Advanced Television

Digital Radio

FCC says ‘No’ to Liberty over Sirius-XM

Liberty Media owns 40 per cent of Sirius-XM and has made no secret that despite its shareholding influence over the pay-radio broadcaster, it would like to formally take ownership of the Sirius and XM operating licences. It applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in March for the FCC’s approval. On May 4, the FCC […]

May 8, 2012By Chris Forrester

Sirius-XM: Profits up 38%

There’s money in pay radio, implies Sirius-XM’s latest numbers. The broadcaster reported an extremely successful Q1 adding subscribers and boosting profits – although the bottom line was also helped by a price rise. Sirius-XM’s net income grew from last year’s Q1 of $78.1 million to this period’s $107.8 million. Overall revenues grew 11 per cent […]

May 2, 2012By Chris Forrester

Sirius-XM rewards CEO Karmazin

While the BBC Trust is agonising over whether to pay its next Director General anything more than about £400,000 (c. $620,000) in annual salary and bonus, US pay-radio operator Sirius-XM has rewarded Mel Karmazin, its CEO, a $1.5 million salary plus $9.2 million in bonuses. His rewards (up 13 per cent) reflect the growth in […]

April 12, 2012By Chris Forrester

WorldSpace relaunches in India

Timbre Media, backed by music label HMV Saragama India, is now playing out its 10-channel all-music bouquet on Vodafone’s cellular system. WorldSpace India has been quietly recruiting staff over the past months, and Mathewkutty Sebastian, CEO at WorldSpace India (and he was previously MD for India & the Middle East at WorldSpace Inc) says Timbre […]

March 16, 2012

Radioplayer iPhone and Android apps

Radioplayer, the online radio platform offering all the BBC and major commercial stations, is celebrating its one year anniversary by launching iOS and Android mobile apps. The platform went live in March 2011 with 157 radio stations, including all the BBC’s national and local stations, as well as commercial networks such as Global’s Capital and […]

March 15, 2012

Sirius-XM added 1.7m subs in 2011

Pay-radio operator Sirius-XM, which operates in North America, added 1.7 million net new subscribers last year, according to the company. Sirius-XM finished the year with almost 21.9 million subs, up 540,000 net new subs  in the pre-Christmas quarter, taking the overall gain for the full year to 1.7 million.  Actual end-of-year numbers will emerge in […]

January 5, 2012By Chris Forrester

Sirius-XM targets 100m cars

David Frear, CFO at US satellite radio broadcaster Sirius-XM predicts that its pay-radio service will be on the road to more than 100 million cars, vans and trucks by the end of the decade. Frear, speaking at the recent UBC Global Media conference, told analysts that while predicting the number of new car sales in […]

December 16, 2011By Chris Forrester

Spotify opens platform to third party developers

Spotify, the digital music service, is seeking to emulate the success of Apple and Facebook by opening its platform to outside developers. Daniel Ek, Spotify founder and chief executive, said that new applications from Rolling Stone, Last.fm and others would run inside Spotify, offering users a richer experience. The Rolling Stone app, for example, will […]

December 1, 2011

Virgin Media TiVo adds Spotify app

Virgin Media has confirmed that the Spotify TiVo app will be rolling out for all Virgin Media: TiVo customers. The new and exclusive app will enable all Spotify Premium customers to access tracks and playlists through Virgin Media TiVo on their TV or home cinema system, and will automatically appear in the Apps and Games […]

November 29, 2011

Spotify hits 2.5m subs

Spotify has added about half a million new subscribers in the two months since plugging into Facebook’s new entertainment platform. The announcement that the digital music service had reached 2.5 million paying subscribers comes after a rocky period, with launches in four new European countries offset against a renewed debate about artists’ earnings from streaming […]

November 24, 2011