Will you pay to play?
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Both offer a radio listener greater control and choice. There's commercial-free music for just about any taste; nonstop localized weather and traffic; sports galore; comedy; talk from the right, left, and center, and edgier programming than what is normally found on the terrestrial radio dial.
The two networks are also getting serious about generating exclusive programming, realizing the buzz from content that cannot be found anywhere else is crucial to their long-term survival. Sirius, which has about half of the 6 million subscribers that industry leader XM has, is way out in front on the buzz front thanks to Howard Stern's two-channel debut tomorrow.
But even as satellite radio wins you over with its breadth of content and general absence of commercials, it's still . . . radio. It's coming digitally from a satellite rather than via radio waves from a tower, but it's still largely background sound as you drive to work, fix dinner, or read the paper.
The cost is ridiculously cheap right now -- $12.95 a month, or less if you sign a one or two-year contract -- but it will probably rise as the cost of programming rises, just as it has for cable and satellite TV.
The number of commercials is also likely to increase as both networks struggle to turn a profit. Sirius reported a $551 million loss for the first nine months of 2005, a 23 percent increase over 2004. XM reported a $398 million loss, down 12 percent.
Because satellite radio is growing and changing so quickly, many non-Stern fans are taking a wait-and-see approach with the four-year-old industry.
Rick Friedel of Scituate said at the Best Buy in Braintree just before Christmas that he was buying a receiver and a one-year Sirius subscription for his father, a Stern fan. But not being a Stern fan himself, he wasn't ready to start paying for radio, at least not yet.
''It's not worth it to me to buy it for myself," he said. ''I'll wait to get my father's feedback."
Like satellite television, satellite radio requires an initial leap of faith. You have to buy reception equipment that works with only one network, which means there's no switching back and forth between Sirius and XM to see which one you like better. (Many car manufacturers make the choice for you, aligning with one network or the other. Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and BMW are with Sirius, while General Motors, Honda, and Toyota are with XM.)
There's also no guarantee that the programming you like will stay with the same network. In 2007, NASCAR is moving from XM to Sirius, while the National Hockey League is moving from Sirius to XM.
So it pays to research what you want before you commit. For fans of Stern and his offbeat brand of humor (his show will air 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and his channels will carry such fare as ''Crack Whore View," phone sex experts, and a call-in segment featuring his own parents), the choice is easy. For everyone else, it's tougher because the networks are so similar.
Their equipment, for example, matches up closely in price and quality. At home, I tested a SkyFi2 XM receiver, manufactured by Delphi, which cost $80 after a $50 rebate at Best Buy. It also required a special home kit costing an extra $50. I plugged it right into my stereo but it could also be connected wirelessly. It allowed me to pause a live show and then come back to it without missing anything.
For my car, I tested an XAct Visor Sirius satellite radio for $50. The magnetized antenna attached to my roof and the receiver plugged into my car lighter and played over an FM station. I installed it myself, but Best Buy does installations for $50.
Both sets worked well. Setup was no problem. But the models I tested weren't very flexible. It wouldn't be easy to take them with you wherever you want to go, which is probably why both companies, but particularly XM, are gravitating toward iPod-like devices that give users all the functionality of an MP3 player combined with a satellite radio receiver offering 150 channels of programming.
Users had complained about poor satellite reception with portable hand-held devices, but XM said last week that Pioneer and Samsung were coming out with a series of portable players with enough memory to store up to 50 hours of XM programming. The units are expected to cost $400, plus the monthly XM subscription.
Jupiter Research of Darien, Conn., is forecasting that sales of satellite radios will grow to 55 million units by 2010 from fewer than 10 million today, with two-thirds of the growth coming from portable devices.
When it comes to content, XM and Sirius are more similar than they are different. Sports is the chief exception. Sirius has the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, English soccer, horse racing, and sports talk. XM has Major League Baseball, NASCAR, and golf.
For many games, the networks offer both the home team's and the away team's radio feed, and the coverage is the same wherever you are in the country.
Both networks have about 60 channels of music, covering everything from pop to rock, hip-hop to soul, country to classic, electronic to religious. Sirius offers more themed stations -- Rolling Stones Radio, Radio Margaritaville, Elvis Radio, and E Street Radio. XM is enlisting such artists as Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Snoop Dogg to host shows.
Satellite weather and traffic is big-city focused, so less populated areas of the country get no coverage. XM is the better bet for weather-conscious Bostonians, since its Boston weather and traffic channel focuses exclusively on Boston. Sirius alternates between Boston and Philadelphia.
Both networks have the standard news channels (CNN, Fox, C-Span Radio, ABC News & Talk) and a similar talk focus. Sirius has a channel aimed at women run by the ubiquitous Martha Stewart. For men, it has Maxim and the upcoming Playboy channel. XM features Take Five for women, featuring shows with Ellen DeGeneres and Tyra Banks.
XM signed a deal with National Public Radio to carry such shows as ''Talk of the Nation" and ''Fresh Air," while XM has built a morning show around former NPR host Bob Edwards and has imported ''On Point" and ''Here and Now" from WBUR-FM in Boston.
Corey Lewis, station manager at WBUR, said satellite offered WBUR the opportunity to expand its reach to a new group of listeners. ''We'd rather be part of it than be afraid of it," he said.
But Al Stavitsky, associate dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon, said local stations should be afraid. He said the satellite networks will become formidable competitors once they can offer more local content. He says their local traffic and weather channels are probably a precursor to airing local news.
Stavitsky said the appearance of public radio programs on satellite networks is also dangerous, since someone already paying $150 a year to listen to the programs may balk at making a contribution to their local public radio or classical music station.
''The satellite services are competing for the same audience, people willing to pay for a higher quality radio service," Stavitsky said.
Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.
