is a
Satellite Radio (
DARS ) service based in
New York City that provides 68 streams (channels) of music and 55 streams of sports, news and entertainment to the
United States and
Canada . Music streams on Sirius carry a wide variety of music genres, broadcasting 24 hours a day, commercial free. With any Sirius-enabled radio, the user can see the artist and song information on display while listening to the stream. The streams are broadcast from three
Satellite s in an
Elliptical Geosynchronous Orbit above
North America . A subset of Sirius’ music channels are included as part of the
DISH Network Satellite Television service. Sirius channels are identified by
Arbitron with the label “XS” (e.g. “XS120”, “XS9”, “XS17”).
Sirius headquarters are in
Manhattan . Its business model is to provide pay-for-service radio, analogous to the business model for premium
Cable Television , in which music channels are free of commercials. Subscription costs for Sirius range from $12.95/mo. to cheaper multi-year plans A $10 activation fee ($15 if activated by phone) is also required. Sirius currently has fewer subscribers compared to competitor
XM Satellite Radio , with 4 million, less than XM's current audience of roughly 6.5 million (as of April 13, 2006).
Sirius was previously known as . The company changed its name to Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. on November 18, 1999. The dog in the Sirius logo (
Sirius is referred to as the "Dog Star") is unofficially named “Mongo,” a name garnered from the debut of Sirius Satellite Radio’s sponsorship on
Casey Atwood ’s and later
Jimmy Spencer ’s
NASCAR entry, when the announcing cast voted on names. “Mongo” later became NASCAR driver Spencer’s nickname with the NASCAR Broadcasters in the following races.
A major component of Sirius’ business strategy has been to execute far-reaching and exclusive deals with big-name entertainers and personalities to create and build broadcast streams, from the ground up. Sirius has reached extensive deals with domestic diva
Martha Stewart ,
E Street Band member
Steven Van Zandt (aka Little Steven),
Jimmy Buffett , and
Eminem to executive produce streams on Sirius.
By far the biggest of these deals was announced on
October 6 ,
2004 when Sirius announced that it signed a five-year, $634-million agreement with
Howard Stern to move his radio show to Sirius starting on
January 9 ,
2006 . The deal, which gave Sirius exclusive rights to Stern’s radio show, also gave Stern the right to build at least two full-time programming channels. Stern stated that his move was forced by the stringent regulations of the
FCC whose enforcement was intensified following the
Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show . Beginning with the announcement of his imminent departure, Stern began to complain of one of his employers,
Infinity Broadcasting , as trying to impede the success of his departure.
In Howard Stern's first major hire for Sirius, Stern brought on board Tampa, FL based
Bubba The Love Sponge , fired by
Clear Channel due to a $750,000 fine proposed by the FCC
Reuters , to do a show on Sirius.
In addition to the channel-programming deals, Sirius has also programmed a number of more conventional shows with well known personalities in a number of fields. These shows are hosted by personalities including skateboard legend
Tony Hawk , seven-time
Tour De France champion
Lance Armstrong ,
The B-52's lead singer
Fred Schneider , NBA Hall of Famer
Bill Walton and longtime New York City DJ “
Cousin Brucie ”, who was dropped by
WCBS-FM after the station changed to its format from an oldies station to a “
Jack ” format. Generally the personalities act as DJs hosting shows with music they personally like.
On
November 18 ,
2004 the former
COO and President of
Viacom ,
Mel Karmazin , was named the
CEO of Sirius. Stern worked under Karmazin at Infinity Radio and the two men have always had a great deal of mutual respect for each other. It was Karmazin who fiercely protected Stern in the wake of the
Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show (produced by MTV and aired by CBS, both co-owned with Infinity-now CBS Radio-until
CBS Corporation split off in 2006) and the FCC crackdown on shock jocks and obscenity, in general.
On
October 25 ,
2005 Sirius announced that "E Street Radio", the exclusive channel of legendary artist
Bruce Springsteen , would air from
November 1 ,
2005 to
January 31 ,
2006 on the Bridge - Channel 10.
