XM Satellite Radio to broadcast on Net

For $7.99, starting next month, subscribers will have access to 68 commercial-free music stations.

NEW YORK - XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. will soon begin broadcasting some of its stations to subscribers over the Internet, fresh on the heels of the company's discontinuation of a receiver for PCs that some users used to circumvent the music industry's crackdown on illegal file sharing.

Starting in early October, XM will charge $7.99 for a subscription to listen to its 68 commercial-free music stations and about a half dozen other XM stations on the Internet, the company said Wednesday. Those who already subscribe to XM's satellite service, typically at $9.99 a month, can sign up for XM Radio Online for an extra $3.99 a month.

Software currently on the market allows users to record music from Internet radio stations onto their computers anonymously, circumventing the music industry's much-publicized crackdown on piracy. But XM said it is discouraging subscribers from doing so.

"We don't condone that type of activity, and in fact that can theoretically constitute a violation of the user agreement of our service," said XM spokesman Chance Patterson.

A program called TimeTrax fueled a surge in demand for XM's PCR receiver, a PC-based satellite-radio receiver that went on sale about a year and a half ago. Using the PCR and TimeTrax, users can record multiple XM stations at once and store the programming as individual songs in MP3 or WAV formats.

But the PCR was discontinued recently as XM prepared to launch XM Radio Online.

"The PCR had been on the market for more than a year and a half, and so that's sort of the typical life cycle anyway of some of these consumer electronic products anyway," said Patterson.

Some satellite radio insiders think the PCR created a big buzz among those looking to copy tunes because the sound quality of music from satellite broadcasts is much higher than music streamed over the Internet.

Still, analysts think the chance to listen to about 70 music channels and about a half dozen other XM stations online could push more customers toward XM, which has more than 2.1-million subscribers.

"There are a lot of people who listen to radio during the workday, and this is a way to reach those types of consumers," said April Horace, an analyst with Janco Partners.

"XM has already built a good brand. So for people who want the same content online, it makes a lot of sense," said Michelle Abraham, an analyst with In-Stat/MDR. "Especially with more broadband connections and new devices that let you take the content from your PC to your entertainment center and play it through your home stereo system."

XM is promoting the new service through a partnership with Dell Inc., offering buyers of Dell Inspiron notebooks and Dimension desktops a 30-day trial subscription to XM.

XM's competition, New York-based Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., doesn't offer an Internet-only subscription, but does lets subscribers listen to its 65 music stations on the Internet at no extra charge, and offers 72-hour free trials on the Net.

"It's been a significant reason why people have come to our service," said Sirius spokesman Ron Rodrigues.

XM shares rose 30 cents to $29.46 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, where Sirius shares fell 1 cent to $2.89.

In a letter to the editor, a company executive says, "Progress Energy did not perform to the level of excellence we expected," vowing to work more closely with county leaders in the future.

Progress Energy Corp. now acknowledges its performance was subpar last week when restoring service to Citrus County after Frances.

The company vowed to improve its relationship with county officials and do better next time.

"In some ways, Progress Energy did not perform to the level of excellence we expected," Martha Barnwell, regional vice president for Progress Energy Florida, wrote in a letter to the editor published in the Times on Tuesday and the Citrus County Chronicle on Wednesday.

Barnwell, whose region includes the Florida Panhandle, which was expected to feel some of the brunt of Hurricane Ivan this week, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Progress Energy spokesman Mac Harris said he could not detail what shortcomings Barnwell was referring to in her letter.

County Commission Chairman Josh Wooten and County Administrator Richard Wesch, who each met with Barnwell this week, said Progress Energy is using "a conciliatory tone" with the county.

"It was the first admission from her that they didn't mobilize as quickly as they should have," Wooten said.

Barnwell met Monday with Wooten, Sheriff Jeff Dawsy and Joe Eckstein, the county's director of emergency management, and also has met with other county officials.

"I think they saw they had a P.R. problem," Wooten said, "and this is the beginning of trying to resolve the problem."

The message Barnwell delivered in those meetings and in her letter was strikingly different from the tone of a meeting last week between county officials and Bill Habermeyer, chief executive officer of Progress Energy Florida.

When Habermeyer met with county leaders at the Emergency Operations Center on Thursday, he was bombarded with questions: Was Progress ignoring the county's priority list for restoring power? Why did Citrus Memorial Hospital go without power four days after the storm? What about restoring power to lift stations, which were without power in Crystal River, forcing the city to ask restaurants to shut down temporarily?

"I don't know if they're being put in a drawer somewhere," public works director Ken Frink said of the county's plan. "But they're not being looked into."

Wesch and Wooten said they were disappointed by Progress Energy's response last week.

"I assure you we're working very, very hard," Habermeyer said at the time.

At one point after Frances, 34,398 of Progress Energy's 41,145 customers were without power. While the county's other two electricity providers - Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative and Sumter Electric Cooperative - also suffered outages, their company executives were more accessible, and the power restoration went more smoothly, Wesch and Wooten said.

"That's the difference between this massive corporation and the co-ops," Wooten said.

Progress Energy hopes those problems won't resurface in a future storm.

"I can assure you that we have fixed our problems," Barnwell wrote, "and will be more effective in our efforts moving forward."

Barnwell has met, or will be meeting, with other county commissioners. Progress officials also will be asked to attend an upcoming County Commission meeting, perhaps as soon as Sept. 28.

Beyond that, Wesch said, he wants county staff to meet - soon - with Progress Energy operations staffers to hammer out basic details.

Among other things, Wesch said, he wants to make sure the Progress representative who attends briefings at the Emergency Operations Center be empowered to make significant decisions.

Wesch said that wasn't the case during Frances, although representatives from the county's two other electricity providers did have such authority.