Sirius XM Rate Increase For March 11th CONFIRMED
For those of you who may have heard the news about the “potential” Sirius XM rate increase this afternoon, I can unequivocally confirm that this is in fact true. Customer support representatives are now confirming to the general public that the rates will go into effect on March 11th and they are encouraging current subscribers to lock in at their current and soon to be grandfathered rates for 3 years, before it is too late.
As suspected there will be a $2 increase for additional subscriptions and a $2.99 fee for the online internet radio service. The silver lining in all of this is that all internet subscriptions will now feature the 128k “premium” feed.
Whether or not there will be more channel lineup changes or new content offerings surrounding this rate increase is yet to be seen as even the representatives who I spoke with personally were a little fuzzy on this information.
What is certain is that these new price increases could be just what the company needs to get them out of their looming debt issues. Whether it’s subscribers looking to spend more money to lock in at long term lower rates or new subscribers willing to pay the slightly higher fee, either way Sirius XM wins.
As far as the FCC and those pesky merger concessions go, I think it is safe to say with the Base, Best of, and A la Carte packages remaining unchanged, the legal hurdles have been cleared.
The poll question should have been, how many radios will you have after the March 11 increases. My vote would have been 1.
I just received the e-mail from Sirius, I do like the service they provide to a point, but do think Sirius as well as XM have gone downhill since the merger. If Sirius XM keeps paying personalities no one cares to listen to big dollars , there is no choice other than raise rates making it a unfordable niche market.
As for me, because the economy we are in, I figure this is the wrong time for me to be forking out more dollars for luxury items. I just got off the phone with CS and did end up canceling my service. They did offer 2 free months on the primary receiver, I declined ,figuring it might be a hassle later on to cancel. my concern was paying more on my additional receivers. To keep the extra receivers at $6.99 a month I would have to pay one year in advance for each, I said no thank you and canceled everything.
Sirius good luck with those debits! And enjoy my $0.00 a month you now receive..
I feel betrayed. I know that sounds completely ridiculous, but after the months of me telling people they “HAVE” to get Sirius, now i’m going to look like an idiot to these people. A price hike, right after they subscribed! For shame!
Sirius should just keep Howard, and dump the rest. Who the hell listens to anything else but music, sports, and Howard? Get rid of the other personalities, they arn’t bringing in subscribers!
I have 3 receivers, and they end in April…and that will be when I end it too. Maybe i’ll come back when the price drops, till then, I can’t afford it for my kids sake!
I completely agree I have been a subscriber for almost five years and this was like a slap in the face. They are punishing the loyal customers with more than one reciever. To make it worse I did not recieve any notice from Sirius and heard about it from members of my car club.
This merger was a huge mistake. I already paid for this year, so I did not cancel yet, but I called them and told them to take me off automatic credit card payment as I will be canceling the service when the year runs out. I bought it for Howard, but I don’t listen to him anymore. Same with Bubba. I’d rather spend the $150 I would spend in a year on Sirius and get a new radio unit for my car with HD radio and a direct iPod hookup.
What is more interesting is that Howard has always said he is gone at the end of his contract and now he is saying he must re-sign because the staff on his show would have no job if he left. Coincidence that it comes on the same days as the ’special offer’? If he wants me to commit he should re-sign now too.
I don’t have a problem paying the extra, but their quality is awful when compared to terrestrial FM radio. The internet feed is a joke at 32k (AM radio quality). When you add-up a year’s worth of subscription fees, the radio, peripherals…is it really worth the cost to receive a sub-standard signal? Even though they say they are not a monopoly (what else would they say), you now only have a single choice for satellaite radio. I bet if they (XM and Sirius) were still competitors, we wouldn’t be worried about being squeezed for yet more money. shame on you guys for putting the public in this position!
To all the people saying that this is ONLY A FEW DOLLARS EXTRA A MONTH..let me explain something.
Today I got a annual mileage discount on car insurance 7 dollars a month. Last week I re-arranged my cable bill and internet service saving me 15 a month. I just signed up for Vonage phone service saving me 17 a month.
All of these “little extra dollars” add up. Now im saving close to 40 dollars a month.
I had sirius when the subscriber base was 400 thousand. I liked it most because they advertised free internet streaming.
To me its bad business to offer something free then randomly start charging you for it. Its quite different if they said 2 months free etc.
