O&A Go Off Premium

Over the past week or so, I've noticed while listening to my XM Satellite Radio, that there have been ads noting that when radio "shock-jocks" Opie & Anthony come back from vacation later this month, their show will no longer be a Premium service. When they first appeared on XM a few months ago, you had to pay an extra $2.99 (I think).First, let me state clearly that I don't find O&A particularly funny, and after having listened to pieces of a few shows on the teaser channel when they first arrived on XM, I had pretty much heard all of them that I wanted to. But I have been loosely following their time on XM, primarily because I am a fan of satellite radio overall, and I want the market for both XM and Sirius to continue to grow.At first blush, however, you might think that moving O&A to non-premium status means trouble in XM-land. I don't agree. Having heard O&A, and been underwhelmed by their wit, I can understand why people might not be rushing in droves to pay an extra few bucks for their show. And granted, I was disappointed that XM lost the bidding war for Howard Stern. (I'm not a huge fan of Howard Stern either, but I do recognize his talent, and the success he could bring to either of the satellite networks.)But in the end, I don't begrudge Sirius... They have been having a harder time of things than XM, and so if Howard can buoy Sirius, I think it's better for the future of the technology overall. I just hope that Sirius learns from watching how XM has been able to quickly adjust their approach with O&A based on the market and will do the same if the market responds similarly to Howard Stern.By the way, for purposes of my blog, I'm considering satellite radio to be a mobile technology. It's not a cell phone, but it's clearly an important part of the growing wireless infrastructure. So in case you're wondering why this is under "Mobile Tech," now you know!