Reviewed by Peter Berk, President and Chief Media Strategist, Berk Marketing · Last reviewed 26 August 2026

SiriusXM

SiriusXM Media Buying Agency

Berk Marketing buys SiriusXM for advertisers, never for SiriusXM. This page is about who places the buy on your behalf, what it costs you when nobody does, and one thing worth knowing before you pick up the phone.

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Short answer. A SiriusXM media buying agency plans, negotiates and places satellite radio for the advertiser rather than for the seller. Berk Marketing has represented advertisers only since 1999 and holds no inventory of its own. If what you need first is an explanation of what SiriusXM advertising is, which channels exist and how the audience breaks down, start with our SiriusXM radio advertising page. This page is about the buying decision itself.

The problem

What goes wrong when advertisers buy SiriusXM direct

Peter Berk’s own list, in the order he ranks it after twenty five years of placing satellite radio for advertisers.

You pay more per channel

First and foremost, an advertiser buying alone is likely to pay considerably more per channel than the same schedule placed through an agency. The number quoted to a direct advertiser is an opening position, not a price. Nothing about it is dishonest. It is simply the first figure in a negotiation that most advertisers do not know they are in.

The damage is already done

This is the one nobody sees coming, and it is the reason this page exists. Once you have been in direct contact with a seller, we will most likely not be able to represent you on that account at all. The full explanation is below.

The copy is built wrong

If the script does not have the correct structure, results diminish. A satellite audience is listening differently from a local AM or FM audience, and a spot written for one does not automatically work on the other. This is the failure that advertisers blame on the medium when it belongs to the creative.

You are on the wrong channels

Advertisers pick channels they have heard of, or channels they personally listen to. Neither is the same question as which channels their actual buyer is listening to. Name recognition and audience overlap are unrelated, and satellite makes that easy to get wrong because the channel list is long and most of it is unfamiliar.

Worth knowing first

Contacting the seller yourself can cost you representation entirely

Most advertisers have no idea this is how it works, so it is worth stating plainly and early.

Berk Marketing is not in the business of taking clients away from radio stations or from SiriusXM. That is not the model and it never has been. When a seller has already been in contact with you and a rate has been quoted, that account belongs to them. At that point we will usually not be able to act for you on it, and the pre negotiated pricing we normally work from is no longer something we can bring to your campaign.

It is not a rule invented to be awkward. It is how representation works across the industry, and an agency that ignored it would not keep its access for long. The practical consequence for you is simple and worth planning around.

If you are considering SiriusXM and have not yet contacted them, that is the point at which an agency is worth the most to you. After the first call, most of what we could have done on your behalf has already gone.

Nobody tells advertisers this, because the person they are speaking to has no reason to.

Rates

Why the number changes depending on who is asking

The short version is that we do not work from rate cards, and we are not the ones doing the negotiating.

Rate cards are a starting position

A rate card is premium full market pricing that account executives present to direct clients and to agencies who do not know any better. We do not look at them. An advertiser working alone usually has nothing else to compare against, which is exactly why the card works as well as it does.

The negotiating happens at a desk that does this all day

All of the media negotiation and the heavy lifting is handled by our strategic partner Hybrid Media Services in New York, whose team holds pre negotiated pricing through national sales managers and general managers. That is a volume relationship built over decades, and it is not something an individual advertiser can replicate for one campaign.

Who you deal with

You are not working with a trainee

The arrangement is worth being direct about, because it is the advantage rather than something to be coy over.

Clients who come through Berk Marketing get Peter Berk as their point person in almost every case. He is the person who takes the brief, questions the offer, reviews the script and looks at the results. Behind him, Hybrid Media Services provides the negotiating desk and the buying relationships. Senior person in front, national buying operation behind.

Compare that with the alternative most advertisers get. A contract is signed, the account is handed to a junior buyer, and the person who understood the business is not the person running the campaign. That is the ordinary shape of agency work and it is the reason Berk Marketing carries fewer clients than it could.

You can see who else is involved on the Berk Marketing team page, including Kevin Mannix, President and CEO of Hybrid Media Services.

Fit

Is SiriusXM the right buy for you at all?

We would rather tell you no early than sell you a campaign that was never going to work. This is the shortest qualifying test we have.

