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Sirius closing gap with XM

Sirius Satellite Radio LogoSirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) is rapidly gaining on rival XM (XMSR). Sirius has 4.68 million now, to XM's 6.8 million. XM ended 2005 with 5.9 million subscribers nearly double the 3.3 Million Sirius claimed at that time.

The onus now seems to be on XM CEO Joel [Hugh] Panero to get the buzz back. Sirius has made some high profile moves, most notably the hiring of Martha Stewart and Howard Stern. Last month, in an upgrade much anticipated by his rabidly loyal fan base, Stern's two around-the-clock channels of programming began streaming on the internet for Sirius subscribers -- as music channels for both services have been doing for sometime.

XM is set to unveil its own celeb big gun: as report here, Oprah comes to XM in August. Stern, on his daily morning show, has hammered XM on the Oprah signing for some time upon reports she would be doing only one half-hour of original programming for them a week, and believing as he does that, with Oprah's show on TV daily for free, XM overpaid for her name. This is a much different situation than Stern brought to satellite with his radio show, which is no longer available on the open air waves.

It remains to be seen how much of a presence Oprah will have on XM, if she will provide enough original content to make an XM subscription a necessity for her fans, and if XM has bought more than a headline from Oprah here.

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Last updated: August 20, 2008: 10:18 AM

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