Is Sirius XM About To Raise Rates On Its Customers?
UPDATE: Confirmed: Sirius Radio Raising Rates March 11
Ryan pointed us to an article on Orbitcast about a rumored fee hike by Sirius XM. The increases appear to be for services that aren't strictly protected by the FCC agreement, which is why they would legally be able to do this despite promises that they wouldn't raise rates for 36 months after the merger.
Remember, this is all rumor at this point, but here's what Orbitcast says is the most likely scenario:
- multiple receive radio fee will increase from $6.99 to $8.99/month
- online listening will increase from free to $8.99/month for Mostly Music and Family Pack subscribers, and $2.99/month for most everyone else
Less likely, because these are blatant FCC violations, are the following rumors:
- Mostly Music/News subscription jumping to $12.95/month
- A La Carte package increasing an unspecified amount
Current subscribers will be given a chance to lock-in their rates, according to these people. You can choose to lock in the Online Listening or $6.99 multiple radio price. Notifications to subscribers are said to start going out on January 26th, and subscribers are rumored to have a chance to lock in their rates by March 11th.
Just for fun, here's what Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin said two years ago during hearings for the proposed merger (as pointed out by a commenter on the Orbitcast thread).
“We are absolutely not a monopoly,” Karmazin said heatedly at one point. “We are absolutely convinced this merger will be in the best interest of consumers,” he maintained. “This merger will give consumers more choice at a lower price and more importantly, less confusion.”
Some of the most pointed exchanges occurred not with the members but at the long witness table between Karmazin and Mark Cooper, research director of the Consumer Federation of America, an advocacy group. Cooper held that, “The argument that consumers will be better off with a benevolent monopolist than competition is absurd. Cost savings will not be passed to consumers. It is competition that is the driver of innovation in this economy, and competition is the best form of protection for consumers."
Karmazin said his people had told him not to get excited and to keep his hands folded at the table. But Cooper, he felt, had gone too far. The monopoly charge, he said, “is the most bizarre thing I’ve ever heard… We are not looking to bankrupt our companies. We are not doing anything that stupid. And we’ll give back some of that saving" to customers.
"Rumor: Price increases to come for Sirius XM" [Orbitcast]
"Satellite Radio Merger Partners Pledge Not to Raise Prices" [Politico]
(Photo: janeyhenning)
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Comments:
I am already on the edge of ending my service with SiriusXM, any price increase will seal the deal. Decrease in decent service with an increase in price = loss
NPR needs to start selling a sat radio and subscription.
Any business model that can't show anything close to profit after obtaining 20 million paying subscribers deserves to go under.
Furthermore, the debacle that is the "merger" continues. No one really knows if they are continuing to operate as seperate companies... some channels merge, others didnt... Im paying full price for XM, not getting things from Sirius that I would like... but wait, I thought it was SiriusXM, not Sirius and XM? WTF is going on with this company?
I'm up for renewal soon while I only have 1 radio and rarely make use of the online stream (Slacker radio FTW!) I'm going to call and see about getting them to renew at $77/year, which apparently they are willing to do if you opt to leave - which I probably will if they don't give me this rate.
I installed the Slacker app on my BlackBerry Curve and not only do I have access to the streaming radio, it works just as well in my car as the XM unit does - without a fee!
I've enjoyed Satrad for a while now but since the mer...I mean, buyout, content has really taken a dive - many tracks are typical of what you'd hear on commercial stations and are played so frequently, it's almost embarrassing.
@John Cavnor: First I lose a bunch of channels I really liked on Sirius, now I pay more for having less? I'm right with you.
I had XM since 05 and was happy with it. Then came Sirius and totally screwed everything up. I had to cancel XM last month. They got rid of my XM150 and brought in their raw dog comedy shit. And many other annoying changes.
It's funny how they said before the merger that it would be great to combine the resources of XM and Sirius to LOWER prices and increase service(s) to customers, yeah, right. We know this story all too well.
@Goatweed:
I have XM only... got renewed at 63 a year after reading on GMC forums that it was possible. Absolutely insist on canceling and you can get it, although you may have to call a few times. 77 is easy to get. Try adding "Best of Sirius" though, and that will inflate it to about 200 for the year, and for some reason that is totally unreasonable and non-negotiable.
I'm an XM subscriber already on the fence about keeping my subscription. It's difficult for me to justify paying the current rate so If they increase the price, I'm gone.
Those damned subscribers. They are so easily confused. I bet if we raise it to $29.99 a month all of their confusion will disappear.
I actually have 5 radios on my account because I enjoyed the service so much. This is NOT the right time for a company to start charging folks more. Really hope they change their minds, or the lesson they are learning might just be a decrease in subs.
I am already paying $12.95 a month, if it goes up though, I will have a hard time giving it up because of my loyalties to all the guys at the Sirius Patriot Radio station. We will see how it goes.
I'm going to be canceling my subscription today. I bought Sirius for Howard. I tried the music channels and found I was changing channels just as often as with regular radio to find songs I like. The other talk channels were too laden with commercials. I just got a new job that blocks Sirius so I can't listen to Howard. So I'm canceling. (I may or may not download howard on bittorrent to put on my iPod :) )
@KarbonKopy: You are so right - with the economy how it is, luxuries like this will be the first to go, and a price increase will tip people into cancellation.
