As Sirius Satellite Radio contemplates transmitting video to its customers (rendering it suspiciously similar to television), the company has formed an alliance with EchoStar and RadioShack that takes it a step closer to that possibility.
RadioShack has agreed to feature EchoStar's Dish Network and Sirius as the only In addition, Dish Network will make Sirius music programming available to the majority of its 9 million customers.
The satellite operators said the alliance would open new markets for both through presence in RadioShack's 7,000 stores by mid-2004. RadioShack plans to offer a variety of portable plug-and-play and home do-it-yourself devices, including docking kits and boomboxes, featuring Sirius service. The triad will do cooperative advertising and marketing.
With the addition of RadioShacks, Sirius announced that it would have access to 20,000 retail floors by Dec. 31. As a result, President/CEO Joe Clayton raised the company's projection on subscriber count from 860,000 to 1 million by the year's end - increase of 250 percent over the previous year. Sirius is now available in about 6,000 retail outlets.
Sirius also announced that it expects 2004 revenue to exceed $70 million, up from an estimate of around $60 million. The company continued to expect to reach the cash-flow breakeven point of 2 million subscribers by the end of 2005.
