Last month, Sirius XM announced a new deal with General Motors.  This time, they’re targeting the used car market.  Smart idea.  Think of all the cars that Sirius XM has already equipped with their hardware.  The used car market is roughly three times the size of the new car market.  Think of all those trade-ins.  Sirius XM now has a huge opportunity to add to their subscriber base.

This new deal covers Certified Pre-Owned cars (which had already been in place but half-heartedly promoted), as well as used cars of any brand with a factory-installed satellite radio sold by participating GM dealers.  In addition to incentives received from Sirius XM, this promotion offers another selling point for the dealers.  According to Joe Verbrugge, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Automotive Remarketing Division, “GM dealers across the country are responding enthusiastically to this opportunity to give Sirius XM to their customers who won’t need to sacrifice innovative technologies or entertainment when buying a pre-owned vehicle.”

For years, Sirius XM has run into issues when trying to tap into this “inactive satellite” market.  Millions of cars with factory-installed radios have been on the roads with lapsed accounts, generating no revenue for them.  Now, Sirius XM will gain access to the contact information – name, address, phone number and email address – of these potential new customers.  In addition to the dealer promotion, they can market directly to the consumer to lock them into one of their subscription plans.

While this initial foray into the used car market only involves 1,000 GM dealers, it will only be a matter of time before others join in.  More dealers mean more customers, which will add up to more active Sirius XM subscribers.  And for us, these new subscribers provide a larger audience to hear our clients’ commercials.

Theresa Russell is Director of Promotions at The Radio Agency. Please follow The Radio Agency’s Blog “Sounding Board” by subscribing to the email or RSS links above. Visit our website TheRadioAgency.com