Especially the charge for listening online - I love being able to listen to a show in the car and then when i get to work continue listening to the end etc. it is such a great feature of XM that if they start charging more for both my 2nd radio and my listening online I will seriously consider ditching it...
Sirius is about 1" from being dumped by me. A few months ago they removed my favorite station Buzzsaw, and then repositioned a 24/7 AC/DC station into its spot. Sorry guys, but all AC/DC is not a benefit, and there was already a station that did this before the merge. I've also noticed that my favorite artists aren't played nearly as much anymore. My Sportster 5 alerts me when my favorite artists are on, and before the merger I usually had at least 2 of my favorites playing somewhere at any given time. Now it's much rarer for even one of my favorites to pop up, let alone more than one at a time. DJs have started talking during the beginning of songs, which really pisses me off. Sorry Sirius, but if you start acting like FM radio, I'll treat you like FM, and stop paying for a service I could get for free.
I canceled my account about a month ago. We had two radios on XM and the loss of favorite channels were enough to force us to drop it. Now with this news, I'm glad I did.
I strongly suggest any former XM or Sirius listeners to check out Slacker. I got one myself and in many ways it's better than XM. Plus there's no monthly fee. Now I'm saving almost $200 a year. Win win. :-)
www.slacker.com
I think my husband is paying the old subscription rate of $6 a month or something like that. He's had XM for a long, long time, and I don't think his price has gone up much, if at all. I was thinking about adding a radio for my car, but with this new pricing, I don't think Sirius/XM will get my business.
I have had Sirius for a while, and love it, I can't imagine going back to normal radio. That being said, jacking up the rates is BS. I use the online streaming as well as normal in my car streaming.
I also own an iPhone, and with Pandora on there, maybe I'll dump the Sirius receiver and install some sort of stand for the phone, then I won't have to deal with jacking up the rates...
I'm with ya bud. I've been going back and forth about whether it is worth $10 a month to listen to 1-2 radio stations (mostly music plan) on my way to work and home each day. If they do another rate hike, I'll be cancelling.
Mel's quote was taken WAY out of context. He said that before FCC Chairman Martin (intentionally through negligence) delayed the approval of the merger so long that the stock lost 90% of its value. I was able to sell my stock on Dec 31st so atleast I have a tax right off going for me this year.
If they are to survive, they need to do something. If they raise rates, they will lose a lot of people so, maybe that isn't the answer.
i love my stern.....and i use my radio pretty much all day at work...wife has it in her car, as the secondary sub....she is already pissed 2 stations she loved are now playing different stuff....if prices go up, she will definitely drop it....and i will consider it myself....as much as i love stern, it is pissing me off that they change stations around, and i get nothing more than i had before, but prices will rise
I've been on the fence since the merger as well...as someone from the XM side of things, those new DJ's are annoying as hell. Seriously, what is their purpose? They really need to get rid of the DJs. Once again, they really need to get rid of the DJs.
@AirIntake: Since I need music to concentrate (I don't read with the tv on), and I have to stop whenever a commercial came on or a dj started talking over the beginning or end of a song, I have never listened to talk radio and I gave up on FM radio a number of years ago due to all the talk and commercials. I wanted a radio station (here in NYC, I grew up with WPLJ-FM, WNEW-FM, even WCBS-FM) to be my personal juke box. But I had to stop. Since the merger, the satellite radio on my Directv has had DJs talking. At least before the merger, I could play my classic rock and never hear a spoken word. Even that's ruined now.
How do listen to music now? Through the wonders of CDs in my CD player attached to the speakers. And for the times I'm commuting, via a mp3 player (I can't say iPod since I don't own one).
So, AirInTake, take the one remaining step and dump 'em.
They should have paid us to listen to AC/DC 24/7.... god that was such a bad station(it is now the old boneyard). What is worse when I play my saved music from Fungus it comes up as the AC/DC channel which I hope NO ONE ever sees and thinks I am listening to it.
@ryaninc: Their website touts Slacker Radio Plus as "No ads." So, if you want no ads what, between songs, one has to pay? Also, what is a "skip" that they mention? It seems that right now I get 6 as this song is playing. I think it means I can skip a song they selected for playback. I am going to let them play some stuff for a while and see what happens. There was no ad between the first and second song that they played.
Thanks for the information.
I've had sirius since 2003 and loved it up until the merger. I don't want to deal with worrying about a rate increase so since I was thinking of canceling anyway, mine may be gone tonight...
@lukeroberts: No kidding ... do they realize how many of us have satellite radio in part because we're trying to get away from the typical terrestrial radio DJ?
Having most of the original MTV VJs is a nice touch for nostalgic purposes, but I'd trade them in a heartbeat for people who would stop talking while the music is playing and play the whole track instead of cutting off whatever part they didn't feel like hearing.
I'm not surprised they're raising their rates, though. If neither company was making money prior to the merger, I wouldn't expect the combined company to fix enough problems this quickly to start turning a profit.
