SIRIUS XM SATELLITE RADIO NEWS

Now for the first time, you can add XM channels to your SIRIUS subscription. Add “The Best of XM” on SIRIUS and get Oprah & Friends, Opie & Anthony, NHL and NBA games, the 24/7 NHL Home Ice Channel, The PGA TOUR Network, college sports, and XM Public Radio. The Best Radio on Radio™ just got better.

Oprah & Friends Channel 195 - Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Dr. Oz and more help you live your best life on Oprah & Friends.

NBA Channels/College Sports Channels 211-220 - Hear regular season NBA Games, the Playoffs and the Finals. / Games from the top college conferences, including Pac-10, SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East and ACC.

NHL Home Ice Channel 208 - NHL Home Ice, the world’s first hockey channel, delivers a high energy mix of information and entertainment. The on-ice leader for fans across North America with up-to-the-second news and analysis.

The PGA Tour Network Channel 209 - All PGA TOUR events, the British Open and more, including golf news, tournament scores, and player highlights.

XM Public Radio Channel 196 - Insightful, entertaining, and provocative Public Radio programming, including award-winning and exclusive shows from Bob Edwards.

The Virius! Channel 197 - Beware…this is radio like you’ve never heard it before. Irreverent, uncensored, so good you won’t want to stop listening. Opie and Anthony in the morning and Ron and Fez in the afternoon.  It’s addictive, it’s viral….it’s The VIRUS.

XM Site being updated at press time!

http://www.sirius.com/bestofxm

Are you freakin’ kidding me? The world used to hate us, now they are laughing at us! Before you assume that I’m referring to the financial bailout fiasco that crashed the markets today, you may want to sit down.

No, the joke that is the United States House Of Politicians (not representatives, because they sure don’t care much about representing me), that today threw the American economy into the the beginning of another great depression is not the subject of this post.

No. Not at all. The truly repulsive act of the day, goes to Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who TODAY of all days, thought it might be a good idea to introduce a new bill before Congress! You all may remember that slimeball Markey from the FCC fiasco relating to the Sirius XM merger.

With the country on the brink of collapse, this piece of crap decided today to introduce a bill that will MANDATE that HD Radio be included in all Satellite Radio receivers!

Markey said his bill seeks to address the long-term competitive health of local radio “while ensuring that their local, digital services are readily received by radio consumers.”

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On the heels of three reports issued on Friday, Citi’s Tony Wible has come out with his own report today, and joins Barclays in seeing upside potential in Sirius XM Radio. Wible reiterated his buy rating on the equity with a target price of $3.75.

“We believe SIRI’s recent stock performance is a reflection of auto weakness, credit issues, and diminishing consumer confidence. These overhanging issues have made it more difficult for investors to appreciate the SIRI’s long term value, which we now quantify using terminal cash flow analysis, long term sub estimates, and leverage assumptions.”

The analyst outlines three scenarios for investors to consider:

• Using a conservative 7x multiple on terminal cash flow per sub we believe SIRI would be worth $1.41 (20%penetration) in a worst case.
• The company could be worth up to $4.57 (50% penetration) in an aggressive case.
• A more realistic scenario (35% penetration by 2018) suggests that the stock is worth $3.00.

Wible does recognize near term issues that can weigh on the stock, identifying OEM sales and the re-financings as issues that give concern, but also as potential positives once auto sales turn around, and the refinancing happens. Wible has made a conservative assumption by calculating that the $300 mil due in Feb will be funded by an equity offering. He sees improvements in FCF due to merger synergies may put SIRI in a solid position to refinance the remaining $750 mil due later in 2009.

Position: Long SIRI

SiriusBuzz.com and SiriusBuzz Radio are proud to introduce a new feature that readers and listeners will be sure to like. We have now launched Tyler’s Take, and Brandon’s Bet. These are mini radio shows that offer insight on the week ahead as well as commentary on a subject that we feel should get a little coverage.

Each show will be available by Monday morning, and each show will be between 5 minutes and 15 minutes in length. This gives SiriusBuzz readers and listeners a chance to grab a Monday Morning coffee, and get a brief glimpse of the week ahead. Additionally, you have two individual opinions to listen two each week, as Tyler and Brandon do their own pieces with their own thoughts and style. Catch one or both shows by simply clicking on the “Tyler’s Take” or “Brandon’s Bet” section in the SiriusBuzz Radio section of the site (right side bar). For regular SiriusBuzz listeners, these shows are run through our standard SiriusBuzz Radio platform.

This week Brandon covered the Merrill, Goldman, and Barclays news that was issued late Friday. Tyler covered the same topic briefly, but then went into an opinion on whether shareholders should want a “Poison Pill” for Sirius XM Radio. A poison pill when implemented makes it more difficult for a company to be taken over in a hostile take-over.

Grab a coffee, listen to the shows, and leave your opinions here as a comment.

• Brandon’s Bet 9-28-08
• Tyler’s Take 9-28-08

Position - Long SIRI

Radio is really not a very complicated business. You want to offer something that no one else can, to attract as many listeners as possible. Sirius XM has certainly nailed this part down! The biggest problem that Sirius XM seems to have not figured out, is where and when people actually listen to radio.

I know from personal experience that I rarely listen to radio at home. I always listen in my car, yet the time spent in my car is minimal. Sirius XM has, up to now, primarily sought subscribers from those people who listen in their cars.