Thats like comcast saying “free on demand” then 1 month later they say oh nevermind thats 2.99 a month.
Rightfully so, you’d be pissed. All of these promises of no price hikes better packages etc only fuel the frustration. They should have left the 12.99 alone with the 32k internet stream. I listen to free internet radio that is better quality than sirius.
Now come the comments of “then cancel cry baby” blah blah. Well without the people who took a chance on this company at the beginning, like me, you wouldnt have the chance to even say something like that.
Bottom line its a recession…getting new subscribers is already hard…how the hell are they going to do that with a prince increase and less of a package? Anyone on the fence isnt going to sign up. Anyone on the fence about leaving will do so. So yeah, they will jack you for a few dollars. But how will this “profit” pan out if they lose hundreds of thousands subscriptions at 12.99 to make 2.99 on the rest?
The leftover share holders look at SUBSCRIPTION numbers as well as profit. Who wants to keep backing a company that can’t hold onto or attract more subscribers?
Im jumping ship first thing in the morning. This degraded service isn’t worth it anymore for me. And from what i can tell at least half of the board agrees with this logic. Not a good % when you think of the bigger picture huh all you die hard sat fans?
I agree…I forgot to say that the so-called “free” internet feed is really part of your subscription package that they have decided to split out and charge you for. This would be like me telling them that I’m going to start paying less for the monthly subscription because that is what i decided to do. It is hysterical that they are doing this while the economy is in the state it is in. I believe their greed is going to cost them a lot more than what they are going to gain with this rate increase. Too bad, i had high hopes for their industry.
ok, so just what we were waiting for.
first comes the merger, the concerns, then comes the rate hikes when every corner of the economy is in a crisis, and now their talking about a rate hike while at the same time taking away a service (online listening when the signal is too poor to hear in various areas such as the office so you NEED to listen to it on a computer to get yoru money’s worth)?
this is ridiculous.
overall, xm was much superior not only in quality, but also in signal, due the satellite configuration of XM which differed from the sirius’ configuration.
their a lot of feel of XM that has been lost…and as their once was two, their now stands as one. God this so reminds me of the dredded Bell phone companies back in the 80’s and the monopolies that had us paying dollars for a one-minute phone call from like new york to denver.
most of us are just average americans here, but we are also feeling the financial crunch and as all, we’re trying to hold out on extra expendatures of such.
but its really annoying when a company takes away a service and then says, “oh…now your going to have to pay for it”. besides……..the signal is not all that good in buildings and offices, so you HAD to provide that online service and feature.
anyone who’s a member can tell you that.
as far as the increase, i don’t think i’m buying it…while at the same time…..im possibly looking at the hopes a great new technology on the rise that will go beyond this….much like the transformation that traditional radio is going through because this just SUCKS.
i’m spreading the word, thank GOD for the internet.
Before the merger Stern and others on Sirius stated there would be no price increase as a result of the merger. I knew that was BS right there. No competition…of course it was going up. Secondly the were programming changes on the Sirius side removing channels, destroying the Bubba show (now I’m paying for a censored, local Tampa repeat with 20 min of commercials per hour). This is a trend toward terresrialization that, by itself will send me back to my Ipod/CDs or some other service within the year. Too bad…I was in love with Sirius when I first got it.
I only listen in my car. I could care less about hearing it on the Internet, and I’ll be damned if I’ll buy a lifetime ANYTHING in this economy – especially satellite radio!!!
My lifetime radio recently broke and the online streaming is the only link I have left with Sirius. Nice to read I will continue to have streaming…and an improved quality to boot.
I have had sirius for years and I’m not happy about this increase. I basically only use my account online and rarely use the radio and I’m pissed they are working AROUND the FCC rules instead of abiding by them. I’m canceling once my year is up.
I am curious if anyone knows about the possibility of ‘EchoStar’ taking them over?
If there is a rate increase I will not continue with the service.
Satellite radio is in real trouble. If they don’t go out of business because of bad planning, overpaid talent (Howard Stern)or unfair practices; they will have a big problem when their star child (Howard) retires in a few years. My subscription ends later this year and if they pull the internet feed and make me pay for what was once part of my sunscription package, i will not renew. I will do this on sheer principle and i won’t miss satellite radio it at all. They need to cut costs internally instead of raising rates or removing features from paying subscribers. I’m sure there will be a mass exodus if they continue down this path.
