Sirius execs confirm video service will be live

In an announcement that is being described as a victory for couch potatoes worldwide, Sirius execs at the recent Morgan Stanley Global Automotive Conference claimed that despite rumors to the contrary, Sirius Video will indeed be a live, streaming service (as opposed to delivering cached content). Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin gave the example of a Nickelodeon-loving rugrat -- whose traumatic Spongebob-downtime will soon be mercifully limited to the short walk between couch and minivan -- as the type of customer who will benefit from live broadcasts. Although we've known that Sirius was planning to roll out a video service for well over a year now, this is the first time anyone has been able to pin down the suits on a launch window, with Senior VP Bob Law citing a "post-CES 2007" target for the initial rollout.

[Aidan @ Apr 25th 2006 11:49AM]

Can't wait to watch Blue Iris ride the Symbian live while I'm stuck in traffic!

[adam @ Apr 25th 2006 11:50AM]

Well there goes XM!!! I wonder what the Opie and Anthony army....wait two people doesn't make an army..

[chris @ Apr 25th 2006 11:53AM]

thats nice and all but PLEASE bring out a portable unit!!

[ronnie @ Apr 25th 2006 12:00PM]

Don't you fools realize Stern does pitiful radio with that sybian thing just so he can sell his weak, softcore porn TV channel to you?

O&A will have more listeners tommorow than Stern will see in the rest of his over the hill career, that is fact, live with it Stern fans while you hero wallows in obscurity.

[adam @ Apr 25th 2006 12:05PM]

Here we go.....let me just be the first to say that I started this flame war!!!!! Who really cares about O&A, and who really cares about Stern. Its all about Bubba the Love Sponge and you all know it!!! With all the Mcgillicutties out there he is defly number one!!!

[chris @ Apr 25th 2006 12:08PM]

you hit the nail on the head adam, i got sirius for bubba not howard but im a fan of howard now tho. Sirius has so much energy and XM has NOTHING to offer except better music than free FM but oh wait Sirius has that too so go get Sirius you XM fools.

[dan @ Apr 25th 2006 12:25PM]

"We want the consumer to have some live TV channels in the back seat. Your kid is watching Disney or Nickelodeon [in the home] and you go into the car and pick it up, right in the car," said Mel Karmazin.

Sheesh! Don't kids (and adults) watch enough TV as it is?

[Jerm @ Apr 25th 2006 12:37PM]

Wow.... it sure would be nice if Sirius would use some this new video bandwidth to take the music stations to a quality that sounds better than a 32k mp3... I love sirius for stern, but the music stations are unlistenable to me.

[John W @ Apr 25th 2006 12:44PM]

Let the pileups begin...nothing like Jenna Jameson live on the Sybian to cause a few traffic accidents.....and now with video too.....yeehaww..ride 'em cowgirl!

[i'macomputa @ Apr 25th 2006 12:45PM]

Jerm, you bring up an good point. XM's audio quality is pretty bad. I guess sirius' quality is bad too. Does any one know what kbps they are streaming at?

[hesh @ Apr 25th 2006 12:49PM]

O&A are a couple of hacks. So bad that XM let them go back to fm. Howard's show has been born again with Sirius. I had Sirius long before the Howard announcement but now I can't hardly listen to the music channels because I'm listening to Howard or the show replays.

And Howard On Demand is freakin awesome.

[Steven @ Apr 25th 2006 1:07PM]

Anyone want to check the name of the Sirius CEO? I'm pretty sure it's not 'Kazmarin'.

[Toby @ Apr 25th 2006 1:07PM]

Sirius is in the throes of death and grasping at straws (Bubba the jiz rag and Spongebob on video. wgaf?) XM has the technology, the talent and the listeners that Sirius only dreams of. Howard is a washed up old woman.

[NNTPgrip @ Apr 25th 2006 1:09PM]

Yawn...

You Sirius Fanboys are freakin idiots. They both are good, and screw Stern/MLB/NHL etc. etc. Its about the music.

Give me a reciever that can recieve both XM and Sirius. Integrated tuning/presets. Its a royal pain in my ass to have two.

Video is alright I guess, but it'll be compressed to hell and back with MPEG-4 at like 256Kbps. Anything more than a 7" screen will look like ass. At least it won't have to track the sat like those people with the DirecTV rigs on top of their monster SUVs.

All rather expensive to get your kids to shut the hell up in the back seat. You know what works... Dimeatapp. My parents gave me Dimeatapp(and a slap) as a kid to calm my little ass down. Side effect: Ruins grape artificial flavor for you for life.

[PEZ @ Apr 25th 2006 1:22PM]

opie and anthony are going back to FM radio - if you dingleberries didnt hear yet. XM gave them up so they could work at KROCK - Howards old station. XM couldnt make any money on them, they didnt bring anyone with them. Sad.

You are all retards.

[Bryan @ Apr 25th 2006 1:29PM]

"XM has the technology"

Where? As far as I know, the technology is more or less the same, and I have'nt heard of XM video yet. I'm not saying XM doesn't have plans to roll a service like this out though.

[Mark @ Apr 25th 2006 1:51PM]

Just for the record, if any of you knew anything other than what Howard says on his show, you would know that O&A are not failures. Almost all of the news reports in the past couple of days has said they are one of the most popular stations. And they didnt 'lose' them to FM, they are splitting time on both. but its not worth trying to argue this with stern fans who came here with the intention of flaming O&A.


Anyways, it is good to see both companies constantly trying to make improvements to the industry to attract more subscribers. The last thing we need is for Sirius/XM to stop trying and expect potential subs to keep signing up. It is moves like this that will eventually kill traditional radio, or force them to adapt to compete.

