I like satellite radio. But every weekend, they stop broadcasting a few channels repeating the message it is unavailable “due to a live sporting event”. But I never hear a sporting event, just a repeated message about it. What gives?
Do you remember which channels are being unavailable? I’ve not heard this message, but my WAG is that the affected channels are ones that are simulcasts of other TV or radio stations, and when that station is broadcasting a sporting event, to which SiriusXM doesn’t have rights, they have to temporarily stop the feed for those channels.
Sirius XM squeezes a lot if content into a limited amount if bandwidth, trying to have something for everyone. Their sound quality is actually just barely good enough to keep people from complaining too much.
They may need extra bandwidth to support a live event on some other venue. Since they are limited by the total amount they have available they increase their capacity for the live event by shutting down some of their low audience usage channels
It’s generally the highest numbered comedy channels.
Well, then, my WAG is definitely wrong. I suspect that @Si_Amigo’s hypothesis may then be the right one.
Aside from the Jeff Foxworthy/Larry the Cable Guy channel, why would the comedy channels have low audience numbers?
Satellite radio has seen decreasing profitability due to internet streaming for the last decade. My work provides me with it in my car for evaluation purposes or I would not have it. The music quality sucks due to how much they compress the signal.
It would not surprise me if they were renting out bandwidth or had another division “borrowing” bandwidth from time to time. If you looked into your contract their is likely some legal fine print that says they can do that and you have no recourse but to accept it. Part if that bargain deal you renewed your subscription with
I have never noticed this, but I have the ‘Mostly Music’ plan, which limits what is available anyway.
Interestingly, when my subscription came up for renewal, they added streaming services to it for no extra charge. It used to be part of all subscriptions, then they removed it unless you paid extra for it, and now it’s back on most plans.
I’m wondering if people are cancelling their subscriptions, since so many of us are working from home now and not in the car every day, which is how I did my listening. Adding streaming back in might be a way to keep some people from cancelling altogether.
On the other hand, removing channels that are part of your subscription, even temporarily, doesn’t sound like a good way to keep them.
There’s a bunch of channels which are only used for live sports. The bandwidth is limited so they’ll stop broadcasting some of the the talk channels. Sunday is the most likely day as there’s a full slate of baseball and football. The generally try to target the talk stations which are often repeats on the weekends.
I think that’s exactly what’s been happening to SiriusXM. They did add the ability to stream music over the Amazon Echo a few months ago, which I do a lot now.
Well Sirius and XM merged because of the competition from streaming services like Pandora, Spotify, Youtube and iTunes. Younger listeners just don’t want to buy something they can either get free or just as cheap (or more) with better options. I think their day has passed and that if a major car company ditches them they are doomed. It cost a lot of hardware and software support to provide it as a standard feature on many cars. I would not be surprised if they were not close to bankruptcy in the next two to three years.
And, in fact, Sirius XM bought Pandora last year, likely because they could see that satellite radio doesn’t have a strong future.
I’ve got a question that’s a hijack, but is close to on-point. And we’ve got some real nice answers above to the OP’s question, so that case is sorta closed.
A few years ago I bought a used car. Which came with SiriusXM as one of the receiver’s features. When I got the car the SiriusXM functioned, delivering dozens of channels. It still works the same today. Checking the website it looks like I’ve got the “Mostly Music” subscription. I’ve never done anything to sign up for Sirius, nor paid them a penny.
So the questions:
-
Is it likely the car’s prior owner is still getting hit for $X every month unnoticed on their credit card? Its been enough years now that almost certainly the card on file when I bought the car has since expired.
-
I’ve seen all sorts of silliness from FUBARed corporate tie-ups. The car itself, though not my ownership, predates the merger of Sirius & XM. Is the account maybe lost in the merger?
-
Did either company ever offer “life of the receiver” or “life of the vehicle” deals that would still be applicable?
I enjoy the service but would not pay $11/mo for it. If the prior owner is still paying unwittingly I feel bad, but not terribly bad. I don’t even know how I’d convince SiriusXM’s customer service that I was the unwelcome recipient of that gift and I want them to stop charging that clueless soul for my benefit.
Comments?
Auto billing, perhaps he had multiple cars or it was part of a fleet and did not get removed.
Yeah and you can stream through their website or app. I had a 3 month free trial and enjoyed it well enough. No commercials is the best part.
But the thing is I’ve never been able to negotiate a good price for a plan with streaming, I think they wanted something like $15 per month for the deluxe package with extra channels and streaming access. I pay more like $5 per month and it’s already a pain going through the threaten-to-cancel dance every year at renewal time.
If they had streaming for some reasonable price they might have a chance, because that infrastructure is a WHOLE LOT easier to expand than their satellites.
You know, I have a car with a (non-paid) satellite radio option and, if you select it, all it is is a recycling message of “What are you listening to this for? Subscribe to satellite radio and get access to hundreds of channels!”
I’m not going to subscribe because I wasn’t impressed by the free months that came with the car but, man, you’d think they’d try to play a selection of songs or comedy & talk snippets or anything to try to make people think “Hey, this satellite radio thing is pretty nifty”. Even fading songs in and out for 60-90 seconds each and interspersing the subscribe messages would be better than the current nonsense. Why would anyone hear that repeating message and think “Yeah, I want to pay money for this”
(I hear it because the radio will occasionally default to it as the first option if an expected audio source (CD/USB) is missing)