This was a massive mistake for Sirius XM, and its nearly mind-blowing that they didn’t think this through any better, especially considering the company’s financial situation.

The changes have almost been universally criticized among the service’s most loyal users, and the cuts have angered a lot of folks. The most vocal critics seem to come from listeners of Sirius Disorder, a freeform/eclectic station, and from listeners of alternative stations Fred, Ethel, and Lucy and electronica station The System on the XM side.

To put it bluntly, these users are pissed. Within hours of the change, fan boards like XMFan.com were flooded with complaints of their stations being pulled with little if any warning. In fact, the first many learned of the changes were when they turned on their radios.

Sirius XM’s only real attempt at contacting its customers? A 3:30am ET Wednesday e-mail to customers announcing the change. No announcements before then, no messages on the website, nothing. Yes, apparently some DJs were discussing the switch, and rumors began circulating the week previous about the channel merge. However, not everyone reads tech news nor is listening to the radio 24/7.

Anecdotal reports indicate the call centers were flooded with angry customers, some of which went as far as to cancel their subscriptions (several we saw were on multi-radio plans). Sirius XM was apparently offering frustrated subscribers three months free to stay on board, but for some, the way the channel merge was handled was too much to bear.

Why a company who is already struggling to pull a profit would take such a big risk like this seems irresponsible to me. While I am not cancelling my own subscription, I am by no means happy with how I only found out some of my favorite channels were officially gone on Wednesday.

I had no chance to voice my opposition, nor did anyone else. Didn’t the programming department think to actually ask its customers first what they thought of the changes rather than making the decisions around some boardroom table?

Now they are paying the price for this oversight with increased costs due to busier call centers (Forrester once estimated that each call to customer service centers costs an average of $5.50), and comps for unhappy customers, and loss of revenue from cancelling customers.

Programming, and especially Mr. Karmazin, owe its users some kind of explanation as to why this was done this way, and probably an apology. But now I’m beginning to think that the FM-centric Sirius management does not really care, and I’m not the only one.

Man, I had hope for satellite radio when these two companies came together. Now I’m beginning to think that it may have not been such a good idea especially if we’re getting less choice, and now being told what we can and cannot hear.

Share/E-Mail

On XM, here are the new Channels:

Elvis Radio – XM 18 – Elvis
The Bridge – XM 27 – Soft Classic Rock
BBC Radio One – XM 29 – Popular music
The Coffeehouse – XM 51 – Adult alternative
Faction – XM 52 – Punk, hard rock
Radio Margaritaville – XM 55 – Jimmy Buffett
Jam On – XM 56 – Jam bands
The Grateful Dead Radio – XM 57
E Street Radio – XM 58
Underground Garage – XM 59 – underground Rock and Roll
Shade 45 – XM 66 – Eminem produced station
Hair Nation – XM 41 – “hair” bands
Outlaw Country – XM 12 – alternative country

21 channels are changing names, and 11 will be moving around on the dial. More information on the XM lineup can be found here.

Sirius is also changing, here are its new channels:

40’s on 4 – Sirius 4 – 40’s music
90’s on 9 – Sirius 9 – 90’s music
The Loft – Sirius 29 – Acoustic Rock
Willie’s Place – Sirius 64 – Country
enLighten – Sirius 67 – Southern Gospel
BB King’s Bluesville – Sirius 76 – Jazz
Escape – Sirius 76 – Pop instrumentals
Cinemagic – Sirius 81 – Movie soundtracks

23 channels would change names, and 2 channels would be moved. More information on the Sirius lineup can be found here.

Essentially, where the name is changing, it means that the channel is being combined with the similar channel on the other service. While this is not by any means a combination of the entire lineup — I’m guessing Sirius XM wants to keep both services separate enough that either is attractive to customers, yet similar enough that they are saving money on eliminating duplicate programming.

Update: I’m perusing through the fan boards for both services, and it looks like there is a little bit of consternation regarding the changes. XM fans seem to be a little turned off by the rather frequent station IDs (XM didn’t identify as much — but this could be more of a result of building the brands back up with a cadre of new listeners — but then again, Sirius to many has sounded much more like FM than its sibling), and some of the programming switches are a bit abrupt for some.

My only complaint is how this was put on customers. No warning at all, only rumors. I’m a regular listener of BPM XM 81, and I haven’t heard them mention once about what was going on. That’s just not good business to me.

What’s your thoughts?

Share/E-Mail

Revenues did increase 17%, something CEO Mel Karmazin was quick to point out in a conference call with analysts.

