SlashGear Japan
All of you long time Sirius XM satellite radio subscribers may have something more to worry about starting in spring. According to “ken.muise” at the Digital Radio Central forums you may have more expensive fees as well as some changes to the service they provide by springtime.
The person who is starting this rumor claims to be an employee of the Sirius XM Activations Department, if anyone would know these new policy changes it would be the activation department. The first rumor outlines that each additional radio added will costs $8.99, which is a $2 increase from standard pricing today. The second string of bad news is that online streaming will now cost you $2.99 for most packages rather than being entirely free. This service can also range up to $8.99 a month for the Mostly Music and family Pack.
Luckily for current subscribers you can “lock in” the current price you are paying for service as well as the free online streaming. It appears that Sirius is also feeling the economic crunch on such a level that raising prices is the only way to save them from such a fate that we have been seeing all over.
3 Responses to “Sirius XM rumored to raise pricing by spring 2009”
Joe Kleon January 20, 2009
FWIW, whoever that is at Digital Radio Central needs to do their homework. Sirius and XM agreed to FCC terms that prevents them from increasing their prices for 3 years from the close of the merger. The soonest they can raise their prices is on July 29, 2011.
================================================================================
To address concerns about such potential price increases, Applicants have voluntarily committed to cap the retail prices on their basic subscription package and on the new programming packages that they voluntarily commit to offer. Specifically, Applicants voluntarily commit to not raise the retail prices on their basic $12.95 per month subscription package, their a la carte programming
package, their “best of both” programming packages, their “mostly music” and their “news, sports, and talk” programming packages, and their discounted family-friendly programming package. Applicants voluntarily commit to these price caps for at least 36 months after consummation of the merger.
We accept this voluntary commitment and conclude that it will mitigate the harm from any post-merger price increases. In addition, Applicants may not reduce the number of channels in either their current packages or their new packages for three years. Some commenters submit that the price cap should be longer than three years, arguing that the potential harms will still remain at the end of the period. We do not know what the competitive landscape will be like in three years. Accordingly, six months prior to the expiration of the commitment period, the Commission will seek public comment on whether the cap continues to be necessary in the public interest. The Commission will then determine whether it should be modified, removed, or extended.
-2SirJeff January 20, 2009
What the FCC terms don’t state is that they must keep the same price for “additional” receivers and their Internet streaming. Sirius can, and probably will, raise the prices for additional receivers and Internet streaming.
NeutralSiriusBuzz January 20, 2009
I posted earlier today that this was not a rumor and now I can unequivocally say that it is confirmed: http://siriusbuzz.com/sirius-x.....firmed.php
Neutral