Sirus (and XM) Get Serious About Canada
For folks south of the border, the aggressive marketing activities of XM and Sirius
are nothing new but it's
still pretty impressive for us Canadians as both satellite-radio
players have recently launched their services after receiving
regulatory approval (also known as having to add Canadian content). The weekend newspapers
(National Post, Toronto
Star, Globe & Mail) had full-color four-eight-page special sections from Sirus that showed consumers pretty
much everything they wanted to know about the service (but may have been afraid
to ask!). Meanwhile, the major retailers such as Best Buy, Future Shop,
Canadian Tire and Wal-Mart are also pumping sales of satellite
receivers with attractive prices that make you say “Well, why the heck
not?”. Frankly, I'm not a big satellite radio fan but I don't have a
long commute, and prefer to listen to local news and sports. One of the
problems I had with satellite radio was the lack of choice, which seems
somewhat strange given it offers more than 100 channels. When it's boiled down,
there are only about eight rock/pop music stations on XM, and they still have to
appeal to a wide audience to justify their place on the “dial”. This
means they tend to be fairly generic, which is why you get broad channels
that focus on music from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, for example. Still, there is a
large audience out there for people who have long commutes or dislike
commercial radio or simply like the idea of more than 100
commercial-free channels. And at C$15 a month, or 50 cents a day, it's
far lss than a cup of coffee at Starbucks. While you will not see me
with a satellite radio - at least for now - it would not be a big surprise me
to see plenty of Canadians jump on the bandwagon this holiday
season.
December 4th, 2005 at 11:11 am
I know at least one Canadian satellite fan who has signed up for Sirius — but the U.S. version. He got the receiver cheaper (even with the currency conversion) the montly fee is lower, and he says he gets all the Canadian channels as well as the U.S. ones. But most important, he gets Howard Stern, a pleasure (although that's debatable) that Canadians are denied…
December 4th, 2005 at 5:42 pm
One thing I have really noticed is how much better XM is doing with their marketing (I should say promotion - my guess is that in terms of distribution, pricing, product, etc., they are essentially the same). It's almost stunning to me how poorly Sirius is going about delivering their message.
XM is bold, simple, relevant and clear. The brand name is front and centre and the design really stands out. Seems well thought out and well executed. Sirius, on the other hand, is almost murky with their stuff. The brand name is almost hard to find, the TV stuff is very unclear, and to date it is eminently forgettable. Plus, they were the later of the two.
Just on the basis of how they are bringing the product the market, XM looks set to be the winner of the two, IMHO.
Oh, and no plans to subscribe to either, here. I agree that the overall offer is pretty weak, at least in as vibrant a radio market as we have here in Toronto. Personally, I have no desire to pay for 100 channels of nothing on.
- Stuart
December 5th, 2005 at 4:05 pm
As a long time XM (US version) subscriber, and a guy with a long commute in Vancouver, I simply love the service, more for the news and comment during the commutes. My kids love the music, especially the feature that lets their favourite artists pop up whenever they are on another channel (Sky-Fi2 by Delphi does this). Here's the thing that XM and Sirius better do FAST: Get repeaters in the downtown core of the major Canadian cities. Satellite's high frequency means line of sight… when you are downtown, you lose the signal. In the US, in 2001 they installed low to the ground repeaters in all the “NFL” cities. In Seattle, my radio worked 2 floors below the ground in a parking garage!!
It won't take too long for the backlash to begin if they don't do the repeaters… and please start in Vancouver!