Competitors

It’s only been a few weeks since the launch of the Slacker iPhone application and already the guys at Slacker have another streaming app. ready to go for the Blackberry Storm. This latest app. allows Blackberry users in the U.S with an OS of 4.3 or higher to stream their favorite stations through the network or WIFI connection.

This sharp and intuitive interface brings all of Slacker features from the web right to the palm of your hand with full touchscreen capabilities and a new performance enhancing caching system to reduce power consumption by up to 5 times that of streaming playback.

This leaves me asking myself one question… why would Slacker waste their time with all of these fancy newfangled portable applications? I mean, they can’t be that important for business… right? If they were, surely Sirius XM would have created their own by now.

[via SlackerActive]

The guys over at Slacker have officially released a shiny new iPhone application for their increasingly popular Slacker online streaming radio service. The free application is available for all iPhone and iTouch users by visiting Slacker.com/iPhone or by simply heading over to the Apple iPhone App Store.

Fans of Sirius XM have to be asking themselves… what gives? Slacker doesn’t have half the resources Sirius XM does, yet fans of Slacker have a sleek web application and a spanking new iPhone App while Sirius XM subscribers are forced to use a clunky interface that doesn’t even work in all browsers.

While Sirius XM is busy restructuring, cutting programming, and searching for financing the rest of the audio entertainment industry is innovating and passing them by. Make no mistake about it, every day that Sirius XM does not have an iPhone App available they are losing potential subscribers to their competitors.

[via Slackeractive]

We have written about the ability to get Sirius XM on your Blackberry. The interface is slick and the service gives subscribers yet another option to stay tuned to any of twenty Sirius XM channels. For satellite radio subscribers the migration to the world of cellular has been a long one. Now, offerings from other audio entertainment companies are stepping up to the plate, and doing it in a big way.

I recently downloaded the new Slacker application to my Blackberry, and have been playing around with it for a couple of days. The full review is available on SlackerActive. The advantage Slacker has here is that the full functionality of their service has made it to the Blackberry. Saving songs, banning them, and navigating through the huge selection of music and comedy channels is all there with Slacker’s Blackberry application.

This is not “Slacker Lite”, it is Slacker… right there on your Blackberry device. Best of all, you can even cache some of your favorite or customized stations to your device, not only saving you data charges, but eliminating some buffering, extending battery life, and taking the worry of cell coverage out of the equation. When you refresh your cached stations you have fresh new content that will keep your ears happy for hours.

It is time for satellite radio to make the next step in their Blackberry arsenal.

Position – Long Sirius XM

Reading the news one would think that Sirius XM Radio has a monopoly in satellite delivered entertainment to the car. However, there are indeed competitors on the horizon, and some of them have big names. AT&T is teaming up with RaySat to offer CruiseCast in vehicle entertainment. The partnership also extends to Avis Budget Group, who intend to roll out services beginning in mid 2009.

CruiseCast concentrates on video, having deals with networks such as Disney Channel, Disney XD, Discovery Kids, Animal Planet, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network Mobile, USA, COMEDY CENTRAL, MSNBC, CNN Mobile Live and CNBC. In all there are 22 video channels in the service. Also included will be 20 music channels.

Through Avis, CruiseCast will cost about $8.95 per day vs. about $5 for Sirius XM. There is little detail on whether CruiseCast intends on going mainstream via installation deals with OEM’s, or even in the retail channel. CruiseCasts video line-up is impressive, but will the audio side of their entertainment stream measure up? Will it be affordable enough for consumers?

For the time being, there are many hurdles for CruiseCast, but with AT&T backing up the deal, the company can afford to bring to market a competitive choice. The biggest initial customers are ;likely to be the rental business, RV enthusiasts, and America’s truckers.

For those seeking a possible derivative play, Synchronoss Technologies (SNCR) is providing the subscriber account management and front end service activation for the AT&T CruiseCast service.

Position – Long Sirius XM, No Position AT&T, Synchronoss Technologies

Slacker is turning up the pressure in the audio entertainment sector with new lower prices for their Premium commercial free service that features the ability to skip songs on an unlimited basis. Slacker’s Premium service is now only $3.99 per month making their premium service less expensive than Sirius XM’s music only packages which come in with a $6.99 price tag.

The new Slacker slogan, “All Music, All The Time” is a great tag line and very descriptive of the service. It highlights the services commitment to avoiding the chatter and interruption that commercials and DJ’s sometimes bring with terrestrial or even satellite radio.

If you have not tried Slacker yet, you can get a free 7 day trial. Want to take your tunes with you? Consider the Slacker G2 portable.

Position – Long Sirius XM

For the second straight year the HD Radio Alliance has bought and aired more commercials than anyone else. Despite dedicating a ton of energy to get the word out, HD Radio is still struggling as the technology, which promises better sound quality, is still somewhat of an enigma to radio listeners.

Satellite radio does feature several of the big names, but still has ad slots to fill. Public Service announcements from the Ad Council sometimes dominate ad space on some satellite channels, indicative of a gap between ad space and ad sales. Satellite is not the only having a tougher go of selling ads. Terrestrial radio also seems to be featuring more Ad Council ads as well as station bumpers.

The top ten advertisers were:

1. HD Radio
2. Wal Mart
3. Geico
4. Verizon
5. Home Depot
6. McDonald’s
7. AT&T
8. AutoZone
9. Toyota
10. Ford / Lincoln / Mercury

[Media Monitors]

Position – Long Sirius XM

The merger between Sirius and XM has happened, but the issue was not totally resolved with the FCC when the decision to allow the companies to merge was announced. With the announcement of the approval of the license transfer, the FCC took it upon itself to investigate the possibility that HD radio technology should be included in 100% of satellite radios manufactured.

The file on the issue has had a spattering of comments from manufactures, Sirius XM, Ibiquity and others, but the debate has been rather slow…until now. Over the past couple of days, the HD issue has begun to heat up.

The first salvos came early on, and there was little discussion and debate, but rather various companies and organizations offering up an opinion, or jockeying for position. Comments from Ford, GM, and Toyota that oppose the requirement were strong statements, but it is a recent comment by the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers (AIAM) that perhaps is the most damning yet of forced HD inclusion. AIAM includes Aston Martin, Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Isuzu, Kia, Maserati, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Subaru, Suzuki, and Toyota. The organization offered up very strong arguments such as the fact that the forced inclusion would add costs to cars for a product which as yet is uproven as a desire from consumers.

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Many people love to make comparisons between terrestrial radio and satellite radio. We have ad based vs. subscription based, localism vs. nationalism, and censored vs. uncensored. Perhaps the starkest comparison comes in the revenue.

According to BIA Advisory Services today, the terrestrial radio industry will see a negative 7% revenue growth rate in 2008 with sector revenues falling to their lowest level in five years ($16.7 billion). Worse still is that the group expects the decline to continue through 2009, where it will bottom out at $15 billion before turning around. Thus, revenues for terrestrial radio are on the decline.

In contrast satellite radio is seeing revenues increase each year. While costs are high, the balance between losses and profits is beginning to shift. In Q3 the proforma EBITDA loss was $9 million for Sirius XM (excluding one time costs). The losses are expected to become profits in 2009, and revenue continues to grow quarter after quarter. The problem for satellite is that they are lumped in with media in terms of a category. Only a year getting lumped into media was desirable. Now, because of the poor performance of radio stocks, it is a group you would rather not be associated with. According to Inside radio, 50% of radio companies have stock trading at less than $1.00.

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