SiriusXM is likely a fit if

You can do business across the majority of the country. Satellite radio is nationwide by definition, and there is no meaningful way to buy it locally or regionally.
You have a real offer with an incentive attached, not just a name to make familiar.
You can support a minimum of $5,000 per week, which is where campaigns start with us.
You are prepared to run long enough for frequency to do its work rather than testing a single week.
You will let response be measured, with a dedicated tracking number for the satellite portion of the buy.

It is probably the wrong buy if

Your business only serves one city, one state or one region. This is the single most common mismatch we see.
Your licensing, delivery or service footprint stops at a state line.
The budget only stretches to a token schedule that nobody will hear often enough.
There is nothing in the offer worth acting on, because on satellite as anywhere else the incentive drives the response.
You need to prove the whole thing works inside a fortnight.

If the national test rules you out, that is useful rather than disappointing, and local radio advertising is very likely the better conversation.

Creative

The script matters more on satellite than advertisers expect

A satellite listener is often deep in a programme they chose deliberately, frequently in a car, frequently for a long stretch. That is a different listening state from a local music station playing in the background, and the spot has to be built for it.

The structure Berk Marketing uses on a sixty second direct response spot is fixed and it is not negotiable, because it works. Introduce the offer or the service. Embellish it. Repeat it. Repeat it again. Then give the call to action slowly and clearly two or three times at the very end, once the listener is expecting it.

For the response mechanism we use a plain toll free number rather than a vanity number, because everyone listening has a mobile phone and entering letters while driving is far harder than entering digits. If a web address is used instead, it needs to be short and easy to spell, and we will usually suggest registering a simple domain that rolls over to your real one.

Commercial writing and production are handled in house. There is more detail on the radio commercial production page, and on how response gets tracked on the direct response radio advertising page.

Not sure whether anyone in your category is already running on satellite? We will run a competitive monitoring report for you at no charge, through our strategic partner Hybrid Media Services, before you commit a dollar. In many cases nothing shows up at all, and that is worth knowing too.

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Questions

SiriusXM buying questions we get asked

Can I buy SiriusXM for just my city or my region?

No. SiriusXM is satellite radio and it is nationwide. Many advertisers assume it can be used for a local or regional campaign, and it is not a good fit unless you can do business across the majority of the country. If your footprint is regional, local radio will serve you far better for the same money.

I have already spoken to a SiriusXM rep. Can you still help me?

Usually not on that account, and it is better to be straight with you about it. Once a seller has been in direct contact and quoted you, the account is theirs, and we do not take clients away from stations or from SiriusXM. That is a firm position rather than a preference. If you are early enough that no rate has been quoted, get in touch before you go any further.

What does Berk Marketing cost?

There is no separate retainer and no fee for a plan or a competitive report. Compensation is the standard media commission built into the buy, split with Hybrid Media Services on most campaigns. Because we hold no inventory of our own, we gain nothing from steering you toward satellite over anything else.

What is the minimum spend?

Campaigns start at $5,000 per week. Below that there is rarely enough frequency for anyone to remember what they heard, and a schedule nobody remembers is money spent rather than money invested.

How do you decide which channels to run on?

By who is actually listening rather than by which channel names are familiar. The starting point is your buyer, not the channel list. Our SiriusXM radio advertising page breaks the audience down by content type in detail.

Can you tell me what my competitors are running?

Yes, at no charge. We run a competitive monitoring report through our strategic partner Hybrid Media Services showing which stations and channels your competitors are buying and how heavily they are running. In many cases nothing shows up at all, which tells you something useful in itself. Ask us for a report.

Who writes the commercial?

We do, in house, and we would rather write it than inherit one built for a local music station. The structure is what decides whether a satellite spot works, and it is a different structure from the one most produced spots use.

Who will I actually be dealing with?

Peter Berk, in almost every case. The negotiating desk behind the campaign is Hybrid Media Services, but the person who takes your brief and looks at your results is the same person throughout. Nothing is handed to a junior buyer once the contract is signed.

How is response measured?

With a separate tracking number for the satellite portion of the buy, so satellite and terrestrial response are counted apart rather than pooled. Agreeing that before launch is not optional with us, because without it nobody can say afterwards what worked.

How long before we know whether it is working?

Longer than a week and usually shorter than a quarter. The honest answer depends on your offer, your close rate and how heavily the schedule runs, all of which we would rather talk through before you book anything.

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