A La Carte Explained

Here's an excerpt from a longer piece in the LA Times (online) that attempts to explain the ala carte offerings, particularly in line with comments made by Mel Karmazin on O & A today:

There will be two a la carte offerings.

One for $6.99 a month will allow you to choose 50 Sirius channels from a subset of 100 Sirius channels (Sirius has more than 130); or 50 XM channels from a subset of 100 XM channels (XM has more than 170).
The other, for $14.99 a month, will allow you to pick 100 channels, with Sirius customers able to select from a company-determined "best of" XM's channels, and XM customers allowed to select from the "best of" Sirius channels.

Those programming selections haven't been released, but it's a good bet they'll include some exclusive content, such as XM's Major League Baseball broadcasts and channels featuring Oprah Winfrey and Bob Dylan. They likely will also include Sirius' National Football League broadcasts, NASCAR coverage and Howard Stern channels (he's so popular, he has two).

But for those options you'll need to buy a new radio that is capable of receiving individualized channel packages.

For customers who don't want to buy a new radio, there will be several other packages available within three months.

For $9.99 a month, customers will be able to choose either a "mostly music" package or a "news sports and talk" package. For $16.99, Sirius customers will get all their existing channels, plus the best of XM, and vice versa for XM customers. And finally, in a concession to FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, the companies agreed to offer a family-friendly version of Sirius or XM channels (presumably without Stern or Opie & Anthony) for $11.95 a month. There will also be a family-friendly "best of" offering that will cost $14.99.

The timing of this is interesting, in the the rollout of a la carte is about the same time as the boys' contract expires. This suggests that time is of the essence to have them included.