From orbitcast.com

Matthew Enderlin's lawsuit, alleging that XM Satellite Radio falsely advertises its music channels as 100% commercial-free, can proceed in U.S. District Court.

Enderlin's suit filed in January 2006 alleges XM's claim that its music channels are free of commercials is "false, misleading and deceptive" because the channels' programming includes "promotional and advertisement segments."

Enderlin alleges the company's commercial-free promise violates the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and similar statutes in 41 other states and the District of Columbia. He is seeking punitive damages and a court order that XM Radio no longer advertise its music channels as commercial-free.

He also is seeking to have the suit certified as a class-action suit so all XM Radio customers can be considered plaintiffs.

XM Radio has said the suit is without merit and the company does not air commercials on its music channels.

The company filed a motion last year for dismissal or, alternatively, a stay of the proceedings pending arbitration. It argued the case should not proceed in court because the customer service agreement it entered into with Enderlin contains a clause requiring that he submit any claims to arbitration.

Enderlin challenged the validity of the clause requiring arbitration, calling it "unconscionable."

A U.S. District Court judge denied the XM's motion, and the 8th Circuit on Wednesday affirmed that ruling, and so the lawsuit can proceed.

There are more lawsuits on this...

The bottom line: perception is the real reality here and if some listeners think XM is not playing "commercial-free" music on the channels it promises to, then XM may have a credibility problem.

Read this, it not just me http://radio.about.com/od/xmsatelliteradio/a/aa061206a.htm

The lawsuit is complete and utter BS.

http://xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?t=79339

its not actually bs and he has a good case. its very hard for a normal consumer to find the distinction between xm and "clearchannel" when there is no distinction made in the contract.
I was recently given a free year of XM because in the paper work of my contract its says 100% commercial free (which has now changed) when it came time to renew I argued to XM that i had not received the service i had paid for and their counter argument of "well the stations that play commercials are actually owned by ClearChannel" did not hold water since the contract was for the service of XM not the stations themselves.
The manager just sighed, said "yeah we are getting this a lot" and gave me a free year.

Getting a free year of service doesn't sound like a reason to sue. Thats $155 back to you because six stations, whose content have been duplicated on new commercial-free channels, started to play ads. Much better deal than you'd get from a class-action suit, and the lawyers stay out.

XM's advertising now is for "The most commercial-free music" which is absolutely true when you add up the variety and quantity of ad-free music channels against Sirius.

XM tried its best to wring CC's arm but lost in arbitration, thus the reason CC's channels have been labeled with a "cm" suffix so listeners know that commercials will be aired. CC's channels also have less bandwidth devoted to them now, resulting in reduced audio quality for CC satellite feeds and better sound for XM's in-house stations programmed in Washington DC.

My biggest gripe is the incoherent offshore customer service hired for nights, weekends, and peak calling hours. I can't understand a word they say while they read off a script without actually answering my questions.

Its a lot easier to give away free service than explain to customers that they actually have MORE music. Hell, you can call XM and have the CC channels blocked from your receiver.

Jesda,
I'm glad you think the lawsuit is BS. Just riddle me this...

Why did you remove channels from you 24/7 office unit?

Because you didn't want to hear the commercials.

So, you see WE AGREE

Why should I have them blocked? I paid for commercial free channels?

By the way, what Cadillac do you own?

Jesda,
I'm glad you think the lawsuit is BS. Just riddle me this...
Why did you remove channels from you 24/7 office unit?
Because you didn't want to hear the commercials.
So, you see WE AGREE

We agree on that point for sure, but we don't entirely agree. :) What we seem to agree on is that we don't want ads in between our songs. What we disagree on are the end results. I don't feel like I've been lied to by XM, because in the end I'm getting the exact same content with better audio quality and no ads like before.

The ads are on channels explicitly marked with a "cm". You can block them to keep TuneSelect from cueing them or take them off your presets.

XM created new channels to mirror CC content, rendering the stations with advertising entirely redundant. Since the new channels are programmed in-house and given more bandwidth, the sound quality is better.

Before all this, XM relied on CC to provide content for popular music channels, and they were fed by satellite and sounded inferior to XM's in-house channels. Now you can get popular music from XM in-house with better audio quality.

There's actually a small net gain for the consumer.

-Same content.
-Better sound.
-No ads.

Why should I have them blocked? I paid for commercial free channels?

By the way, what Cadillac do you own?

If you block them, you're abandoning the channels with ads and gaining the new channels with no ads. It evens out. You get the exact same thing that you paid for when you joined, but with improved audio quality.

Amusingly, for a while, XM took PAD (song/artist) data away from CC's XM stations in protest, preventing them from being called up by TuneSelect. XM lost out in arbitration and had to restore PAD data to Clear Channel.

I drive an old Infiniti Q45.
http://www.q45.org/gallery/v/90Q45/

Can somebody tell me which XM stations have anything to do with Clear Channel and tell me what to do to disable them completely? Like - who do I call? XM came with the Cadillac I purchased in August.

1-800-XM-RADIO

The CC-owned music stations have "cm" in the name if you browse through the channel list.

