The redesign showcases XM’s 170 channels of music, talk, sports and news and features new search features like “Artist Search” that lets users find the channels that carry a particular musician, and “What’s on Now,” which displays the programming running on XM in real time.

“Our mission for the Web site is to provide a convenient way for prospective customers to discover XM’s unique offerings and take action on that discovery by purchasing and activating their XM radio online,” said My-Chau Nguyen, XM’s SVP of marketing, in a statement. “For current subscribers, the XM Web site now offers a variety of ways to explore our programming as well as manage their account with XM through a new online customer care experience.”

XM is one of AARF’s longstanding clients, as the digital agency was chosen because of its intimate knowledge of XM’s back-end business and technical systems. One new addition to the site, “Listener Care Online,” is a direct result of that relationship and provides XM listeners with self-serve access to their account management and radio activation services. Plus, the redesigned help and support section consolidates all help, product info, account management, FAQ’s and parental controls into a single interface.

Although satellite radio pioneers XM and Sirius are secretive about future developments, they have begun intimating that their technology is leaning towards the inclusion of advertising. “Our next generation of products coming out in the next two weeks will be an XM-enabled MP3 player with, in the simplest terms, that ‘buy’ button,” D. Scott Karnedy, senior VP-ad sales for XM Satellite Radio, said at a radio panel last week. “The next generation [after that] will be that if you want to hit that button for more information about that product you just heard described.”

If the satellite radio model is adapted to include advertising, time-shifting could also be a huge tool that traditional radio advertisers lack. “Typically you don’t think of radio as being the best direct-response medium,” said Jim O’Rourke, group media director at Dallas-based Richards Group, in a recent statement. “But there is an appeal, even to just being able to time-shift an ad in radio. It gives radio an element that TV could say it has, and print has and the Internet has.”