Sirius’ Satellites Not Insured
Investment website Fool.com reports in its “Dueling Fools” debate series that Sirius Satellite Radio does not insure any of the three satellites on which its service depends. A note in the company’s Form 10K notes that “failure of our satellites would significantly damage our business,” and also stating that it would take six months to launch a spare satellite should one fail. If two or more of the satellites failed at the same time, the network would be down for 24 months.
XM Satellite Radio does insure their satellites, as do DirecTV, PanAmSat, and New Skies. Dish Network reportedly doesn’t have a traditional insurance policy on their satellites, but actually keeps enough money lying around to pay for any problems should they arise.
