Sirius was founded by Martine Rothblatt, who served as the new company's Chairman of the Board. On January 13, 2011, Sirius Satellite Radio was dissolved as a separate entity and merged into Sirius XM Radio, Inc. On November 12, 2008, Sirius and XM began broadcasting with their new, combined channel lineups. The combined company began operating under the name Sirius XM Satellite Radio. On July 29, 2008, Sirius formally completed its merger with former competitor XM Satellite Radio. On October 16, 2006, Sirius announced that it would be launching Sirius Internet Radio, with 78 of its 135 channels being available worldwide on the internet to any of its subscribers with a valid user name and password. Sirius launched its radio service in four states on February 14, 2002, expanding service to the rest of the contiguous U.S. Sirius announced it had achieved its first positive cash flow quarter for the period ending December 2006. There is a US$15 activation fee for every radio activated.

Subscriptions are prepaid and range in price from US$14.99 monthly (US$9.99 for each additional receiver) to US$699.99 for lifetime (of the receiver equipment ). Because all channels are free from FCC content regulation, songs are played unedited for language talk programs may also feature explicit content if they wish. Music channels are presented without advertising, while its talk channels, such as Howard Stern's Howard 100 and Howard 101 and Jason Ellis' Faction talk 103, carry commercials. Its business model is to provide pay-for-service radio, analogous to the business model for premium cable television. Sirius channels are identified by Nielsen Audio with the label 'SR' (e.g. A subset of Sirius music channels is included as part of the Dish Network satellite television service. It now provides 69 streams (channels) of music and 65 streams of sports, news, and entertainment to its subscribers. Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002. Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio ( SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings.

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