Most people, in my opinion listen to radio AT WORK. Over the past 2 weeks, one observant reader of SiriusBuzz has pointed several times that Mad Dog Radio is not available on the Internet, and that many people are not in their cars between 2 to 5 P.M. Which has brought me back to this subject that I am adamant about.

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After reviewing the latest reports from Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, the only apparent fact in this sea of uncertainty is that one will be right, and one will be wrong. True, Goldman has been correct thus far, yet everyone knows past performance is no indication of future results.

In what appears to me to be an ironic twist, Merrill has become a lot less bullish while Goldman has become a little less bearish. In Merrill Lynch’s latest report, a lot of attention is now being paid to the 2009 debt issues that are approaching. Citing the worst credit market in decades, Merrill’s report is full of potential negative impacts should Sirius not be able to achieve its refinancing goals which include everything from diluting possibilities to shareholders being potentially wiped out in WAMU fashion. Merrill again reiterates that they do not see this scenario as likely.

I found the Goldman report much more interesting however. For starters, they lowered their target to .50. On a percentage basis, that doesn’t present much downside risk relative to their recent downgrades, although that does not include further dilution or the total loss of shareholder equity. They cite key risks as ”faster-than-expected merger integration and financial outperformance.” Key risks? Those sound like risks to short-sellers and not shareholders.

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After what has been virtual silence in the street this week, a few investment bankers have peeked out from the bunker to offer their latest opinions on Sirius XM Radio. Merrill, who is now part of the Bank of America family, and Goldman have doubts about the prospects of stock performance, while Barclays, now the proud owner of Lehman Brothers sees the stock more than doubling by years end.

MERRILL LYNCH

Downgrade to Underperform; PO of $1.00 “We are downgrading SIRI to an Underperform with a price objective of $1.00. The recent dislocations in the credit markets have significantly increased the risk associated with upcoming refinancings, negatively impacting our estimate of the company’s cost of capital and equity value. We still like the fundamentals of the underlying business and believe there is a good chance Sirius will be able to refinance, but we think the downside risk is too great to maintain a Buy rating.”

Thus, while Cohen likes the business model, the financing is a big overhang, and until there is clarity in this aspect of the company do not look for Cohen to adjust things to a bullish outlook. However, should the financing get taken care of, Cohen may well become bullish in a short timeframe.

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SiriusBuzz sponsor TSS-Radio has been recognized by BizRate for being in the top tier of retailers for customer satisfaction. The award places TSS Radio in the company of household names such as Crutchfield and Bose.

One reason SiriusBuzz chose TSS-Radio as a site sponsor was their dedication to satellite radio and their excellent customer orientated business model. We could feel confident that a reader of SiriusBuzz would have a good experience in dealing with TSS-Radio. How good did TSS-Radio perform? See below:

If you have not yet experienced the service offered by TSS-Radio, we recommend that you give them a try. Join SiriusBuzz in congratulating TSS Radio by sharing your experiences with them in the comments section of this article. These are good guys, and in today’s economy it feels great to give an independent retail a great thumbs up!

[TSS-Radio Press Release]

[BizRate Award Winners - Including TSS-Radio]

Disclosure - TSS Radio is a sponsor of SiriusBuzz. We would have published this article regardless of our business relationship because we believe that TSS-Radio is an excellent retailer that goes above and beyond.

SiriusBuzz radio will be live on the air tonight at 9:00 PM EST. Join Tyler, Brandon, Charles as we dissect what is happening in the world of satellite radio from a consumer as well as an investors perspective.

Callers are always welcomed at 347-945-7995. Whether you just listen, or call in it is sure to be a great show. SiriusBuzz Radio - Bringing You The Spirit Of Satellite Radio

Position - Long SIRI

I just got my fall edition and as the title suggests, the new XMp3 is on the cover of Crutchfield’s catalog. Page 20 is devoted to Sirius and page 21 to XM. The XMp3 takes up nearly a third of the page. Crutchfield writes:

“Pioneer combines the best of both worlds with the XMp3, giving you XM Satellite radio and MP3 playback in one portable device. It’s built-in antenna receives a live XM signal, while a microSD slot lets you play back up to 8GB of your favorite MP3’s.

You’ll enjoy the options for recording up to 100 hours of XM programming. XM2go Music Manager software helps you organize your recorded content, and lets you schedule recordings. In addition to recording single songs or blocks of programming, you can set the XMp3 to record up to 5 channels at the same time. That’ll come in handy if your news program, celebrity interview and music special all happen to air during an important ballgame. It’s like a DVR for your satellite radio. You’ll always know what’s coming up on your favorite XM channels, too, thanks to XM’s online and built in programming guides.

Like a song you hear? One-touch recording lets you tap a button and save it into the XMp3 radio’s memory. With TuneSelect and GameSelect, the XMp3 tells you when your favorite songs, artists or teams are playing on another XM channel.

And it’s no problem if your interrupted during one of your favorite programs. The XMp3 lets you pause, rewind and replay up to 30 minutes of live XM, so you’ll never miss a beat.

The XMp3 comes with a home kit, so you can enjoy it through your home stereo or connect it to your computer. Add an additional car kit to play it through your vehicles stereo.”

Catalog # 130XMP3