A major component of Sirius’ business strategy has been to execute far-reaching and exclusive deals with big-name entertainers and personalities to create and build broadcast streams. Since satellite radio's business model is based on subscriptions, the bulk of the income comes from listeners, not advertisers. Digital satellite systems are used to deliver data from a satellite down to a consumer.

The National Basketball Association has reached a multi-year deal with Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. to expand radio broadcasts of professional basketball games. In June 2005, Sirius signed an agreement with BBC Radio 1 in the UK to rebroadcast The Chris Moyles Show and other daily shows to an American audience. XM has signed deals with 60 per cent of car makers, including the biggest, General Motors of Canada Ltd., to pre-install XM receivers in GM vehicles.

DirecTV now gives listeners as part of its service the music channels of XM, but not the news or traffic channels. XM Radio Online is a great way to experience the innovative programming you can hear on the XM service. XM Canada said it will have shipped 100,000 receivers to Canadian retailers before Christmas.

Modern satellite TV services have streamlined the signal delivery process. Earlier satellite TV systems used very large dish receivers in order to focus the distant signals onto a powered antenna. Portable satellite radios work just like plug-and-play satellite radios.

There are two kinds of dedicated car satellite radios: brand-specific and universal. Terk makes a single XM radio that works with a variety of stereo brands. To connect it to an XM-ready stereo, you just need to use an adapter cable designed specifically for your brand of stereo. Brand-specific adapters let you use one satellite radio with several different brands of in-dash stereo. Satellite radio receivers continuously display the artist's name and the song title.