Full Sirius Play-by-Play on XM?

[bramweiser]

Hi, Everyone,

I'm thrilled to be able to hear English-language soccer matches (EPL, UEFA CL) and Formula 1 on my XM receiver now (along with the obvious NFL and Nascar, too), but am curious about the rest of Sirius' "Play-by-Play" programming (AFL, CFL, Wimbledon, skiing, World Series of Poker; shows like World Soccer Daily, etc.) which hadn't been scheduled to air on XM...at least not yet.

This seems even more perplexing as XM did allocate bandwidth for the afore-mentioned soccer and auto racing programs, yet those same channels air other stuff at other times on Sirius, so why can't/won't XM air them as well?

Does anyone have a sense (or can anyone put in a good word ) about that other programming in the hope that it can please air on XM soon, too?

Thanks,
Bram

 

[snakester]

Hi, Everyone,

I'm thrilled to be able to hear English-language soccer matches (EPL, UEFA CL) and Formula 1 on my XM receiver now (along with the obvious NFL and Nascar, too), but am curious about the rest of Sirius' "Play-by-Play" programming (AFL, CFL, Wimbledon, skiing, World Series of Poker; shows like World Soccer Daily, etc.) which hadn't been scheduled to air on XM...at least not yet.

This seems even more perplexing as XM did allocate bandwidth for the afore-mentioned soccer and auto racing programs, yet those same channels air other stuff at other times on Sirius, so why can't/won't XM air them as well?

Does anyone have a sense (or can anyone put in a good word ) about that other programming in the hope that it can please air on XM soon, too?

Thanks,
Bram

XM's system is a little bit different from Sirius'. XM has the ability to change channels around on the fly. For example, when there are no sports on, all the channels are playing the same "There is no event on this channel right now" loop. That is one channel, and the reciever is told to map that one channel to all the channels that are off the air at that given moment. When a sports event comes on, bandwidth is "carved" out, usually from a talk channel, and is put "over" the off air loop (if your radio drops signal while listening to a sports game you can hear little bits of the off air loop sometimes) to play the sporting event. When the event is over, the bandwidth is given back to the channel. That's the reason for the preemptions on the weekends.

Sirius' system can't do that. A channel has to be running all the time. So in reality if XM was to play Sirius' sports channels 24/7, they'd have to get rid of some talk channels to make room.

Hope this made sense.

 

[bramweiser]

XM's system is a little bit different from Sirius'. XM has the ability to change channels around on the fly. For example, when there are no sports on, all the channels are playing the same "There is no event on this channel right now" loop. That is one channel, and the reciever is told to map that one channel to all the channels that are off the air at that given moment. When a sports event comes on, bandwidth is "carved" out, usually from a talk channel, and is put "over" the off air loop (if your radio drops signal while listening to a sports game you can hear little bits of the off air loop sometimes) to play the sporting event. When the event is over, the bandwidth is given back to the channel. That's the reason for the preemptions on the weekends.

Sirius' system can't do that. A channel has to be running all the time. So in reality if XM was to play Sirius' sports channels 24/7, they'd have to get rid of some talk channels to make room.

Hope this made sense.

Hi, snakester,

First, thank you for responding to my thread.

Do I understand what you wrote? Yes, I do. Do I necessarily buy that as XM's reason for (so far at least) not providing that additional programming on those channels to its listeners/subscribers? No, I don't...not yet anyway.

Even if those channels aren't set to run for 24 hours/7 days, why the extra bandwidth isn't maintained for at least some airings of that additional programming is something I just don't understand.

For instance, do you mean to say that there's just NO additional bandwidth available, say, weekdays from 1-3 PM ET (World Soccer Daily's live airing of each new episode)? I'd expect there would be because it's usually at night and on weekends when the play-by-play channels are generally busy with various sporting events, something that just doesn't happen on weekday afternoons, yet XM keeps the channels "dark" then, and turns them on "only" (so far, anyway) for EPL or UEFA CL matches (which I definitely DO want to hear, BTW ).

