Sirius Platform going away?

I was recently having a new radio installed at a local car audio store and a man came in wanting a particular Sirius Radio adapter to replace the particular one that he had that was broken. The owner of the store called to see if a replacement was available. After he hung up he told the guy it was available but he was told that in the very near future the Sirius Platform was going to be no more and that the XM platform was going to be the only one operating. I have talked to several other audio dealers and almost all of them said they had heard the same. I called Sirius XM and they didn't confirm or deny it. Has anyone else heard anything?

That is news to me. There are still satellites in the sky that are going to be there for years to come.

Likewise. Does anyone know anything about the last two satellites launched (i.e. SIRI, XM or both). Would it be a cost reduction?

Wikipedia had a quick answer.

Currently, there are 9 satellites in orbit; 5 XM and 4 Sirius satellites[citation needed]. Each company also has a ground spare, of identical construction to its first generation of satellite[citation needed]. The most recent satellite is XM-5, which was launched by Proton on October 14, 2010.[47]

Maybe he was referring to the changes on 5/4 where on other sites and contacts state that finally the Sirius/xm channel lineup will merge and become 1 so the channels are the same and in the same locations. Not clear as if the XM only channels will go away and just be through internet or be on the merged lineup or not- We should be hearing from SiriusXM soon via email most likely according to the other sites.

Here are the new channel line-up's for both Sirius & XM effective on 5/4/11

Here's the Sirius one http://www.siriusxm.com/pdf/11-1524_SIR_WebLUs_5_4.pdf

Here's the XM one http://www.siriusxm.com/pdf/11-1524_XM_WebLUs_5_4.pdf Effective Date 5/4/11 for both

http://blogs.strategyanalytics.com/auto/?p=122

"While satellite radio is increasingly optional either from the factory or in the aftermarket, HD Radio is increasingly standard equipment on cars. But the real killer for Sirius is unfolding in recent meetings with OEMs. Sirius has told its clients, which include BMW, Mercedes, Chrysler, Ford, Kia, Land Rover, Jaguar and many others, that they must switch to XM by 2016. For the car makers that helped make Sirius XM what it is today, there are no special subsidies, no silver bullet hardware fix or retrofit. There is simply a notification that they must switch from Sirius to XM by 2016."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cuthru

http://blogs.strategyanalytics.com/auto/?p=122

"While satellite radio is increasingly optional either from the factory or in the aftermarket, HD Radio is increasingly standard equipment on cars. But the real killer for Sirius is unfolding in recent meetings with OEMs. Sirius has told its clients, which include BMW, Mercedes, Chrysler, Ford, Kia, Land Rover, Jaguar and many others, that they must switch to XM by 2016. For the car makers that helped make Sirius XM what it is today, there are no special subsidies, no silver bullet hardware fix or retrofit. There is simply a notification that they must switch from Sirius to XM by 2016."

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Interesting tidbit. I'm not sure how complicated or non-complicated such a switch is. One would think it is simply a matter of installing a radio, but you never know. There must be something "better" about the XM platform.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SiriuslyLong

Interesting tidbit. I'm not sure how complicated or non-complicated such a switch is. One would think it is simply a matter of installing a radio, but you never know. There must be something "better" about the XM platform.

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Not sure about that one. Had XM here in the PAC northwest. Lots of trees, lots of lost signal. Almost NO dropout with Sirius. I'd be very UPSET to lose the SIRIUS feed and have to revert to XM.