Jennifer Omasta-all questions XM v. Sirius

XM and Sirius satellite radio have been becoming popular over the past few years because they have less advertising and give people more listening options then the usual radio. Some changes that they have gone through in the last decade is that Sirius began working with Ford and having their radio installed in the carlines of 2007. The XM radio then moved itself to not only a car radio but an audio radio for at home. In 2004 the programs were having low subscription levels and would not start building a profit til late 2007/2008 where they started to create joint ventures with companies such as ford for Sirius and GM for XM to gain enough subscriptions to make a profit. Both companies have similar cost structures. These alliances with these car companies is a good idea because they are getting their name out there and their product has more of a chance of being used then if they just try to sell it themselves. It has been shown that their profits have gone up ever since they gained these alliances. The most recent internal venture they have undertaken is by cutting their customer cost and charging their programming costs more to gain more of a profit and another charged their costumers more to gain a profit and sustained the same programming cost. The current core competencies are that the company’s are that they are both strong competitors and have a great product out there. They both have advantages over the regular radio but they don’t have as many customers as they like. One of the ways these company’s could fix their problem is by joining together to make one large company and combining their customers and advertising costs to gain more customers.