XM Inks Agreement with NY Times

XM Satellite Radio announced on Wednesday it had entered into an agreement with the New York Times to offer content from the newspaper's properties across several of the service's channels.

The newly formed New York Times Radio Company owns New York City classical music station WQXR and produces short segments of content for radio based on New York Times stories.

"XM is the leader in satellite radio, and will be very helpful with our new national initiative," said Tom Bartunek, president of New York Times Radio and general manager of WQXR. "We hope that this initial agreement is the beginning of a long-term, growing collaboration."

As part of the agreement, WQXR's popular "Reflections from the Keyboard" will find a new home on an as yet-to-be announced classical XM channel, and the two companies will work together to bring a series of classical music specials to XM subscribers.

XM will also begin to incorporate Times-branded commentaries, reports and reviews across its lineup of talk channels, as well as adding a regular short newscast to certain channels in the near future.

"New York Times Radio will provide a variety of high-quality talk radio, music, and news content for XM listeners," said Eric Logan, executive vice president of XM Satellite Radio. "We look forward to working with The Times to offer a diverse selection of programming that will inform and entertain our millions of subscribers from coast to coast."