Sirius Satellite Radio recently surpassed the 3 million subscriber mark and expects to finish the year strongly, reports the Associated Press. Sirius sells more than 120 channels of commercial-free music, talk shows and other programming to subscribers. The company recently agreed to a multimillion deal with Howard Stern. Rival XM has more than 5 million U.S. subscribers.

According to MediaPost, "expectations have grown that it [satellite radio] will become more of a sponsorship or advertising phenomenon" rather than remain subscription-based.