College students in the US are about to head back to school, and unsurprisingly, many companies have rolled out their student subscription plans once more. SiriusXM threw its hat in the student plan ring today, announcing one that heavily discounts the cost of its standard Premier plan. That's all well and good, but is it enough to go up against giants like Spotify and Apple Music?
SiriusXM, the company known for its satellite radio service, has announced a new streaming plan that offers subscribers more than 300 of its radio channels outside of their vehicle. Though the plan doesn't offer quite as much as the company's Premier tier subscription, the new offering gives customers access to 24/7 comedy channels, on-demand content, and more.
Soon after revealing its plan to acquire Pandora Media last year, SiriusXM announced back in February that it would add Pandora music channels to the SiriusXM app this year. In a new announcement today, SiriusXM revealed that it will be bringing some of its biggest talk shows to Pandora's podcasting platform. The ported talk programming includes "Jenny McCarthy's Celebrity Dirt," "The Jason Ellis Show," "The Hoda Show," and more.
Satellite radio company SiriusXM is hoping to lure in new subscribers by offering Amazon Echo owners three free months of service. The new promotion is open to all Echo devices, such as the Echo Dot and Echo Show. There is a big catch, though, that'll leave some device owners out of luck.
It isn't exactly a secret that SiriusXM has lost a bit of its luster with the rise of inexpensive music streaming services, but as the old saying goes, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." SiriusXM has announced its intention to buy Pandora, which is one of the most popular music streaming services around. The proposed acquisition is valued at $3.5 billion, and the resulting company would be one of the largest music streaming businesses around.
Netflix, as part of its overall original content push, has released many of its own comedy specials, including ones featuring major comedic names like Seinfeld and Bill Burr. You need a Netflix account to watch these originals, but soon you'll have the option to listen to them -- at least parts of them -- using satellite radio service SiriusXM.
Back in August, Amazon rolled out a new multi-room feature for Echo devices. This feature allows you to utilize individual Echo devices in your collection, defining groups of speakers and commanding Alexa to play music through only the speakers in that group. Today, that functionality is rolling out to Spotify and SiriusXM subscribers.
The satellite audio service SiriusXM Radio is now available on the 4th-generation Apple TV and Apple TV 4K. Access is facilitated through the SiriusXM app, though you need to have a Sirius subscription, of course. The service offers more than 200 hours of audio channels, including news, talk, comedy, music, sports, and more. The service, as with other for-pay audio subscriptions, is commercial-free.
Pandora and SiriusXM are hooking up, with a $480m investment into the streaming music business that will see it ramp up its defense against Spotify, Apple Music, and other rivals. Tipped to be in the works for some weeks now, the deal sees SiriusXM pump almost half a billion dollars into Pandora. That will allow it to adopt "a hybrid advertising/subscription model" that it claims will be more sustainable than others.
Pandora is on the hunt for a buyer and now sources say that SiriusXM may be the one to acquire it. The music streaming service is said to be in talks with SiriusXM, which is tipped to be in 'active discussions' with the company. This won't be the first time SiriusXM has expressed interest in Pandora; whether an acquisition will come from these latest reported talks is anyone's guess. The sources go on to indicate that some analysts' estimated acquisition prices are too high.
SiriusXM has acquired Automatic, makers of a wireless adapter that plugs in under your dashboard and pipes car information directly to your smartphone. The news, announced today, sees SiriusXM extend its reach from the infotainment system, where it has built a reputation for satellite radio and connected services. With the addition of Automatic, it'll be able to pull even greater information from vehicles than currently.
