MediaBuyerPlanner: By the year 2010, nearly 20 million households will have satellite radio, roughly double the amount of subscribing households today, according to an analysis of the industry by Targetbase, a direct marketing agency in Omnicom Group's Diversified Agency Services division.

In the brief, titled "What Listeners Want: The Value of Satellite Radio," 50 percent of the respondents cited "no commercials" when asked what they value most as part of their listening experience. Fifty percent also said "having the same stations everywhere," with 46 percent citing the "variety of the programming." "Sound quality" and "exclusivity" each got favored responses from 30 percent.

"The number of users who truly value exclusive content is surprisingly low, considering how much marketing muscle satellite radio providers are putting behind their unique on-air talent and programming," said David Scholes, CEO of Targetbase. "This survey shows that listeners' ability to control the media they consume will remain highly influential when it comes to the devices that can provide that kind of command, and the marketing efforts behind them."

The target for satellite radio is changing: the early adopters are already in and soon the providers of satellite radio will start looking outside to new audiences. "The rising interest of minority groups in subscribing to satellite radio shows how this phenomenon is beginning to play out," says Scott Bailey, EVP of Strategy for Targetbase, pointing to the fact that Simmons Market Research Bureau's National Consumer Study from Fall 2005 showed that 18 percent of Hispanics and 19 percent of African Americans said that they plan to buy a satellite radio within the next year.

The Simmons study also showed that current male owners of satellite radio are disproportionately in the 18-34 year old range, while men who intend to purchase are skewing older, that is they are 25-44 years old.

Between the two providers, XM and Sirius, satellite radio added nearly 1 million subscribers during the second quarter of this year, bringing the total number of satellite radio subscribers to 11.6 million consumers.