Wednesday, April 19, 2006

NPD - And Wal Mart

April 19, 2006 - 9:05PM EST

I have had some inquiries about Wal Mart and how this may affect the NPD Data.

Sirius covered the subject in both the third quarter conference call and the fourth quarter conference call.

In the third quarter call Sirius stated that if you consider Wal Mart, Sams Club, and Costco in conjunction with the NPD data that you would have to subtract 2 percentage points from the Sirius total and add them to the XM total

In the fourth quarter call, that same consideration was between 1.5 points and 2 points, again, subtracting from Sirius and adding to XM.

Sirius may well address the Wal Mart, Sams Club and Costco adjustments again in the first quarter call.

Additionally, looking back on last year, the difference between the NPD percentages and the retail results on a NET basis as reported by XM and Sirius was 2 points, not the 6 to 8 points that some people often seem to quote.

This is not to say that NPD correlates directly with the "as reported" retail numbers. They are measuring different items. NPD is a good indicator of consumer sentiment.