Couldn't agree more. I've had to deal with them since the beginning...they should just get rid of them and save the money.
Yes, I have decided to get rid of my Sirius. I have my iPod, and 90gigs of audio books and music. I think I will keep my headphones in for the next four years, and then we will see where everything is.
Off topic a bit, I also canceled my Netflix too. Time to be frugal!
NOooo not Netflix! They are awesome. I love getting movies 1-2 days after I send them in, and even if I am waiting, I can find some ok movies to stream to my xbox...hell I can even watch movies at work if I want! And only $1 more for blu ray...great!
@nova3930: I feel the same way but I had XM. I barely use it anymore just keep forgetting to call and cancel.
I canceled my XM and the rep that handled it asked why. I told her the channels I liked were switched to the Sirius versions, which aren't as deep musically and definitely not as diverse. She agreed, said she was mad and that Ethel and Lucy were 2 of her favorite stations and that she's handled a ton of calls from XM customers canceling.
I agree with you 100%. I was getting really fed up with XM because of the DJ's (I listened to Squizz mostly). Then we get a different station/dj with XM/Sirius, and the DJ still talks for like 20% of my drive home! Squizz was bad though...they started talking about pop news, concerts, weird stories on the net, and having idiots call in and talk about their girlfriends, in addition to interviews with bands. I JUST WANT MUSIC...no dj needed please. I can look at the radio to see who the band is, and what song it is. Anything else is superfluous.
I have a "lifetime" subscription. Given that the company is currently trading at 11 cents a share, I wonder how long that "lifetime" subscription will last.
As an XM subscriber since 2006, I was also dismayed by the changes to XM programming, many of which seemed to take place at the first of January (some were phased in earlier). To be fair, there are a few Sirius channels that I now get that I like, but the overall net has been that of loss. For every new channel I got that I liked, I lost at least 2 to 3.
And in the interest of either bandwidth preservation or cheapness, SiriusXM has now doubled up many of the traffic channels. For instance, Dallas and Houston share one channel (both cities are traffic nightmares during rush hour, as are many US metro areas). This means you sometimes have to listen for 5 to 10 minutes longer just to get your local traffic. That's not what I signed up for!
@Yankees368: Ditto. I was already pissed about the mismanaged merger and the removal of some of my favorite stations. But charging more, even with the increase in ads on a lot of the stations? No way, I will cancel in a heartbeat.
@philmin: They might as well just do a real merger at this point.
It is ridiculous that I pay Sirius a monthly fee but if I want a few channels from XM, which is the same company, I have to pay them more per month.
Fully combine the 2 services, delete the duplicates, make the channel lineups exactly the same for each service and keep the price the same.
If they raise their prices and I still have to pay extra for channels that were XM but are now considered Sirius XM, I will cancel both of my radios.
The execs are going the wrong way with this... Here's what i think they should do if they ever want to turn a profit.
1. Get with every car manufacturer and make sure that you have a unit standard (or a small upgrade) in every vehicle they make.
2. Take about 10 of the music channels (and maybe an in-house news channel) and make them free and ad-supported.
3. Push upgrades on your customer base, once the customers are trained to use the satellite radio as their go-to source of in-car entertainment, enticing them with no ads and a wider range of programming should be a much easier proposition.
If they don't do something to shore up their bottom line, we'll be listening to GE/Sirius/XM in about a year.
Anybody know what happened to the online account management for XM? I want to see when my subscription is up, but they've gutted the website. Now all it lets you do is change your email.
i've been an xm subscriber for 4 years (paying for 3 subs). already torqued that they neutered the rock stations. all three subs will go away if they raise the rates after neutering the content.
Call 'em up and ask for one year at $77 (approximately half the standard rate). If they won't give it to you, tell them you're going to cancel. Retention will give you the price; I just renewed for another year at that rate myself (after being told by the first rep that was a one-time deal, of course).
@John Cavnor: I would dump my XM but
1. I love O&A (since the WNEW days of the 90's)
and 2. Regular radio is crap. I have been with XM now since 2004 and the idea of listening to terrestrial radio is something I cant stomach.
@John Cavnor: Yeah, nail in the XM coffin for me too. The merger was the first, a price hike would be the last.
@Yankees368: I went from the $14.95/month regular to the $12.95/month family plan because the only things that they remove with that plan are rap and comedy stations I don't listen to anyway. If it weren't for MLB games, I would have cancelled already.
Since the merger the playlists on the stations I listen to have gone down to what seems like maybe 50 songs each. I was on a 14 hour drive last week and heard Jessica by the Allman Brothers 3 times on the same station in that time. Ridiculous.
I've been on the verge of canceling for a while too. I have been noticing more and more commercials on the talk stations and them sneaking commercials into the music channels as well. Screw them. If I wanted commercial music, I'd turn on FM
I've been trying to justify the cost too. With long road trips that I take I could. But with their changes, former XM stations that now have DJs and others that have been bastardized, I'm more than ready to make the jump.
Podcasts on my iPod and the promise of portable Slacker radio would be a viable substitute. But the road updates...
Guess I might wait to see if this change in fees is a reality.
Ya, that's it. If they actually do this, I'm dumping my account.