DailyTech - Director at XM Resigns as Possible Crisis Looms

Submit News

Internet Director at XM Resigns as Possible Crisis Looms
Michael Hoffman (Blog) - February 17, 2006 11:00 AM

19 comment(s) - last by IsDanReally.. on Feb 19 at 6:03 PM

Pierce Roberts Jr - Courtesy AP

Soaring marketing costs are one of the reasons that a director at XM Satellite Radio has decided to resign from the company

Pierce Roberts Jr., the director for XM Satellite Radio has recently stepped down citing constant disagreements with the other board members on issues critical to the company. Roberts also gave a warning that says XM may be facing a crisis in the future if the company cannot properly cut spending, as the company's fourth-quarter loss was greater than initially reported. Analysts have revealed the fourth-quarter loss now stands at a whopping $268.3 million. Higher costs have been due to marketing and the dire need to continually recruit new listeners.

XM is currently the largest U.S. pay-radio service, but has an unclear future in which Sirius Satellite Radio is making XM nervous. The stock now sits at $23.98, and has dropped 29 percent in the past year.

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

RE: It doesn't matter

By Enoch2001 on 2/17/2006 8:51:29 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Sattelite radio is low qaulity crap. By the way Sirious loses far more than XM. Just got done reading an investment article about that. Guy said stay away from Sirious till they get serious about cutting losses.

People will not pay for Sattelite radio. Plus the qaulity is like 64KB which they dont tell you.

Stop talking low quality crap. I know several people who subscribe to some form of satellite radio, and they aren't alone - they represent a growing number of people. It's offered almost second nature in most decent new cars and the service is pretty cheap. Compared to terrestrial broadcast radio the selection rocks. The quality is much better than FM and you get a great selection of material to listen to, mostly commercial free.

What's not to like?

Have you even tried satellite radio?

Anyway, I'd pay for satellite radio in a second over the local crap they play in the Detroit area.

Parent

RE: It doesn't matter

By hans007 on 2/17/2006 9:24:51 PM , Rating: 2

i have satelite radio and it is far from crap. I am a willing payee of the XM subscription. It is so much better than normal radio belive me. it sounds better, there are no commercials and the selection of music is far far far better than the constant stream of pop crap on FM.

Sirius is in far more trouble, I dont think enough people are tuning in just for howard stern considering they are paying him $500 million.

Parent

RE: It doesn't matter

By Sharky974 on 2/18/2006 12:42:46 AM , Rating: 2

Go ahead. Have fun.

Yep, Sattelite radio is a less than 64 KB qaulity stream. A normal qaulity MP3 is at least 128 KB. And that's a low one.

Sure, digital qaulity..yeah right sure.

Sattelite radio became Politically Correct like Nvidia when Howard Stern got on. Then you had all these yahoos like you defending it on the net. It's laughable.

Parent

RE: It doesn't matter

By Sharky974 on 2/18/2006 12:44:33 AM , Rating: 2

FACT Sattelite radio uses 64KB or less streams. Even less for talk radio where qaulity is considered less important.

Whatever these other posters say they wont deny that fact.

Parent

RE: It doesn't matter

By Enoch2001 on 2/18/2006 12:57:09 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
FACT Sattelite radio uses 64KB or less streams. Even less for talk radio where qaulity is considered less important.

Whatever these other posters say they wont deny that fact.

And for some reason you seem stuck on the myth that a lower bitrate is some terrible sin against mankind?

To clear things up, XM actually uses a form of AAC compression for their transmissions - it's called "CT-aacPlus" and the sound quality rivals 128 KB MP3. Besides, IT'S ALL_BETTER_THAN_FM_RADIO.

K?

The fact is that XM and Sirius sounds fine in the car - a lot better than FM radio anyway - and the content choice makes the package even more valuable.

So is that all you got for your crusade against satellite radio? A low bit rate?

Pffft...

Parent

RE: It doesn't matter

By Enoch2001 on 2/18/2006 12:46:37 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
Sattelite radio became Politically Correct like Nvidia when Howard Stern got on. Then you had all these yahoos like you defending it on the net. It's laughable.

What the hell was that? If you're going to formulate a response, at least make sense.

So we get it: you feel satellite radio is crap. Too bad most other people don't, right? I think I remember my grandpa bitching about the same thing when cable TV came out. "No one will ever pay for that!"

Heh.

Parent

"And boy have we patented it!" -- Steve Jobs, Macworld 2007