Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage XM Radio plans controversial traffic service

I've known about this since Wednesday. The NAB response was not unexpected. I don't think it will make a difference. XM is not doing anything that is not within the agreement they made with the NAB.

Here's another case where consumers are voting with their wallets for better radio service and the old school wants to fight it with rules and laws. Hopefully, the competition will encourage the terrestrial broadcasters to deliver a better product. They now have digital (I'm not ready to call it HD) radio, but where they are failing, at least from the perspective of a sat radio subscriber, is content and coverage.

In my case I have little content choice on terrestrial AM and FM because the coverage is also poor. In the metro areas, there is better coverage and more choice of content, but with 1/3 of every hour being commercials, the content is merely a commercial delivery system.

If you haven't yet heard, XM is going commercial free on all its music channels (that's 68 channels -- very much the Sirius model -- I love competition) on Feb 1. All for $9.99 a month. With the receiver prices dropping like a rock, no wonder the NAB is concerned -- if they want to compete they'll have to start delivering a better product.

XM's traffic service will start March 1. I'm not sure when Sirius wil start their traffic service, but they have announced that they will have one.