Big news in the digital radio world with the announcement that XM & AOL are combining forces.  XM will provide content to AOL for its portal with there being a free offering and a premium one.  XM enables AOL's 10 million radio listeners to sample their product betting that they'll get hooked and, frustrated by being tethered to the desktop, subscribe.  AOL gets 'premium' content that will make their portal more attractive as part of their strategy to open up their walled garden.  The AOL stations will continue to carry ads (sold by Ronning Lipset Radio), while the XM stations won't have ads.  I wonder how much XM is paying for this...I'm guessing cash is flowing from XM to AOL since the ad-free XM stations will, at a minimum, be accruing CARP-royalty rates.  Also, AOL will be promoting XM to its user base and providing its Sessions@AOL content to XM.  Yes, XM will also be providing good content to AOL, but I'm betting that they're paying to do this integration.

This begs two question:

1. If AOL is going for an open portal strategy, why not list all kinds of other stations?
2. What will Sirius do?

On a different note, Chris Anderson posted about the decline of mass media.  His stat :

In 1993, American spent on the average 23 hours and 15 minutes a week
listening to radio. As of spring 2004, that figure had declined to 19
hours and 45 minutes per week. America's Top 40 just doesn't matter as much anymore.

That's about a 15% decline though it could have been worse given the dominance of analog terrestrial radio in the car.  I'd bet that it's a steeper decline comparing the younger demograhpic from the two time periods.