XM Music Channels to Be Commercial-Free

XM is picking up a cue from rival Sirius – and making all of its 68 music channels commercial-free in February. The commercial-free idea on the music channels has been a strong point-of-sale feature for rival Sirius. XM executives hope the move will eliminate a big difference between the two digital satellite radio services when consumers learn about them from consumer electronic retailers. That leaves programming and price as differentiators, with XM at $9.99 per month, $2.00 less than Sirius.