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  1. americasfrontline is offline
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    Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 10
    10-11-2008, 10:14 AM #1

    Disposable radios.

    Firstly I dont know what the real cost of a receiver is. I suspect it is not much.

    But, it occurred to me when seeing the recycling of cell phones,cameras and other portable devices that there should be a possibility of a bare bones Sirius-XM receiver that might be loaded with an emergency channel and some other channels for instance several music channels or channels that reflect the users interest such as MLB or NFL.

    Radios would come preset for a specific time frame.

    Imagine the NFL radio that carrys NFL only for 1 season and marketed by the NFL and then is useless.

    Of coarse all units would be PREPAID!!!

    I see the possibilities as endless and would open up a whole new group of people. If the unit could be marketed reasonably think of the advertising specialty business. NASCAR brought to you on your DuPont radio.
    MLB brought to you on your CITI radio.

    Antennae could be similiar to Stiletto headphone in addition to normal plug, battery could be built in such as cell phone rechargables.

    Any thoughts?
    Ken

  2. Demian is offline
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    10-19-2008, 11:28 AM #2
    In business you never want people to cancel, so having a radio that expired on it's own would not be a good idea. You want to get as many people to sign up as possible and make as easy for them as possible to remain a customer.

    I like your idea of a really cheap radio with a streamlined activation process though. There are some pretty cheap plug and plays out there, but how about $19 bucks or free? What if they could get the radio price down enough to give out the radios free at sporting events etc.? If they could create some partnerships so that the market would get flooded with cheap radios and trial subscriptions, it could drive some huge sub growth. Sign up for Netflix and get a free satellite radio. Free satellite radio with a 2 year cellphone contract. Sirius/XM needs to do this themselves, like the satellite tv and cell phone companies do. Give people a free satellite radio for one and two year contracts. They would get a fancier model for the 2 year contract and further discounts for pre-paying. Why don't they do this already?

  3. americasfrontline is offline
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    10-21-2008, 10:35 AM #3
    "In business you never want people to cancel"

    Thanks for your reply.

    I actually envisioned these as "starter units" or "teasers" will severe limitations.

    I became hooked on SATRAD after finally listening to it. Without have a unit in my hand I never would have gone shopping for one. Then dealing with many truck drivers I was asked "how do you like it?" "Where can I get one?"

    In my opinion not being high on the descretionary spending list it must be experienced to create the want.Thus the importance of the auto industry.

    This plan would get a TRIAL unit into many hands not available elsewhere.


    There is a major weakness with sports radios. I was very excited when I bought my stiletto as I was about to attend a NASCAR race and took it with me to listen to the action. The transmission delay was just enough to be distracting and unacceptable to enjoy the broadcast.

    However I only attend 1 race a year and enjoy the NASCAR channel for the rest of the year.

    I think for instance NASCAR could market a 1 year NASCAR channel radio much like Directv sells Track Pass by the season.

    Add a few other sampler channels ( might be something like a super shuffle channel) and I think a sub is generated. It might actually decrease the SAC as the sponsors ie NASCAR MLB NHL etc would be subsidizing the costs.

  4. Demian is offline
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    10-21-2008, 01:28 PM #4
    To get people to try the radio and service, they could have promotions that give away free radios with a free 1 month trial. "If your not happy in the first 30 days send it back and you will be charged nothing. If you decide to keep it, do nothing and you will be charged a small charge of $12.95 once a month - cancel anytime!" They could have commercials on TV late at night...

  5. Newman is offline
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    Joined: Jun 2007 Location: Dallas Texas Posts: 1,162
    10-23-2008, 06:14 AM #5
    I still think the best way to entice people to join is to provide free radios and free broadcasting laden with commercials. Every third commercial is an advertisment for Sirius XM satellite Radio. The overlay technology would be perfect for this, but in the absence of it, they could dedicate maybe 10 channels to free commercial-based broadcasts (couple of country, couple of rap, a couple of rock, a spanish channel, a blues channel, etc. Little sample of what Sirius XM has to offer). This will do many things:
    1) Pay for itself with commercial revenues.
    2) Draw bigger name advertisers with every radio activated to listen to these 10 free channels.
    3) Draw subscribers who are tired of the 15-20 minutes of commercials every hour. "Tired of commercials? Call Customer Care at 1-800 xxx-xxxx to subscribe to Sirius XM radio for as low as 6.99 per month! Experience 50 music channels that are all commercial free, Howard, Martha, O&A, and many more." Call today!
    4) Allow non-subscribers to listen to what Sirius XM has to offer for free.

    Annual passes to certain channels may not be a bad idea though, but I don't think a dedicated radio would be the answer to that.

  6. Pinball Wizard is offline
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    10-24-2008, 10:54 AM #6
    Yes this is a good idea.

    In fact the various message boards on the internet have a large number of good ideas.

    Why is it that we get the good ideas from people posting on message boards rather than from management? Instead of good ideas from management we get sound effects for Halloween instead of Igor. Instead of a combined internet stream (another good idea from the boards) we get 'best of' packages that only go further to confuse new subs.