Sirius XM to raise the price on basic service

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Sirius XM Radio will be raising the price of it’s basic service on January 1st 2012 to $14.49 (+ Royalty Fees). This will be the first price increase since 2002. Sirius XM was in a price freeze for the past 3 years since the merger was approved in 2008 but the price freeze was lifted by the FCC earlier this year.

Sirius XM also plans on adjusting prices to their other services on Jan 1st (Second Radio, Best Of…etc..etc..) but no statement was made on which services would be changed.

“This is the first price increase on our basic service packages since the addition of the NFL, NASCAR, Howard Stern, Martha Stewart and many college sports to our programming line-up,” CEO Mel Karmazin said in a statement earlier today. According to Karmazin the price increase amounts to a nickel more per day, which is still a great value for all the programming listeners can access.

Sirius XM plans on launching Satellite Radio 2.0 next month which will include 30 additional channels. There is still no released pricing structure for the new service.

  • Revcorey

    less content. more money . good job.

    xm is horrible. long live sirius!! well, until the end of howard’s contract

    • Anonymous

      It’s still the same amount of content….just more money. Once Satellite Radio 2.0 starts, everything will slowly move over to the XM platform anyways. No prices yet but with 30 additional channels I’m guessing 2.0 will be around $20 a month.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrew-C-Davis/1266612161 Andrew C. Davis

        I’m not understanding where your synopsis comes into play. Where does the platform shift come in because of 2.0 and what is your reasoning for saying the pricing will again be upped to around $20? 

        • Anonymous

          Andrew instead of writing a bunch of information in this reply you can take a look at this link to see how SiriusXM plans on phasing out the Sirius platform.

          http://xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?t=115557

          As for the price increase, if the normal service (1.0) is being upped to $14+ a month I’m pretty sure this new 2.0 service is going to be in a higher price tier. I’m not saying the whole price for service is going up, just those who choose the new 2.0 technology. Hope that helps.

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrew-C-Davis/1266612161 Andrew C. Davis

            So this basically will phase out the satellite cross-compatibility issue. Will XM and Sirius still use separate conditional access systems as broadcasting continues? If one particular platform, in this case XM, will take the reigns as the provider for new stations and satellites, there will be no need to develop new more compatible technology.

          • Anonymous

            It’s hard to tell exactly whats going to happen until Sirius XM makes everything official but from everything I heard both Sirius and XM will be under one system (XM). It makes sense to have everything together if your looking at it from SiriusXM’s side, having Radios, App’s, Online Streaming and Billing all together. 

            Who knows though, SiriusXM tends to not tell subscribers anything about future plans. Either way there will be changes if they want to compete with the new technology and services that keep popping up left and right.