First of all, anything Howard Stern says is BS. That includes how much he gets paid as well as anything he says about his contract or XM/SIRIUS. Second, SIRIUS with a 2 billion annual income and a 3.2 billion debt, is only in trouble because of the reccession and their operating costs. Now they have gotten the loan from Liberty they are not going into bankruptcy and they are a good investment. Third, if you have a lifetime membership, it applies only to the lifetime of the radio, but you can transfer it for a fee to another radio and currently a lifetime membership can be had for just slightly more than a 3 year membership. Not a bad deal but an even better deal would be SIRI at the current price.
I have two subscriptions and am currently on hold to complain. As A huge Howard fan, I switched over for Howard only and bought a radio for my nephew. I occasionly listen to the news since subscribing. Anyway, I am so pissed that the merger was promoted to cut expenses and keep prices from rising. [BREAK HERE TALKING TO SIRIUS REP] I just got of the phone and was told that since I had paid in advance for a year (back in Sept)that the price increase won’t start until what I have prepaid expires which is Sept 09. I will cancel my second subscription at the ned of October. And, if the main subscription rate increases within the next three years I will cancel that too. I like Howard but it isnt right. It isnt the money its the principal. And, using the upgraded streaming on the web is a poor excuse.
I too purchased my radio and subscription primarily for the Howard Stern program when he left terrestrial radio, but came to also enjoy the many alternative music channels. I especially enjoyed the convenience of listening to the free Internet Radio provision afforded all subscribers as my work entails being online over 5 hours each day. I was somewhat disappointed with the new channel lineups post-merger; The new pricing model for Sirius XM – specifically charging for Internet Radio unless users lock in to a long term subscription, is the proverbial last straw for me; Many free, quality online music options available online. Canceling next week. I do not see current SIRI business model as sustainable, glad I didn’t buy the stock.
If they go bankrupt, which is more than possible, good luck on getting your muti-month prepay back. I am dropping one of my radios’ to save the 6.99 per month and listening to my other radio indoors to save the online price. I bet in a few months THEY will regret this because it is not the best of times for rasing prices. They will either have to lower month charges or cease business. Their satellites are worth a bundle and they do not need as many since the merger.
I’m doing the same thing. I’ll drop the second radio. I have been listening less and less anyway. I can find better things to listen to.
I was listening to Broadminded in the evenings since I can’t during the day because of the firewall at work but after the Sirius merger they mixed in some incredibly boring programming they kept repeating every hour instead of Broadminded. Then they put Broadminded back on, but after only an hour, right in the middle, they put the Deepak Chopra Show on – oh, joy, I get to hear him talk about death and dying in monotone – just kill me now. And of course there is more pet programming to make you buy dog food. In addition to the Iams extended commercials masquerading as a show, they even have a dog psychic show.
And that horrible Dr. Laura, who is on AM in every city, why did they add her, too?
I was listening to the Oprah channel for a while but then they got obnoxious during the presidential election and I got turned off (you know, there are even Democrats who don’t like Obama and I got tired of having him forced on me all the time). And giving Gayle King a show is an insult to anyone’s intelligence – she is beyond obnoxious. Then there was this guy John St. Augustine they put on to co-host every show and it’s hard to figure out who is more obnoxious, Gayle King or him. He wouldn’t even let the host of the best show on the channel, Jean Chatzky, talk (exactly why was he on a money show anyway?)
Also I’d listen to the Siriusly Sinatra channel, I get a kick out of adult music from the 40’s/50’s/60’s, but they keep playing Barry Manilow and Rod Stewart and other new artists I can’t stand instead of Sinatra’s contemporaries from the period. They have a 40’s channel that plays this music, but the 50’s and 60’s channels don’t play Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin and Perry Como and artists like that, they play pop/rock. So the only way you can hear adult music from the 50’s and 60’s is to grit your teeth through Barry Manilow. Sorry, I’ll pass.
So I’m basically down to the Bob Edwards Show in my car in the mornings.
Yes, I’ll cancel the home radio. It was an expensive radio and I’m sorry I bought it. It plays regular radio, though, so I’ll get some use out of it still.
I’m very dissapointed in XM.
Yes I will be canceling my service if they raise my rate 1cent
pre merger all I heard was that there would be NO rate increase ! what a LIE & if anybody stays with them I’m sure there will be many more lies. possibly bankruptcy in the near future. & do you think your unused subscription money will be refunded NOWAY !!