CD Radio and Matsushita communications, the maker of Panasonic products, announced Tuesday an agreement for Matsushita to develop car satellite-radio receivers to be sold under the Panasonic brand name.
CD Radio plans to offer 100 channels of CD-quality programming that will be available to subscribers coast-to-coast and around-the-clock beginning late next year. For $9.95 per month, customers will have access to 50 channels of music programming and 50 channels of news, talk, and sports broadcasting.
The music programming will originate from CD Radio's broadcast studios in New York, while the news, sports and talk content will be provided by independent suppliers. Bloomburg, National Public Radio, Public Radio International and the British Broadcasting Corporation are among the companies that will be producing news and information channels for the CD Radio system.
The first of CD Radio's three orbiting satellites is scheduled for launch aboard a Russian Proton D-1e rocket January 17 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellites, which are being made by SpaceSystems/Loral, will travel in a vader orbit such that at all times, two of the three satellites will have complete coverage of North America.
The agreement between CD Radio and Matsushita calls for Matsushita to begin designing satellite radio receivers for auto manufacturers and car-stereo retail customers.
An agreement between Ford Motor Company and CD Radio last month prompted the automaker to announce it may begin installing CD Radio receivers into cars by early 2001.
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