XM Hawks Inventory On Portable Music Player
- by Jonathan Blum , June 6, 2006
XM's Inno, which debuted earlier this year, can carry, display, and be fed marketing content live. What's more, the gadget doesn't require hard docking the way iPods do. For now, ad inventory on the Inno, produced mostly by XM, is limited to still logos and art. Eventually, however, the gadgets will be able to display larger-moving graphic files and video clips.
XM Radio Northeast Sales Manager Paul Trueman said XM is already selling ad inventory on the system, although much inventory remains available. For example, although terrestrial radio broadcasts of the "Opie and Anthony" show carry local ads, the XM version of the show does not; ad spot times are now filled with a blank slug. Trueman said those ad spots, and others like them, are up for sale. "You can buy that spot now," says Trueman. "It's just that demand is light since we just launched the service."
The Inno, one of several models of portable media players, carries XM's entire audio menu: 170 digital channels of music, news, and sports. It also has a small 1.2-inch color screen; image quality is not the best. In addition to its ability to play audio and video, the Inno can record and store up to 50 hours of XM content on a small hard drive.
This program-saving ability raised the Recording Industry Association of America's hackles. The group sued XM for copy infringement; it contends that satellite radio users are stealing music the way users of the original illegal Napster did. XM rebuts this claim, saying that it is allowing users to store legally obtained content.
The Inno currently represents just a small fraction of XM's install base, but XM projects 8.5 million subscribers by year's end. The company does not release sales numbers for the Inno, but whispered estimates put the figure at about 40,000 units per week.
