Financially struggling Sirius XM Radio Inc. is planning to stream its subscription radio service to the iPhone and iPod Touch devices from Apple Inc. beginning this spring.
After narrowly avoiding a filing for bankruptcy protection last month, the nation's only satellite radio provider wants to step up sales directly to consumers. New car purchases — which had been Sirius' best source of customers — are way down.
Sirius XM also said in a call Thursday to discuss its fourth-quarter earnings that it's ramping up efforts to reach buyers of used cars with factory-installed satellite radios.
"We've been testing a number of initiatives to make the Sirius XM content and experience more ubiquitous," said Jim Meyer, president of operations and sales at New York-based Sirius.
Sirius now has 19 million subscribers, up 10 percent from a year earlier.
By streaming its music, sports and talk channels to users of the iPhone and iPod Touch, Sirius can give its existing subscribers another way to access content and let new customers sign up without buying new radios, CEO Mel Karmazin said.
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Would you pay more to have their music streamed to your iPod?
I wonder how handlers for the Zune will respond should this go thru.