Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin said yesterday that he expects interoperable radios (that is, radio that can receive both Sirius and XM, full-on) in less than nine months. (The FCC gave the combined company nine months to come out with such radios.) Whether or not that’s in time for the Holiday shopping season…
Now, radios that work with the a la carte service—you have XM but want one or two of Sirius’ music channels—should be here before the Holidays.
The best news is that the new radios, in all their glory, will be at next year’s CES. I may actually head out to Vegas just to see ‘em.
Wasn’t part of this deal that was mentioned early in the game that we wouldn’t have to buy new radios? I thought our existing equipment could still be utilized to receive both sides of the merged companies. Did I misunderstand or were they blowing smoke up the FCC’s arse?
Matt, I remember something along those lines as well, but you know how quickly things change in the negotiation process.
I don’t believe anybody HAS to buy a new radio - you’ll only do so if you want to receive additional content from the provider other than the one your radio works with; i.e, you have Sirius, but want to get O&A - you’ll probably need a new radio to pick up those channels.
Your old radios should work just fine for the service they were designed to work with.