Thursday, June 18, 2009
Sirius iPhone App: No Stern? No NFL? No MLB? No Way. [UPDATED]
The too-long-in-coming Sirius XM app for the iPhone and iPod touch showed up in the App Store today and sadly, it’s more noteworthy for what’s missing than anything else. Absent from it are a number of the broadcaster’s more popular channels, among them Howard Stern’s, which Sirius often claims are responsible for driving more subscriptions than any other. Also missing: MLB Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play and Sirius NASCAR Radio.
If you thought the decline in subscribers posted by Sirius XM Radio in its first quarter was ugly, you ain’t seen nothing yet. With the souring economy weighing heavy on the auto industry–a mainstay of Sirius’s business–and partner Chrysler navigating bankruptcy, the struggling company is bracing itself for continued subscriber losses in its second quarter.
While $25 billion in low-cost federal loans keeps General Motors, Ford and Chrysler churning out SUVs through the econalypse, the wheels are coming off cleantech car company Tesla Motors. Without access to the same sorts of loans given its Detroit colleagues, the country’s leading electric car maker is delaying production of its Model S sedan, sacking an unspecified number of employees and shuttering two offices.
