NEW YORK and AUBURN HILLS, Mich., March 17, 2006 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- SIRIUS Satellite Radio (SIRI) and Audi of America, Inc. today announced that Audi will offer SIRIUS as its exclusive satellite radio provider for Audi vehicles sold in the U.S., beginning with model year 2007 through 2012.

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"We decided that the Audi customer demographic fit more closely with the type of content that SIRIUS provides," said Wolfgang Hoffmann, head of Audi Product Management. "We believe that SIRIUS will continue to grow and create programming that our Audi customers will desire."

Today, the installation rate of satellite radio in Audi models is approximately 50%.

"We are very pleased that Audi will be offering SIRIUS exclusively, beginning with the 2007 model year," said Mel Karmazin, CEO of SIRIUS. "We have had an excellent relationship with Audi as a non-exclusive partner during the past few years, and we are very pleased that they have decided to increase their commitment through this new, exclusive agreement. We look forward to working with them in the future to provide their customers with the most compelling in-vehicle entertainment available."

 

Hmmmm. My first question is "Why limit yourself?". People that already have XM stuff in another car or even the car that they are trading will probably want to stick with XM.

I wonder what Audi got for this. Maybe Sirius will offer reduced rates for new Audi purchasers, but I doubt it.

 

this xm, sirius crap reminds me of apple back in the day. someone needs to just come up with a "i read satelite signal" unit and you decide what you want to subscribe to and that signal becomes unscrambled for you.

 

Yep it would be nice. With licensing though, it will won't happen anytime soon. I bet older Audi XM units will become valuable though!