XM radio, and sirius radio are commericially owned, but commercial free radio format programing. confusing right? i buy the equipment, pay monthly fees and can listen to more then 100 plus channels of no commercial radios, i can hear 24/7 opera, 24/7 talk radio, all stripes, 24/7 disco(!) and so on. the advantage is that i can flip from station/format to station. it's seems to be similar to cable tv in diversity of programing.