Sirius Satellite Radio expects to offer a live television service in cars by late 2007, and deals with content providers may be set as early as January, CEO Mel Karmazin said Thursday.
In an interview at the Reuters Media Summit in New York, Karmazin said the mobile video, likely to be available in 2008 model lines, would be geared toward young viewers sitting in the back seat.
Shares of Sirius rose 11 cents to $4.26 after his remarks. The stock is still down about 36% this year, hurt in part by concerns about industry spending on programming and the auto industry’s woes.
“We have three content deals that are very close to being finalized. I don’t know if they will be done by CES, but that is what we are shooting for,” he said, referring to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. “We will have video in the rear seat of the car up and running.”
Sirius has touted the possible launch of such a service for years. In 2004, it said it would offer video services by mid-2005, adding at the time that the timing depended on automakers’ wishes rather than Sirius’ capability. It later said TV service would launch in ’06.