XM Satellite Radio has recently made a couple of announcements that make its service even more desirable to many radio listeners. The first is that effective February 1, 2004, all XM music channels will be commercial free. This will take a significant service differentiator away from XM’s competitor, Sirius.
Another feature coming to XM in a couple of months is 24-hour traffic and weather reports for major metropolitan markets. The first set of 15 traffic and weather channels will debut on March 1, 2004.
Services like these are gradually making satellite radio services competitive with local radio, particularly in radio markets less active than New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia.