Satellite radio broadcasts clear, digital signals over a vast network of orbiting satellites. The service offers an enormous assortment of music and talk channels, plus sports, traffic, news, weather, comedy and other content that’s available nationwide. And unlike regular AM and FM, satellite stations don’t air 10 to 12 minutes of commercials every hour. The service is a subscription-based, with users paying $12 per month for the privilege of listening to the content they want.
The history of satellite radio begins in 1992, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set aside a portion of spectrum for nationwide distribution via satellite. Companies such as Sirius and XM bid huge sums to secure the licenses. Once they did, they set about making satellite radio easy for consumers to use. To do so, they partnered with car manufacturers to make portable satellite radio hardware standard in high-end luxury vehicles and an affordable option in many mid-range models.
They also made it easy to subscribe, with customers getting a free receiver with the purchase of a new vehicle or a satellite radio package for their current vehicle. Satellite radio is transmitted from satellites that are placed in parallel geostationary orbit about 22,000 miles above Earth. From there, they transmit the signal to specialized receivers, such as the one in your car or home. The receiver receives the signal and decodes it to give you access to more than 170 channels.
The two competing services, XM and Sirius, battled over marquee talent, like Howard Stern and Oprah Winfrey, but both struggled to get enough consumers to sign up for their service. To help them survive, the two merged in 2008 to form Sirius XM.
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