XM plays commercials? WTF, really?

robhurlburt

Well-Known Member
Oct 15, 2008
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I just purchased an XMP3 and I was looking at the channel line up, and I noticed their "pop" channels "Kiss" plays commercials?

WTF? I thought they were commercial free? I thought Sirius/XM Hits One was on both XM and Sirius, but it only is ONLINE for XM. This is a big bummer, as that was 4th or 5th down the line for stations I listened to. How bad are the commercials? Can I test it out before I purchase a subscription somewhere?
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
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Kiss (21), Mix (22), Sunny/Pink (24), Rock @ Random (161) and Nashville (11) are Clear Channel stations which play commercials.
 

limegrass69

Confused
Oct 12, 2008
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There are about 5 channels on XM (only) side (Nashville, Pink, Rock@Random, Kiss, and Mix) that are programmed by Clear Channel. They are not controlled by Sirius/XM and have a light spot load (maybe 2 minutes an hour). They are not counted among the commercial free channels, and there are similar commercial-free channels programmed by Sirius/XM.

It's been like that for years, and the deal goes back to XM's infancy when Clear Channel was an investor. They are no longer an investor, but are still party to this programming deal.
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
27,230
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Toronto, ON
There are about 5 channels on XM (only) side (Nashville, Pink, Rock@Random, Kiss, and Mix) that are programmed by Clear Channel. They are not controlled by Sirius/XM and have a light spot load (maybe 2 minutes an hour). They are not counted among the commercial free channels, and there are similar commercial-free channels programmed by Sirius/XM.

It's been like that for years, and the deal goes back to XM's infancy when Clear Channel was an investor. They are no longer an investor, but are still party to this programming deal.

A good chunk of XM's talk content comes from CC via this deal as well.
 

robhurlburt

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Oct 15, 2008
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They are not controlled by Sirius/XM and have a light spot load (maybe 2 minutes an hour).

Good to know. So its not like listening to regular FM, just some commercials?

They are not counted among the commercial free channels, and there are similar commercial-free channels programmed by Sirius/XM.

what would be similar to sirius hits1 (top 40) on XM that is commercial free?

How long will XM continue with the commercials? Will they ever get rid of them?
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
27,230
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Toronto, ON
Good to know. So its not like listening to regular FM, just some commercials?



what would be similar to sirius hits1 (top 40) on XM that is commercial free?

How long will XM continue with the commercials? Will they ever get rid of them?

ClearChannel has the option. XM has no say.
 

limegrass69

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Oct 12, 2008
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what would be similar to sirius hits1 (top 40) on XM that is commercial free?

How long will XM continue with the commercials? Will they ever get rid of them?

20 on 20 is close to Hits 1.

The commercials will continue for as long as CC has those channels under their control. I'm not sure when that deal expires. IdRatherBeSkiing probably does...:cool:
 

Kryptonite

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Oct 21, 2008
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Pop2K is another commerical-free option, but that seems to play some "older" pop hits.
 

robhurlburt

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Oct 15, 2008
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Listening to 20 on 20 now, we'll see how it is

they don't offer the commercial channels online, kind of a bummer.
 

v1ru5

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Oct 24, 2008
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Listening to 20 on 20 now, we'll see how it is

they don't offer the commercial channels online, kind of a bummer.
Because XM has ZERO control over CC programming. Clear Channel would have to PAY XM to stream their channels online and we know that ain't gonna' happen.
 

limegrass69

Confused
Oct 12, 2008
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I thought I someone had mentioned that CC would start offering their channels on all XM radios soon (all meaning including those radios that don't have a subscription).

I am surprised CC does not stream their XM channels on their iheartradio web site.
 

v1ru5

Well-Known Member
Oct 24, 2008
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Harrisburg PA.
I thought I someone had mentioned that CC would start offering their channels on all XM radios soon (all meaning including those radios that don't have a subscription).

I am surprised CC does not stream their XM channels on their iheartradio web site.
Who can explain why CC do what they do?
 

macfanatic010

Member
Nov 8, 2008
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Who can explain why CC do what they do?

In a nutshell, back before XM launched, clear channel invested in XM in exchange for a portion of their bandwidth. Now, when XM went commercial free around 2004, XM made the clear channel stations stop playing commercials. Then there was a court battle over if XM can mandate Clear Channel to not play commercials and the judge ruled that XM couldn't. Because of that, Clear Channel started playing commercials again so XM made copies of the station -- playing the same style of music, just without commercials. Not to mention XM grouped all the clear channel stations into "More Music" and tagged the station names with "cm" to show they have commercials.

That's the long and short of it...there's some key points i didn't cover.
 

macfanatic010

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Nov 8, 2008
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IMHO, 20s on 20 is much better than Hits 1 :)
Posted via Mobile Device

they're almost the same channel at this point. on weekdays, the morning and nights are for the most part simulcasts of hits 1. the afternoon is different, as well as the weekend. personally, i prefer 20on20's weekend programming...Hits 1 is literally a loop of a 3 hour Top 40 countdown show followed by either Pete Wentz' show or Hitbound...repeating all the way until Monday morning.
 
Nov 12, 2008
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In a nutshell, back before XM launched, clear channel invested in XM in exchange for a portion of their bandwidth. Now, when XM went commercial free around 2004, XM made the clear channel stations stop playing commercials. Then there was a court battle over if XM can mandate Clear Channel to not play commercials and the judge ruled that XM couldn't. Because of that, Clear Channel started playing commercials again so XM made copies of the station -- playing the same style of music, just without commercials. Not to mention XM grouped all the clear channel stations into "More Music" and tagged the station names with "cm" to show they have commercials.

That's the long and short of it...there's some key points i didn't cover.

Also Clear Channel doesn't get a cut of the subscriber money, so in order to operate those channels they have to have some sort of revenue source. And as Mr. Mays once said, Clear Channel is in the advertising business.

Clear Channel also supplies its programming to XM at no cost due to the original investment and purchase of 10% of XM's bandwidth.
 

DAB

Mod Emeritus
Oct 9, 2008
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Yeah, just to clarify Sirius XM doesn't have commercials on their music channels, but Clear Channel does and those channels are programmed by Clear Channel not Sirius XM as have been pointed out. In reality those channels are actually pretty decent and while they do have commercials they don't have nearly as many as regular FM channels do.
 

goreds2

Well-Known Member
Oct 14, 2008
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OH H.....EYE OH
Yeah, just to clarify Sirius XM doesn't have commercials on their music channels, but Clear Channel does and those channels are programmed by Clear Channel not Sirius XM as have been pointed out. In reality those channels are actually pretty decent and while they do have commercials they don't have nearly as many as regular FM channels do.

Very well said. Here is how Clear Channel became involved with XM.

From June 8, 1999:

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