Infrastructure Growing Pains Hit XM Satellite Radio - ' Joining Forces with ' (
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Among other opportunities, XM expects to see satellite radio integrated into portable handheld products, said XM officials.
In an attempt to broadcast beyond the borders of North America and transmit XMs signal farther around the planet, the company entered into an agreement last month to purchase $25 million in stock from WorldSpace Inc., which is based in Washington. WorldSpace provides satellite radio services in Europe, Asia and Africa.
As part of the agreement, XM will receive warrants enabling the company to purchase $37.5 million more of WorldSpaces stock, as well as the option to invest in technology and product development with WorldSpace and other partners around the world.
To reach the mushrooming online audience, XM and America Online Inc., in conjunction with Denver-based The Anschutz Co.s Anschutz Entertainment Group unit, have recently come to an agreement on a joint venture to provide various categories of on-demand digital content that feature concerts, sports and entertainment video through the Internet across wireless, satellite, and other devices and platforms.
Called Network Live, the new enterprise will take advantage of the expanding number of homes that possess the data quality and delivery of high-speed broadband connections.
All these efforts are concentrated on content and distributing that broad range of information and material to the widest possible audience.
"The business plan was initially satellite delivery," Patry said. "As the business matured, we naturally progressed to streaming on the Internet that adds content. As technology converges, as youre seeing in telecom and land-line over IP and fiber over the home, youre going to start to see that convergence in the space were in where youll be able to get XM content into a variety of different platforms."
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