[BC] Failing XM Radio

[Mike McCarthy]

Actually IIRC, they have at least one ready to go and another in
production. Those costs are already built into their budget. I also
believe they MUST have a spare ready to go up in the event one suffers a
failure for timely restoration of service.

If you take away the $75-100M annually set aside for replacement
development, they would have been profitable far far sooner.

MM

> Hi Larry,
>
> I guess the question would be is it a good business idea. Listeners that
> are in metro centers get their satellite radio from a microwave
> transmitter not off of a satellite. Those darn buildings get in the way.
>
> It does cost more than a half billion bucks to launch and keep a GEO
> spacecraft operating in orbit (I was involved in two of them for GE/NBC
> and that was the price 10 years ago).
>
> Where will Mel come up with this kind of cash?
>
> Mike
>