Even if they can't be on 24/7, one (OK, "I") would certainly think they could be on longer than they already are, thus showing at least some of those other programs...though they aren't doing so...yet...and this, at minimum, is what I'm asking about, and wanting XM to change. (Are you listening, XM?)

Thanks again,
Bram

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

The Best of Sirius bandwidth was manufactured by squeezing every other channel to its limit. I think the simple answer is that there simply isn't any extra bandwidth to be squeezed.

 

[joe2k4]

Well when Sirius subs can get damn FSR you can have our soccer how about that. Face it just because they have merged you can't get everything yet, and it might take awhile before you can. Do they have the games at least?

 

[bramweiser]

IRBS, how can that be? Again, as I noted, what extra "squeezing" needs to occur in weekday afternoons, for example? If we were talking about evenings or weekends, then maybe I could see it (as that's when other PBP channels are airing sports), but weekday afternoons? XM's Best-of-Sirius DOES air, as I wrote, English Premier League matches as well as UEFA Champions League ones, yet not the preceding (on weekdays) World Soccer Daily (as one example)? No, this truly seems like a programming decision, and not a bandwidth one, hence my question.

Joe2k4, maybe you didn't read what I wrote -- the issue isn't many of the games, which XM listeners ARE getting, it's the "non-game" (and "other game", like CFL) programming that those same channels air on Sirius but that they don't air on XM.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

IRBS, how can that be? Again, as I noted, what extra "squeezing" needs to occur in weekday afternoons, for example? If we were talking about evenings or weekends, then maybe I could see it (as that's when other PBP channels are airing sports), but weekday afternoons? XM's Best-of-Sirius DOES air, as I wrote, English Premier League matches as well as UEFA Champions League ones, yet not the preceding (on weekdays) World Soccer Daily (as one example)? No, this truly seems like a programming decision, and not a bandwidth one, hence my question.

Joe2k4, maybe you didn't read what I wrote -- the issue isn't many of the games, which XM listeners ARE getting, it's the "non-game" (and "other game", like CFL) programming that those same channels air on Sirius but that they don't air on XM.

They can pre-empt some talk channels on the weekend. They can't do it on a weekday. They also may not feel it is enough of a draw to warrent the effort.

 

[snakester]

They can pre-empt some talk channels on the weekend. They can't do it on a weekday. They also may not feel it is enough of a draw to warrent the effort.

Exactly. They're more willing to pre-empt talk on the weekends when none of the big names are on.

 

[livingfruitvirus]

They can pre-empt some talk channels on the weekend. They can't do it on a weekday. They also may not feel it is enough of a draw to warrent the effort.

Yes they can. And do.

On Thursday, November 20, 2008, the following channels will be preempted for select college sporting events:

• America Left (XM 167): 7PM – 11PM ET
• America Right (XM 166): 7PM – 11PM ET
• The Power (XM 169): 7PM – 12AM ET

It is clear however that preemptions won't occur to accommodate Best of Sirius games.

 

[bramweiser]

They can pre-empt some talk channels on the weekend. They can't do it on a weekday. They also may not feel it is enough of a draw to warrent the effort.

I understand that, but I think you might be missing the parallel I was trying to draw.

UEFA Champions League matches air Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons, and some EPL matches air Monday afternoons, too, yet the signal does not stay open on XM so as to also air some other daytime non-match programming, and, to my knowledge, nothing is being pre-empted when the matches air anyway.

I also believe that it's not as simple as, "air a game, pre-empt another channel". My belief is that there is some "wiggle room", if you will, so as to be able to air "some" sporting events without any pre-emptions taking place. It's when there's just too much of that to air that pre-emptions occur, as you and others have noted.

However, there is precious little other sporting event programming during weekdays, which again begs the question...why, if there's enough signal bandwidth to air UEFA CL & EPL matches, can't there also be enough to air programs like World Soccer Daily, which air in a similar timeslot?

Bram