Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Tune It In and Rip the Dial Off


The SEC announced a new satellite radio deal with XM yesterday. The new deal is a five year commitment, but not all teams are in on the five year term. It looks like Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State are the original XM line up. Their games will beam to your receivers this year. South Carolina and Florida come on line later. Everyone else is locked into Sirius until 2008, at the least. LSU declined to participate in the new deal and will stick with Sirius.

It doesn't look like your team will get its own channel, though. The Athens Banner-Herald says that Dawg fans might tune into Georgia's visit to Knoxville this fall and hear Bob Kesling instead of Larry Munson. XM says it will try to broadcast a specific team's radio feed at least 75% of the time. I'd say that's an issue. Most SEC fans want to hear their own guys call the action.

No word on how the proposed XM and Sirius merger will effect the deal.