Here they are:
Nashville 11
KISS 21
Mix 22
Sunny 24
WSIX 161

I like FM. 'Course, I drive an '86 Toyota 4Runner too...I think that if I put XM in it, it would reject the thing as a "foreign body" and probably not run anymore.

On the simplest terms, I got XM with the Caddy. I already had Sirius in the Town Car. I never listen to any program breaks on Sirius. I have to listen to commercial breaks with XM. Whatever channels or whatever the breaks are called, I don't care. They're stops in the music and you have to hear a sales pitch.

1-800-XM-RADIO

The CC-owned music stations have "cm" in the name if you browse through the channel list.

Here they are:
Nashville 11
KISS 21
Mix 22
Sunny 24
WSIX 161

Mix, Nashville and Kiss I listen to semi-often...

So if I get those blocked, they will be replaced by XM's own stations that play the same music without any commercials?

They already were replaced.

The Blend and Flight 26 replace Mix and Sunny.
Hitlist replaces KISS.
US Country replaces Nashville.
WSIX is a country music station from Tennessee, but Highway 16 mirrors its playlist of current country hits.

Those are the new commercial-free channels that were created in response to CC's advertising.

Its kind of silly that people are suing when new commercial-free channels displace the old ones, which you don't have to listen to. The channels with ads have "cm" in the name to tell you that there will be commercials, so I don't get why people who are opposed to ads are listening to those channels.

Heh.... alright so I've had XM for years now, but havn't used it much int he last year.

Well on the way up from FL I got it going.... in the Town Car.

I noticed the "cm" and didn't know what that means, but I know now.

I also found the new stations.... Flight 26, which was awesome I put it as my new favorites. Wasn't the Blend already there? but its a favorite too. Hitlist I thought was really good and marked that too. I think I listened to US Country also. Highway 16 has been a favorite for a while.

So I guess I've already found, and like the new stations... I really need to start using my XM more... I need to buy a few more compoents and get it installed itn eh Town Car like I did the Coupe... then I'd use it more. I am still using my old Roady (the origanal one) I had to solder the audio jack and the push in button on the scroll wheel only sometimes works (won't always save a song I like) but its better then buying a new one.

So why did XM even let Clear Channel have stations on their service? I'm not a big fan of Clear Channel....

Although here in GA, there is an awesome mix station NOT owned by Clear Channel.... it is better then any other FM station I've heard or any XM station.... everything is tuned to that.... its just awesome.

When I first got my XM radios (3 of them) channel 11 never had the sales ads, shortly after I got the radios they added the ads. If this is a class action suit I would be very interested. When I called XM about the problem I was told "just don't listen to those stations".

does clear channel own the comedy stations too??? channel 150 all I hear is ads all the damn time...really annoying.

When I called XM about the problem I was told "just don't listen to those stations".

Thats entirely valid, but they should have told you, "Because we created US Country, then made Highway 16 similar to Nashville 11."

XM's customer service is terrible these days, thanks to overseas outsourcing.

You're all doomed no matter what you do. The justification argument for cable TV for years was that it would mean the end of TV commercials. Just give it some time and XM and Sirius will both have more commercials than music. It's the nature of free enterprise.

Except cable TV is based on outside sources of content. Satellite radio is almost entire in-house. If satellite moves toward outside content providers, then we're doomed.

Right now, the only reason CC has content on XM is because they're a huge investor.

does clear channel own the comedy stations too??? channel 150 all I hear is ads all the damn time...really annoying.

comedy is not considered music station, therfore not ad free

News Story

XM hit with false advertising lawsuit over "commercial free" claims


Talk about a company that can't stay out of the courtroom. Yet again, we've got XM headed back for another round of sticky legal action, and while we highly doubt the firm's lawyers are done digesting the NMPA suit from less than a month ago, now it's being forced to deal with an Arkansas man's allegations in US District Court. Matthew Enderlin is apparently quite upset with XM's "false claims of commercial free music," as he adumbrates that the channels actually do include "promotional and advertisement segments." Unsurprisingly, XM has said the suit is "without merit," but Mr. Enderlin isn't backing down; au contraire, he's actually seeking to "have the suit certified as a class-action suit so all XM Radio customers can be considered plaintiffs." Bet you weren't expecting to join in on the fun yourself, eh?

Other Comments

I'm with this guy. I added XM to my car a little over a year ago and was extremely disappointed, in part because there is essentially only one channel per music type, but mainly because all of the spoken word (comedy, etc) channels have advertisements. I am not sure if they have added ads to the regular music channels, but nonetheless was very annoyed to learn that any of the channels with talking have ads. Rather than file a class action lawsuit, I just quit. But his point is definitely valid. They sold on the 'no ads' thing for quite some time but have been advertising on many of their channels all along. That's false advertising.

I remember ads on XM as well - because i went on a trip in a friend's car, and the ad's website or phone number and information would appear on the screen where the artist & song information would normally be on the nav system display. i thought that was pretty interesting, though i thought the XM service itself sucked. i think his suit has merit.


I like XM a lot, but I have to agree that they have engaged in some false advertising. And now they've started included retarded DJ's on some. If I wanted to listen to some useless idiot babble, I'd watch Fox News. I consider any non-content time to be a commercial, DJ's are as non-content as you can get.


And it goes on and on...