Another cornerstone of Sirius’ business strategy has been to pursue exclusive sports content. Currently, Sirius has exclusive satellite radio broadcasting rights to all
NFL ,
CFL and
NBA games.
Sirius also announced in December 2005 a multi-year deal with the
NBA , which makes the satellite radio company the broadcaster of more live NBA games than any other radio outlet. Sirius airs
Full Court Press , weekdays from 12pm-3pm ET; FCP is the only all-NBA show on Sirius. The agreement also creates a 24-hour
NBA Radio Channel, located on channel 127.
NHL games will be shared with
XM for the 2005–2006 season, after which XM will have exclusive broadcast rights. Starting in 2007,
Sirius will have full
NASCAR coverage.
Sirius also has rights to a number of major college sports conferences, including the
Big Ten and the
Southeastern Conference as well as schools like
Notre Dame . Beginning in 2005 Sirius also has exclusive radio rights to cover the
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament . In August 2004, Sirius launched
NFL Radio , a 24-hour radio stream dedicated exclusively to covering the NFL. Sirius has also been aggressive in creating its own in-house produced studio sports radio content.
In June 2005, Sirius signed an agreement with
BBC Radio 1 in the
UK to rebroadcast the station to an American audience. Sirius also has exclusive satellite radio rights to
National Public Radio , carrying two separate streams. The deal with NPR was the first high-profile deal entered into by Sirius.
With the launch of Sirius Canada in December 2005, American listeners gained five Canadian-produced stations including
CBC Radio One ,
CBC Radio Three and
Iceberg Radio in English, and
Première Plus and
Bandeapart in
French . Iceberg Radio is programmed by
Standard Broadcasting , which also provides a number of additional channels exclusive to Canada; the other four come from the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation .
On
March 14 ,
2006 , Sirius added
Cosmopolitan Radio,
Playboy Radio , and returned the audio simulcast of the
Fox News Channel TV feed, which was previously removed during a contract dispute. The service also added Fox's satellite talk radio channel,
Fox News Talk .
Sirius’ spacecraft Radiosat 1 through Radiosat 4 were manufactured by
Space Systems/Loral . The first three of the series were orbited in 2000 by
Proton -K Block-DM3 launch vehicles. Radiosat 4 is a ground spare, in storage at SS/Loral’s facility in
Palo Alto, California . The series of satellites from which they come, the SS/Loral LS-1300, is known to have problems with their
Solar Array cells — a similar but more severe issue affects the Boeing satellites belonging to competitor
XM Radio .
Sirius' satellites are called Radiosat (instead of after the company name), due to there already being a previous fleet of satellites launched also named
SIRIUS , launched by
Sweden 's
NSAB (Nordiska Satellitaktiebolaget, or Nordic Satellite AB) and used for general telecommunications and satellite tv throughout Sweden and the rest of
Scandinavia .
The Sirius uplink facility is located in
Vernon ,
Sussex County ,
New Jersey .
Sirius does not use
Geostationary Satellites . Instead, its three SS/L-1300 satellites fly in geosynchronous (24-hour orbital period) inclined elliptical orbits. Sirius says the elliptical path of its satellite constellation ensures that each satellite spends about 16 hours a day over the continental United States, with at least one satellite over the country at all times. Sirius completed its three-satellite constellation on November 30, 2000. A fourth satellite will remain on the ground, ready to be launched if any of the three active satellites encounter transmission problems.
The Sirius system is similar to that of its competitor. Programs are beamed to one of the three Sirius satellites, which then transmit the signal to the ground, where your radio receiver picks up one of the channels within the signal. Signals are also beamed to ground repeaters for listeners in urban areas where the satellite signal can be interrupted.
Sirius offers car radios and home entertainment systems, as well as car and home kits for portable use. The Sirius receiver includes two parts -- the antenna module and the receiver module. The antenna module picks up signals from the ground repeaters or the satellite, amplifies the signal and filters out any interference. The signal is then passed on to the receiver module. Inside the receiver module is a chipset consisting of eight chips. The chipset converts the signals from 2.3 gigahertz (GHz) to a lower intermediate frequency. Sirius also offers an adapter that allows conventional car radios to receive satellite signals.
