Well, I thought I would chime in on this discussion. I have had Sirius since December 2004. I received it as a gift for Christmas the month after Howard Stern announced that he would be going to Sirius - which helped me decide which satellite service I was going to get. For the full first year of having Sirius prior to Stern coming over, I kept asking myself how I could live without satellite radio.
Besides Stern, Sirius has every NFL game. So, if you are a Steelers fan living in New England, like me, you can listen to the Steelers game every week. Here's the neat trick, every NFL game is broadcast on 2 channels. One channel is for the announcers for the Home team and one channel is for the announcers for the Away team. So, if you are on the road, you can still listen to your hometown announcers anywhere in the country.
The music is varied and is pretty good. no matter what taste you have in music, you will find something you will like. From classic rock to alternative to metal to old school rap to country to jazz to classical, it is all there for you. And, ALL of the music is commercial free. The talk channels are the channels that have commercials.
I did not go crazy buying an expensive receiver - I have the SR-1. it is the model that looks like a radar detector. It is small and can hideaway almost anywhere.
If you are stuck in an office for half the day like me, you can listen to all of the music online, along with the Howard Stern show.
As for fees, the regular subscription is $12.95 per month. I purchased the lifetime subscription is $500, which is what I bought. If you are subscribing to Sirius for Howard Stern, this is the plan to buy. He is signed up for 5 years and the lifetime subscription pays for itself in just over 3 years.
And the rumors of the rates going up are just that - rumors. Sirius has no reason to raise rates. Since January 2006 to now, the subscriber level has gone from 510,000 to 5.1 million. They have gone from a gross revenue of $6.6 million per month in January 2006 to $66 million per month now.
Go Steelers