[Rex @ Apr 25th 2006 2:04PM]

Alrighty! No need to carry Disney DVD's for the kids if they nab an agreement w/Disney! C'mon, like Lasseter won't agree to that?? Thanks for the great write-up Evan!

[NitroNeo @ Apr 25th 2006 2:42PM]

Thanks for using & looking into the link I sent to Engadget yesterday afternoon Evan!

It's great to see something other than Apple or Ipod news on the site!

[josh @ Apr 25th 2006 3:24PM]

"O&A will have more listeners tommorow than Stern will see in the rest of his over the hill career, that is fact"

(... and they will get paid a LOT less for it.)

Yes, he has a lot less listeners than on free radio - The Sopranos gets a lot less viewers than King of Queens did, too. Because you have to pay for it!

The fact is, Stern attracted 3 million PAYING customers to Sirius, which must be more than O&A attracted to XM, otherwise XM would not likely let them branch out and do terrestrial radio again.

A year ago ago, Sirius had 600,000 customers, a tenth of XM. Now, Sirius has close to 4 million. That is a huge jump in a short time! Add in NFL and Nascar, things are looking good for Sirius.

Their #1 hindrance right now is that their players just aren't as slick looking as the XM ones - but I would GUESS that that's mostly because the companies made ones for XM first since they had so many more subscribers. That will probably change now.

Really, it's a close race, and it's better for the consumer that neither company goes under yet - more competition is better for us, we will get more services, cooler players, etc.

[Scott @ Apr 25th 2006 3:37PM]

Didnt i hear about his last year, and the year before? Vaporware. Sirius, The King of all PR's.

[anon @ Apr 25th 2006 3:46PM]

Sirius can't make a portable RADIO and and you think they're going to put video out there that easily? the unit will probably be towed in a semi behind you.

[flamer's grill @ Apr 25th 2006 6:54PM]

I used to think O&A were talentless hacks, too - but then I bought XM. Primarily for baseball, but when I was browsing the channels I came across O&A on channel 202 and discovered that they were really funny. Much funnier than Howard ever was or ever will be.

[Jolly @ Apr 25th 2006 7:54PM]

I had XM before switchinh to Sirius, the service was ok but the SQ was terrible. I might go dual sub since XM keeps offering me serive for 3 bucks a month, talk about desperate but its to my advantage. I really hope the SQ improved, I just plan on using it for baseball and they have NHL next season. As far as music channels I really dont like what XM offers, I am sick of changing the channel every two songs cause they play some obscure song from some unknown band.

[John @ Apr 26th 2006 9:18PM]

"...And they didnt 'lose' them to FM, they are splitting time on both. but its not worth trying to argue this with stern fans who came here with the intention of flaming O&A."

I'm not a fan either, but the name of the game for any pay content delivery service is exclusive content. For example, I can't watch the Soprano's on ABC, NBC, etc., so I pay a monthly fee for HBO. I'm sure XM is getting a heftly load of money for letting O&A go to FreeFM, but are shotting themselves in the foot over the long run; unless they are cutting their loses in terms of not building the subscriber base they had envisioned when first signing O&A.

[laff and laff and laff @ Apr 28th 2006 11:00AM]

6 million to 4 million

xm > sirius

still growing depleting subs

[RJ @ May 13th 2006 2:51AM]

I don't care if its sirius or xm just get me the wireless portable tv and I'm saying adios to cable

[Chris @ Jun 14th 2006 6:32PM]

I would never get a nose job : you did

I will never work 4 days a week its like ripping your audience off: You now do

This is all my real hair: No its not

It must be sad when your child has to rebel and get naked ohh love me daddy: Yours did

Free speech Free Speech crusade: You censor behind the scenes

And I could go on forever about the hundreds of things he says he invented that are documented to be untrue.

Howard Stern a true American Hypocrite welcome to the reveloution LMAO....

[Matt @ Jun 20th 2006 11:56PM]

The only reason I purchased an XM Radio was to listen to Ron and Fez. Ron and Fez were my favorite show when they were on WNEW and later on WJFK. In my opinion Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, and any other radio show out there don’t even come close to Ron and Fez. Opie and Anthony though can be really entertaining some days and really unentertaining other days. I love it that Opie and Anthony don’t have many guests and I hope they never get many. I hate guests. There all boring as can be and I’m totally not interested. Only time I was interested in the guests is when the callers would bash the guests.

Howard Stern is not the king of all media; he is the king of all hypocrites. Stern said on his own show he would never work four days a week and considered that screwing his audience. Now not only is he screwing his audience but also his audience is now paying to be screwed. I don’t understand how this man believes he invented everything. When he said that he invented reruns I was laughing historically. Also his show just isn’t entertaining. Enough with the porn stars and all I want to discuss is sex. It’s getting old. He’s been doing that same old shit for the last twenty years. Opie and Anthony can at least discuss everything from politics to the most cringe inducing radio. I have nothing against Sirius Satellite Radio but Howard Stern is so yesterday. Also severely over paid. By the way whoever brought up Bubba The Love Sponge… Bubba The Love Sponge is without a doubt the worst radio show in history.

[Dan @ Apr 3rd 2008 10:24PM]

You are a true ass in every sense of the word.
Howard Rules the Roost.
He started this 'style' of radio, it's only fitting that he is credited with being the driving force behind the next generation of entertainment.
Opie & Anthony are Howard wannabees.
Get with it

[Dan @ Apr 3rd 2008 10:25PM]

Stern will always lead the pack, even after he leaves the airwaves with beautiful Beth O and their $1Billion+ dollar$ and 2.5 beautiful children.