SIRIUS DEMONSTRATES REAL-TIME VIDEO DELIVERY AT CES
LAS VEGAS -- Rebranding of Sirius as deliverer of independent music to public turned off by deficiencies of traditional commercial-supported radio or music TV was among highlights of marathon news conference Wed. on eve of CES here. Sirius also has dropped words “Satellite Radio” from its corporate name, apparently in keeping with plans to stream data and video content to mobile receivers.
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Data and video delivery are works in progress and Sirius released few details of those initiatives at news conference here. Nevertheless, Larry Pesce, Sirius vp-product management & corp. planning, conducted brief demonstration for first time publicly to beam video images to Sirius receivers from company’s transmission hq in N.Y.C. Cartoon images were shown using Windows Media on Kenwood receiver with LCD screen. Pesce emphasized that transmission demonstration was of “real-time real video,” not phony mockup generated from hard disc or DVD recording.
Cartoon image content was meant to convey Sirius’s belief that first commercial applications were likely to be children’s programming, Pesce said. But he said Sirius hadn’t decided whether content would be of original programming or material to be licensed from Disney or other established content providers. In Q&A, CEO Joseph Clayton generally sidestepped questioner who asked how good video quality would be in light of Sirius’s stated plans to stream video content in addition to 100 existing music and news channels. Clayton said Sirius would have to work within confines of bandwidth limitations, but final determination on video quality would depend on consumer preferences.
Clayton said Sirius enjoyed 4th-quarter momentum in adding 18,000 new subscriber activations for year-end total of 30,000 in keeping with recently downgraded projections. He said target was to add 40,000 activations in first quarter. Responding to our question, Sirius said company was eying target of 300,000 by end of 2003, consistent with disclosures in recent S-4 reports filed with SEC.