Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI)  announced today that they are partnering with Loral Space and Communications (NASDAQ: LORL) to build a new high powered satellite.  The satellite will have a 15 year service life with 20 kilowatts at its end of life.  This will be the 6th satellite in their fleet. The fifth satellite is currently in production and is scheduled to be launched next year.  They also have a fourth satellite that sits in storage.  This new satellite will more than double the power of the fleet and let Sirius enhance performance for the customers.

With this new increase to power I expect we will start to see the Sirius Video coming out shortly.  I think this will be an interesting market for them as they will be able to challenge the likes of portable dvd players and portable video games for the entertainment in the vehicle market.  As well, it would be interesting to see further developments to portable devices that allow for receiving satellite video on the go.  Imagine iPod video device with streaming video from the satellite.  Sounds good but its still a few years away.