Stanley Cup Championship Disappoints

I wasn’t disappointed with the Stanley Cup Championship or with Game 7.  The whole tournament was great. I was disappointed I couldn’t hear the game.

Returning yesterday from an eight-day vacation in Colorado, my wife and I hoped to spend part of the 14-hour drive listening to the final game of the Stanley Cup Championship. We were on interstate highway the whole way, so I figured we wouldn’t have much of a problem picking up the game on the radio. Wrong!

Out of a bazillion FM and AM stations we could receive, nobody was carrying the game. I saw on NHL’s Stanley Cup website this morning the game was only carried on XM and Sirius satellite radio (plus NHL Internet radio). Well pardon me; my 2002 car didn’t come with a satellite option. Out of luck, we ended up watching the last three minutes of the game on TV upon arriving home.

The Stanley Cup Championship has a dedicated following. Unfortunately, the satellite radio audience is still quite small: 9 million subscribers. I am sure the Sirius and XM like the exclusivity angle, but it still makes it tough on the majority of radio listeners who were out of luck when they had no option to listen to the game.

Satellite radio still has a major challenge to go mainstream and, apparently, Wall Street agrees. A big event like the Stanley Cup can precipitate action and that is what satellite radio companies want to happen. I am sure the Super Bowl results in a rush of people signing up for high definition television service, and it also contributes to the sale of big HD television sets. No doubt, satellite radio wants to do the same thing with its own exclusive content, but it has a ways to go.

OK…so I couldn’t find the Stanley Cup on AM/FM. Let’s see if I can listen to some of the World Cup action instead. Nope...just enough of an excuse for a new car WITH satellite radio.