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2 Responses on What is the difference between Satellite radio and HD radio?

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  By mltk53 at October 4th, 2007

  satellite has more channels. a Lot more and well..u have to subscribe. and i think hd radio still has comercials while satellite doesnt. i have xm satellite radio, and i love it! cant stand comercials!

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  By CMass Stan at October 5th, 2007

  Satellite radio is self-explanatory, in that it uses satellites and a high frequency spectrum to broadcast its programming. Also, the current satellite radio business model includes a monthly access fee. BTW, it’s not completely commercial free, at least on some channels.

  HD Radio is a signal layered onto the existing broadcast spectra (AM and FM) to provide higher fidelity and multicast programming over the same channel allocation. For example, 98.3 FM not only contains the existing stereo signal, but may also include one or two HD Radio subchannels of information, like more music or specialized news and info. The key barrier to entry is buying an HD Radio receiver, which is typically more expensive than your run-of-the-mill FM stereo radio. No more recurring costs after that. At the moment the subchannels’ programming has no commercials, but that could change later on as well.

  I’d lean toward HD Radio because of the one time cost and no further payments. Sure, the commercials can be a pain, but someone has to pay for the programming at some point, yes? And while HD Radio doesn’t provide the plethora of programming XM and Sirius provides, who actually listens to all of it?