Sirius broadcasts using 12.5 Mhz of the codec from
Lucent Technologies . This audio codec is also used by
IBiquity for its
HD Radio format.
As of 2005, Sirius receivers are available for various new
Audi ,
BMW ,
Chrysler ,
Dodge ,
Ford ,
Infiniti ,
Jaguar ,
Jeep ,
Land Rover ,
Lexus ,
Lincoln ,
Mazda ,
Mercedes-Benz ,
Mercury ,
MINI ,
Nissan ,
Scion ,
Toyota ,
Porsche ,
Volkswagen , and
Volvo vehicles, and the service plans on adding availability for portable use. Starting in
2006 , all
Rolls-Royce vehicles sold in the United States will come with a Sirius radio and lifetime subscription as standard equipment. Sirius has an exclusive contract for VW and Audi vehicles from 2007 through 2012.
They also make many receivers for aftermarket installs as well, including the Sportster Replay, Starmate Replay, Sirius S50 with built in 1GB MP3 player, and the Sirius One. Sirius' hardware lineup is available at
''Sirius.com''
Some popular radios from Sirius:
Sirius subscribers are also able to access all of the propietary music channels and a small sampling of the talk stations via recently designed to look like a minature Sportster model is gaining popularity with streaming listeners.
Each receiver must be connected to an external antenna, which is included when you buy the receiver. Antenna placement is crucial to receiving a clear signal. In some locations users have experienced difficulty receiving the Sirius programming because the signal is not consistently strong.
See Also: Sirius Canada
In
November ,
2004 , a partnership between Sirius,
Standard Broadcasting and the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation filed an application with the
Canadian Radio-television And Telecommunications Commission to introduce Sirius in
Canada . The application was approved on
June 16 ,
2005 . The decision was appealed to the
Canadian Federal Cabinet by a number of broadcasting, labour, and arts and culture organizations, including the
Friends Of Canadian Broadcasting ,
CHUM Limited , and the
National Campus And Community Radio Association . The groups objected to Sirius’ approach to and reduced levels of
Canadian Content and
French Language programming, along with the exclusion of Canadian non-commercial broadcasting. After a lengthy debate, cabinet rejected the appeals on
September 9 ,
2005 .
Sirius Canada was officially launched
December 1 ,
2005 .
Sirius Canada did not initially carry Howard Stern. Despite popular belief that Stern's broadcast was banned by the CRTC, this is not the case — Sirius Canada, in fact, voluntarily ''chose'' not to air the program at the time of its launch in Canada. A significant number of Canadians have purchased
Grey Market subscriptions to Sirius' American service to listen to Stern, although owing to the nature of grey market economics a precise number is difficult to verify.
Howard 100 News has stated on air that they estimate at least 60,000 grey market satellite subscriptions in Canada; in December, the Canadian newspaper ''
The Globe And Mail '' reported that business analysts in Canada estimate a total of 60,000 grey market subscribers to both Sirius and
XM combined.
{Link without Title} (It should be noted that this figure also includes an unverified number of listeners who subscribed before the Canadian satellite radio services launched at all — the analysts' figures did not offer any estimate of how many Canadians chose a grey market subscription over Sirius Canada specifically because of Stern.)
On
January 11 ,
2006 , a Canadian writer interviewed on Stern's show announced an online petition to bring Stern to Sirius Canada.
On
February 1 ,
2006 , ''The Globe and Mail'' reported the announcement that Stern's show on Howard 100 would become available in Canada as of
February 6 ,
2006 .
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Sirius had previously disabled the Howard Stern channels on radios with a Canadian ESN number, even if they were subscribed to American content from an American address. Most of these radios have a 'C' suffix in the model name. For example, the Sirius ONE radio is model "SV1" in the United States, but "SV1C" in Canada. However, Sirius could not stop
Grey Market receivers from picking up the American programming. The blocking of the Howard Stern channels is anticipated to change once the announced return of Stern to Canada takes place.
