Diagnóstico do mercado satélite dos EUA (via WP)

Um artigo do Washington Post ("XM and Sirius in Pitched Battle for satellite radio Subscribers" by Annys Shin, Washington Post Staff Writer, Saturday, November 26, 2005; Page D01) suscita algumas questões muito interessantes:

- A XM lidera sobre a Sirius, mas esta conta com Howard Stern ("Coming in January. Howard Stern. Only on Sirius")para dar a volta; ("XM, with 5 million subscribers to Sirius's 2 million, has a larger share of the automobile market, with deals to install XM receivers with manufacturers of nearly 60 percent of all U.S. cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles. As of the third quarter, XM had a bigger share of the retail market, too.")

- Os principais clientes são os automoveis e as lojas (que recebem música sem publicidade);

- O negócio está numa fase crítica: tem de descolar, sob pena de perder a credibilidade dos investidores. ("New York-based Sirius and D.C.-based XM Satellite Radio are competing for customers... this holiday shopping season. Each is expected to sign up a million subscribers during the last three months of 2005, analysts said.")

- Cada uma cobra 12,95 dolares por mês. Mas a oferta da XM é maior: ("XM offers about 150 channels of music, news, talk and entertainment. Sirius offers about 120 channels.")

- o próximo desafio é o negócio dos aparelhos receptores. Com leitores de Mp3. ("Sirius recently came out with its first wearable device, the S50, which can play downloaded digital music and several hours of recorded Sirius programming. Next year, XM will introduce its first portable satellite radio receivers combined with digital music players")