Sirius XM announces March price increase

You gotta love loopholes. When Sirius and XM decided to merge, Congress and the FCC had many concerns. As a way of calming those entities, the two companies agreed not to raise the rates on subscription and programming packages. So if you own a single radio and don’t listen on the Internet, then this article doesn’t apply to you. If you have more than one radio on a plan and/or listen to your stations on the Internet, then March 11 is going to be a bad day for you.

Sirius XM is going to raise rates on additional radios by $2 to $8.99. That charge is per radio. They are also going to introduce a $3 charge to listen on the Internet. There is a promise that the Internet offerings will be near CD quality, but I’m not sure that offsets the new cost. There are rumors that package prices will be raised, but I cannot see the Obama FCC allowing that to happen in the current economic climate. Both the Sirius and XM websites are offering users the ability to lock their original prices in, by buying a long term plan instead of a month to month subscription. Looks like Sirius needs some cash today.

From [Electronic House]