Hear 2.0

Sirius, XM, and HD: Consumer interest reality check

Through Google you can track web searches. But searches are a different matter from actual traffic.

Using the web traffic tracking service Alexaholic, one can track a partial representation of traffic to any number of websites.

Look what happens when I select Sirius and XM and the consumer site for HD Radio:

Note that traffic (defined as reach) to both Sirius and XM is generally down over the past year - with XM declining much faster than Sirius.

And note that the October spike for Sirius corresponds to the two-day free online trial for the Howard Stern show.

Finally, note the traffic for HDRadio.com which, although not a destination on the order of Sirius or XM, is the go-to site for further information about HD in many HD radio ads and promotions and is, thus, a good metric to gauge consumer interest.

To the degree that these estimates are correct (Alexa isn't perfect) and to the degree that web traffic is a proxy for consumer interest, it looks like a long and slow race to the bottom.

While interest in satellite radio is diminishing, interest in HD shows no signs of a pulse.

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