07-12-2012, 04:08 PM
Satellite Radio and Diffusion of Innovations:
Satellite Radio.ppt (Size: 327.5 KB / Downloads: 24)
Emergence of SDARS
World Space
The original satellite radio idea was to develop an affordable way of transmitting information and radio to rural areas in Africa.
Launched its first satellite in 1998.
Potential in the United States for such a service in the 1990s?
Disposable incomes
“Terrestrial” radio becoming inundated by commercials
Quality of AM/FM radio
Benefits of SDARS
The convergence of digital satellite technologies with radio-based programming allows the consumer to access his or her favorite XM or Sirius channels from virtually anywhere inside the United States.
Since 2001-2002, both satellite radio services offer approx. 100 channels of music, talk, news, sports, and weather for a monthly subscription fee of $12 - $13.
Sirius runs no commercials; XM runs commercials on several channels.
Complications for SDARS
The task that satellite radio companies like XM and Sirius face is to convince consumers that they should pay for a service that is readily and freely available through the FM/AM bands.
Consumers must buy a new receiver that gets either the XM or Sirius signal. (AM/FM is also available with these receivers)
Currently, neither company has come out with a receiver that is both XM and Sirius compatible. This is in the works right now.
The Adoption Rate of SDARS
Most consumers have not yet adopted the satellite radio subscription service offered by either of these two companies, and reasons for this adoption rate have yet to be examined in scholarly detail.
Diffusion of Innovations
Adopters of an innovation are classified on the basis of innovativeness, “the degree to which an individual or other unit of adoption is relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than the other members of a system”
The rate of adoption is influenced by the characteristics of adopters related to innovativeness: socioeconomic status, personality values, and communication behavior.
Most of the generalizations about characteristics have been positively related to innovativeness, meaning “innovators score higher on these independent variables than do laggards”
Relative Advantage
Relative advantage is the degree in which an innovation is perceived as advantageous over an idea or technology that came before it.
ability to be picked up by a subscriber almost anywhere in the United States
satellite radio services also offer commercial-free programming
Who are the adopters?
Application of the diffusion model to satellite radio subscribership could provide some insight into the diffusion of this new radio service.
Because satellite radio is still in its early stages, it is important to examine who the current adopters are and how they differ from future subscribers.