wells wrote in message
...
What is everyone's thoughts of Sirius's sports and music programming?

I think the music channels are great, there are repeats, but hey, some
repeats are good. The sound quality is superb, and I think te DJ's ad
a little "zing" to it. My favorite has to be Hits1, but I also enjoy
tons more.

I am a football fan, and I like being able to hear both NFL and
College games from across the country. I am also looking forward to
the NHL and British soccer games. March Madness should also be great!


XM acquired the only radio rights that really mean anything when it got
baseball for the next 11 years. Many teams have huge out-of-market
followings, and the TV Extra Innings package, while helpful,
frustrates fans
with its complex blackout restrictions that prevent the airing of all
teams'
games in most areas. XM will plug that gap with home feeds of every
game.

Sirius greatly overpaid for the NFL. Most fans set aside Sunday
afternoons
for football on TV, not radio, and the Sunday Ticket package provides
every
game, albeit not on cable yet due to the ill-advised exclusive deal
with
DirectTV. Hockey (if it ever comes back) and English soccer are niche
sports, unlikely to generate significant number of new subscriptions.
March
Madness is four freakin' weeks and not even every day of those weeks --
Sirius paid big bucks for fewer than 20 days of programming, and when
the
tournament gets down to the Sweet 16, every game is on national TV
anyway,
so Sirius will only be providing something unavailable to
out-of-market fans
(who, along with gamblers, are the target audience) for the first two
rounds.

Also, won't XM be able to carry the home feeds of all the schools in
the
conferences it carries should they get to the tournament, or did its
deals
with the ACC, Big Ten and Pac Ten only apply to regular season and
conference tournament games? XM somehow managed to air the Big Twelve
championship football game -- Oklahoma vs. Colorado -- a couple of
days ago
despite having no deal with the conference or either school, and
Sirius has
shut XM out of home feeds of USC, UCLA, Michigan and Ohio State,
despite
XM's having a contract with those schools' conferences, by signing
exclusive
deals directly with the schools, so who knows what "exclusive" means
in the
backstabbing world of sat radio sports rights?

Those interested in the AM/FM for sale in GA call me
ASAP. (478)741-1710.

Meyer Gottesman, W6GIV
aka The "Radio Crazy"


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