“Many other good companies are not growing as a result of the issues in the U.S. economy. So we believe showing double digit growth to be very impressive, especially if you compare SIRIUS XM’s results to other media and entertainment companies,” he said.

Now, to be fair to Sirius XM, $4.8 billion of this was due to what is called a “impairment charge,” which it took to account for worthless goodwill resulting from the drop in its stock price following the merger. However at the same time, its bad news for a company who is still not doing too great.

Add to this debt refinancing woes — it has a large chunk of it coming due in 2009 — and some investors are concerned. $1 billion in debt repayments will have to be made, and the company does not have the money to pay for it.

CEO Mel Karmazin has repeatedly said he is confident that he will be able to find the money to pay off those debt payments. However, with the deteriorating economy, its not clear that consumers will continue to pay for a service that is discretionary at best.

Add to this that the US auto industry is increasingly having problems moving cars, and thats even worse for Sirius. The automakers have become a significant source of new subscriptions for the satellite radio operator, and if those company’s aren’t doing well, Sirius will not either.

This could be the reasoning why Sirius XM continues to revise its subscriber projections downward. Last Thursday, it said it expected to finish 2009 with 20.6 million subscribers, down from 21.5 million it had projected earlier.

Share/E-Mail

The channel merge is said to be coming next Wednesday–that seems awfully soon if subscribers haven’t been alerted yet–and involves shuffling around of stations, pruning of essentially similar ones (both systems have channels dedicated to the music of particular decades, and availability of some channels that originated on one system on the other system.

A forum post at Digital Radio Central provides an alleged new XM lineup. Among channels I listen to on XM–if I’m reading the list right, and it’s accurate–the 60’s on 6 oldies station will survive, but Soul Street will be replaced by Sirius’s Soul Town, and High Standards (which was originally a Sinatra-themed channel called Frank’s Place) will get the axe for SIRIUSLY Frank.

In other words, XM will start to feel more like Sirius, and I assume that the opposite is also true–Sirius will pick up some of XM’s channels.

Which raises the question: Why bother to maintain two brands and two increasingly-similar-but-not-identical channel lineups, as the combined company has said it plans to do for…the next fifteen years? I’m not entirely sure, since it seems a lot of work for everyone involved.

(I’m also confused by why Sirius continues to use the slogan “The Best Radio on Radio,” which would tend to suggest that its corporate cousin XM is subpar…but hey, I’m easily confused.)

One other thing about that fifteen-year promise of brand separatism: It may be a sign of irrational exuberance on the merged company’s part that it’s planning that far ahead at all. I’ve been a happy XM subscriber for years. But my iPhone 3G is such a slick source of streaming music–thanks to apps such as Pandora and Tuner–that I keep flirting with canceling my XM subscription and simply pumping the iPhone’s audio through my car stereo. It’s mostly XM’s MLB baseball and news stations such as POTUS which have kept me on board. But I have trouble believing that streaming IP-based radio built right into cars won’t trump satellite a long time before 2023 rolls around.

Of course, the content on XM and Sirius could make the leap from satellite to the wireless Internet in the meantime. For now, though, I just hope that the combined company wraps up its channel merge quickly and then leaves things alone for awhile. Like I said, I’m easily confused…

Share/E-Mail

The Best of Sirius package for XM includes Howard Stern, the NFL, NASCAR, additional college sports programming, and Playboy Radio. For Sirius customers, the Best of XM adds Oprah, the NBA, Opie and Anthony, the NHL, PGA, additional college sports programing, and XM’s public radio channel.

For either service, the monthly rate would be bumped up to $16.99, essentially meaning the additional channels would cost a little more than $4 to receive. Those interested can either sign up for the new plans from each service’s website, or call in to have a representative change it for them.

I’m looking at the offerings here, and I have to say that in my opinion, Sirius customers seemed to be getting the better deal here. Yes, XM customers are finally getting Howard — and the NFL should have broad interest — but that’s about it. Notice something missing here? XM is apparently not ready to give up its MLB exclusivity. Then again, Sirius XM may have left it out for now just because the offering seems lopsided already.

On the hardware front, Sirius is introducing the Starmate 5, which would be the first radio to support a la carte selection of channels from the the service as well as the “Best of XM” option. Priced at $129.99, the radio includes the car kit.

It will be available through Best Buy, Crutchfield, RadioShack and regional retailers immediately, according to the company.

Features include the capability to pause, rewind, and fast forward through up to 44 minutes of live radio, up to 30 presets, and the capability to be alerted when an artist, song, or sports team is on the service.

There hasn’t been anything said as yet on a similar radio for the XM service, although we’re in the October timeframe that Sirus XM has given for the debut of these radios.

Share/E-Mail