In launching Sirius Satellite Radio next month, CEO Joseph Clayton appears to
be stealing a page from his past at Thomson Consumer Electronics, where he
helped launch the country's first direct-broadcast satellite system in 1994.
Thomson supplied the first DBS consumer hardware and provided retail ties
that DirecTV Inc. did not yet have.
Clayton joined Sirius in November. More recently, Sirius has hired former
Thomson marketing executives Guy Johnson, as executive vice president of sales
and marketing, and Stanley Kozlowski, vice president of retail marketing.
Kozlowski was most recently with the National Rural Telecommunications
Cooperative. In late December, Kozlowski abruptly resigned his post as chairman
of the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association when the SBCA was
asked to vote its public support of the proposed merger between the two leading
DBS companies, EchoStar Communications Corp. and DirecTV parent Hughes
Electronics Corp.
As with the launch of DirecTV in 1994, Sirius announced Monday that retailer
Cowboy Maloney's of Jackson, Mississippi, will be the first store to sell a
Sirius satellite radio.
Clayton and former cable executive Hugh Panero, CEO of rival XM Satellite
Radio, will discuss the burgeoning subscription audio category during a SkyForum
panel Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
