For Immediate Release:

Friday December 9, 2005

Website Visits Show Increased Interest in Sirius

Bridge Ratings analysis of website traffic to XM and Sirius satellite services reveals solid growth in reach over the last six months. In fact, traffic at the XM website (www.xmradio.com) is up nearly 100% when comparing its 3 month average to current traffic estimates.

Of note are the traffic rankings of these two satellite radio companies. XM's three month traffic average ranks it in the top 2,154 websites most visited by the sample studied while Sirius (www.sirius.com) ranks in the top 1900.

The study is based on website visit behavior through search engine Alexa which sits on 10 million user computers. Alexa reflects website traffic results on a daily basis and this information is updated to December 9, 2005.

Though XM's traffic ranking averages approximately 2,154th for the last three months, its current ranking as of this report has improved to 1094, while Sirius' current daily ranking is 1199th.

Data show that XM reaches 880 users for every million while Sirius attracts 660 for every million users.

Reach for xm.com:  

 
Traffic Rank for xm.com

Reach for sirius.com:  

Composite trending:

While website traffic data can be revealing of website use, pageviews and reach, it may not specifically translate into subscription volume for these two companies. Rather, we feel the above data reflect significant consumer interest in satellite radio over the last six months. It is likely that the intense industry marketing of Sirius and more specifically of Howard Stern's addition to the Sirius channel line-up in January has impacted Sirius' traffic reach and rankings as indicated in this data.

The fact remains that over the course of the last six months of 2005 both satcasters have stepped up their marketing to consumers in anticipation of the 2005 holiday season and, if anything, this data confirms the impact of that marketing on visits to their websites. Currently, Sirius has a page view metric advantage primarily due to Howard Stern.

According to this information, website activity for the two satellite radio companies has nearly doubled. The point of marketing any product is to get consumers (visitors) in the door - to create "foot traffic" - and to raise awareness and interest. According to these statistics, awareness of the satellite radio space and these two companies in particular has greatly improved in recent months, particularly Sirius. These charts reveal that while subscriber counts show a distinct XM advantage, Interest in Sirius from website activity has reached parity with XM.

See Bridge Ratings Stern Projections

Data source: Alexa.com website toolbar tracking 10 million Internet users between July 1 and December 12, 2005.