February 18, 2025

NWBroadcasters

Radio and TV news

SiriusXM announced free ad supported tier

During SiriusXM’s Q2 2024 earnings call today, it was announced that SiriusXM has launched an ad-supported, in-car subscription plan it calls Free Access.

The Free Access plan will incorporate advertisements on a selection of music, talk, sports, and comedy channels, and can be subscribed to via a vehicle’s dashboard without providing any financial information. However, there are a few major catches in the system.

Free access will only work with vehicles that have the 360L hybrid radios in them, and it is also currently invitation only. 360L-supported radios are currently available in a limited, but expanding, range of vehicles from Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Ford, Dodge, Subaru, Volvo, and Nissan.

The subscription can only be used on the one radio and not transferred to another vehicle. There is also no mobile player included. The other more important part of this, is that you must use the subscription at least once every 60 days. If you do not, you will lose access to the free tier, permanently.

SiriusXM Free Access comes as the company struggles with subscriber growth and getting its product in front of more, and particularly younger, ears. Edison Research’s latest Share of Ear shows that in the past decade, the satellite broadcaster has only gained 1% of listening time among Americans 13+. The platform (8%) lags behind AM/FM (36%), Streaming Music (20%), and now YouTube (14%) and podcasts (10%).

In the second quarter of 2024, SiriusXM’s self-pay subscribers fell by 100,000, with an increase in vehicle-related churn and a decline in streaming additions. The number of paid promotional subscribers dropped by 73,000, mainly because automakers opted for unpaid trial subscriptions. The total number of trial subscribers was 7.4 million, a minor decrease from 7.5 million in both the previous quarter and the same quarter the previous year.

There is no word on if this free tier will make its way to Canada or not.

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