Sirius XM Radio (SIRI)

We must maintain and pay license fees for music rights.

We must maintain music programming royalty arrangements with, and pay license fees to, BMI, ASCAP and SESAC. These organizations negotiate with copyright users, collect royalties and distribute them to songwriters and music publishers. We have agreements with ASCAP and SESAC through December 2011. We do not have a definitive agreement with BMI, and we continue to operate under an interim agreement with BMI. There can be no assurance that the BMI royalty fee will remain at the current level when the pending agreement is finalized.

Under the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995 and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, we pay royalties to copyright owners of sound recordings. Those royalty rates may be established through negotiation or, if negotiation is unsuccessful, by the CRB. We participated in a CRB proceeding in order to set the royalty rate payable by our satellite radio services under the statutory license covering the performance of sound recordings for the six-year period starting in January 2007. SoundExchange has appealed the decision of the CRB to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Final briefs in this matter were submitted to the court in February 2009 and oral argument is scheduled for March 2009.

We must maintain
and pay license fees for music rights.

We must maintain music programming royalty arrangements with, and pay license fees to, BMI,
ASCAP and SESAC. These organizations negotiate with copyright users, collect royalties and distribute them to songwriters and music publishers. We have agreements with ASCAP and SESAC through December 2011. We do not have a definitive agreement with
BMI, and we continue to operate under an interim agreement with BMI. There can be no assurance that the BMI royalty fee will remain at the current level when the pending agreement is finalized.

XM must maintain and pay license fees for music rights.

XM must maintain music programming royalty arrangements with and pay license fees to Broadcast Music, Inc. (“BMI”), the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (“ASCAP”) and SESAC, Inc. (“SESAC”). These organizations negotiate with copyright users, collect royalties and distribute them to songwriters and music publishers. Although XM has agreements with ASCAP and SESAC through December 2011, it continues to operate under an interim agreement with BMI. There can be no assurance that the BMI royalty fee will remain at the current level when the agreement is finalized.

Under the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995 and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, XM also has to negotiate royalty arrangements with the copyright owners of the sound recordings, or if negotiation is unsuccessful, have the royalty rate established by the CRB. XM participated in a CRB proceeding in order to set the royalty rate payable by XM under the statutory license covering its performance of sound recordings over the XM system for the six-year period starting in January 2007.