Sirius announces Backseat TV details, Chrysler exclusivity

Sirius spilled quite a few details on its self-descriptive Backseat TV service back at CES, but the company's now thrown up a bit more info on its website, along with the news that the setup will be exclusive to Chrysler vehicles for the 2008 model year. That deal will apparently begin with the 2008 Chrysler Town & Country and 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan minivans, followed by other Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge vehicles later in the year. It also looks like the system will be a tad more expensive than was earlier reported, with the factory installed option now carrying an MSRP of $470. In addition to the necessary hardware, that price will net you a one-year subscription to the service (which now includes Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network), after which you'll have to fork over $7.95 a month on top of the $12.95/month for the standard Sirius radio service.

[Via Orbitcast]

[nuguns101 @ Mar 29th 2007 3:35PM]

so satellite TV in a car with a DVR?

[BloodFalcon @ Mar 29th 2007 3:41PM]

Cartheif:

"Hey, I think I'll break into that car over there with the TV and the satellite dish !"

[Kevin @ Mar 29th 2007 4:17PM]

It would be tough for car thieves to spot a Sirius set up. The wavelength is very short (much moreso than DirecTV and Dish) and so the antenna can be very small. Satellite antennas (including those of XM) are little more than a square inch, and are a half-inch tall.

Video is a waste of bandwidth. Why must my beloved XM merge with this crap?

[Andrew @ Mar 29th 2007 4:22PM]

The iTunes model would work much more appropriately for such a setting.

[Maestro @ Mar 29th 2007 4:52PM]

I'd love to see a sample of the quality of this video...My kid would love this instead of watching Toy Story for the 800th time..

(And now, cue the, "In my day we never watched DVD's in the backseat of the car" crowd. Good for you. You also bought pepsi for a nickel and got change.)

[Tony @ Mar 29th 2007 5:13PM]

Wow...so where are the comments going " Waaaaah!!! Now they want us to pay for TV too?" When you would be more than willing to pay if it was any other company. lol. Oh, and Nuguns, I don't think it has any DVR capabilities yet. Would kind of be pointless with such a short channel line-up.

[BAMF @ Mar 30th 2007 1:43AM]

This is probably just going to rob bandwidth from the music. Yay.

[boomhauer @ Mar 30th 2007 1:44AM]

give me my backseat dvr with wifi connection to the house, start them out young watching pirated video!

if i used activesync for this, it would be the largest peripheral ever. the budget version would suck tho.. having to steer into that big docking cradle.

[jayk @ Mar 30th 2007 2:54AM]

Backseat DVR huh? I guess this'll make my session on makeout hill more enjoyable (I can watch Grey's Anatomy!).

[Matt M @ Mar 30th 2007 6:52AM]

Couldn't this be altered to allow use at home? If so, Cable companies will be complaining and maybe finally we can see some cheaper cable rates.

HOORAAAHH!!!

[Mrmean @ Mar 30th 2007 10:15AM]

lmao @ Chrysler

[Dave @ Mar 30th 2007 7:21PM]

lmao @ people who still use lmao

[Ray @ Apr 3rd 2007 3:28PM]

Direct already has TV for the car, what are people talking about. Much confussion

[Chris @ Apr 5th 2007 10:00AM]

Wow, Sirius satellite TV in cars now... Talk about a merge just in a nick of time before XM extinction. And to think XM was had over 80% of the market share 2 years ago and lost it... I guess it's the same as evolution: only the strongest survive.

[CJazz @ Jan 10th 2008 12:53PM]

Funny you should mention that "the strongest survive"...as Sirius narrowly escapes bankruptcy thanks to an act of cash-flow kindness. HAHAHA