Subscription satellite radio to launch in 2009/2010

5th October 2006

Two companies, Ondas Media and WorldSpace, are planning on launching separate subscription-based satellite digital radio system in Europe from 2010 (other sources mention the Ondas system launching in 2009).

There is little information available about WorldSpace's plans, but Ondas Media intends to replicate the XM and Sirius satellite digital radio systems that have attracted 12 million subscribers between them in the US.

XM and Sirius each provide about 120 radio stations across a very wide range of genres, and Ondas intends to provide around 100 advert-free stations.

One advantage of subscription radio is not having to rely on advertising revenue, because this makes radio stations appeal to the lowest common denominator in order to maximise its number of listeners and hence its advertising revenue, and one of the main advantages of the XM and Sirius systems in the US is that they provide niche genres that would never be covered by commercial radio, and are also too small a niche for the BBC to launch a dedicated station for.

Ondas intends to use a number of 'spot beams' to regions where people speak a common language, such as one to the UK and Ireland, as well as a European-wide beam.

Ondas provides more information about its system and its plans on its website.

Unfortunately, there's no information available about how much data capacity Ondas will be able to use, so it's too early to tell what the audio quality will be like.

Another positive thing about the launch of satellite digital radio systems is that it should make the commercial radio stations improve their act, because otherwise their parent commercial radio groups potentially face a large loss of listeners to the satellite systems.

Many people doubt whether people will pay a subscription for radio when there's "so much" available for free. My answer to that is simply that people doubted Sky, and now it's got 8 million subscribers. Also, the advert-free bit of the package alone is enough to make a lot of people subscribe. I for one will be happy to pay to get rid of adverts and for a wide range of niche content that you'd never get on commercial radio — some people like the new stations they can get on DAB (e.g. rock music fans), but I don't listen to any of the new stations available on the digital platforms (I've tried listening to them, despite the poor audio quality, but I just don't like any of them), and I'm sure I'm not alone in not being very impressed with the stations on offer.