Commercials on XM

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Leisher
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Post by Leisher »

Wait. You pay for XM, and it still has commercials?


Yes, but only on certain stations.

NO satellite radio is 100% commerical free despite what they claim. The majority of their music channels might be, but their channels that come from other commerical sources have ads.

ESPN, CNN, FOXNews, ESPNRadio, E!, Disney, etc. are all commercial channels and therefore will have their regularly scheduled commercial breaks.

A few music channels have ads too, but I only know of two. XM and Cummulous (?) recently signed a deal that allowed Cummulous to take over the programming of two channels in exchange for making those stations have commercials. I'd say it's one ad every hour...maybe?

The one that pisses me off is XM Comedy. They do an ad or two every hour and the channel is an XM channel. They don't need to do ads, but since it wasn't music I think they thought it would be ok to do.

Sirius will have the same restrictions on it for it's commercial channels as well. Not sure how they do the rest.
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Post by 69-1098720866 »

As of now Sirius has no commercials on the music channels but like you said they do on the the talk radio channels, like, ESPN, E!, and Howard Stern(the only channel I pretty much listen to) but he only has commercials during his "pee" breaks two maybe three during the whole program.

My boyfriend loves all the comedy channels on Sirius, but they do seem to replay the same stuff a lot. I don't remember hearing any commercials on those channels, but I may be wrong...
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Post by TPRJones »

I just picked up an XM radio tonight. Circuit City has a portable (Samsung Nexus 25) on sale for -$0.05 after rebates until 12/30/06 ($79.95 - $50 - $30 = -$0.05). It holds up to 18 hours, and comes ready to attach to your home audio setup. I also found an online promo code for free activation and three months of service free, so I got a heck of a deal to get started on satellite radio.

I won't use it at home, though. I've set up 17 hours of daily recording on over a dozen different channels, and will basically use it as an auto-loading random music MP3 player (plus a daily hour of G Gordon Liddy, who rocks the house). It's all very exciting.

I was originally looking to get Sirius, but there are no third-party players and their portable units are WAY more than I was looking to spend, so XM gets my business. It reminds me a lot of the PC market, actually.
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GORDON
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Commercials on XM

Post by GORDON »

I recently relaunched.my Sirius/XM account. And I'm listening to it, and I'm realizing... It sounds like shit.

Googled, and it streams at less than 64 kbps, and that's all it will ever be without upgrading every sat radio in the wild. Standard mp3 is 128kbps. CD quality is 1411.

Damn. They fucked up.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
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Cakedaddy
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Commercials on XM

Post by Cakedaddy »

I've always thought satellite radio had a 'tin can' sound to it. But it's convenient and cheap (we pay about $5-6/month depending on current special), so we used it.

The comedy channels are useless at this point. They are either ads (I'm not hiring anyone, I don't use a C-PAP, and I don't have bad credit) or a routine we've already heard. I can listen for an hour, and might get 3 routines I haven't heard before. And there are like 5 of them. For 3 years, they've had the same advertisers. Zip Recruiter, C-PAP something or other, and cleaning up your credit. Music: It's always channels 7 through 10 and some in the mid 20's. They are 'commercial free'. They still advertise themselves, or other channels.
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Commercials on XM

Post by GORDON »

As soon as the three months I paid for is up, I'll begin the arduous process of cancelling my account, including the >0 number of times I will mysteriously get disconnected.

It just sounds like shit.
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Cakedaddy
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Commercials on XM

Post by Cakedaddy »

Only time we disconnect is in tunnels or large overpasses. Rarely does weather do it. Although, I do lose signal on 23 south right by what used to be called Spring Meadows for no detectable reason. Something there is jamming the signal. Only lasts for about 3 seconds. If I switch from music on my phone over Bluetooth to satellite, I notice how bad it is. But normally, it plays the song, I can sing with it, and I'm in my car. I don't have high expectations and again, enjoy the convenience. But with my recent discovery of podcasts, my broadcast radio use has gone down quite a bit.
Leisher
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Commercials on XM

Post by Leisher »

I have no idea how they survive with Pandora, Spotify, etc. out there.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
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