Suburban Dad: Sirius Satellite TV

There may be peace in our time for suburban dads, and moms. I got an up-close look at Chrysler’s new Sirius Satellite TV in the company’s redesigned Town & Country minivan this week. While there is room to improve, there’s a lot of genius in the approach.

Here are the basics: Sirius will offer three channels — Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network — and, for my money, it couldn’t have chosen better. Programming from those three easily covers kids from the very young to the early teens. My kids — 13, 12 and 10 — watch all three liberally, catching such favorites as “Hannah Montana,” “Spongebob Squarepants” and “Scooby-Doo.”

The dual-screen approach in the Town & Country should preempt the all-out war that happens in many households: One kid can watch one of those three channels on one screen, while others can watch a DVD or play a console game on the other screen. Unfortunately, you can’t watch two of the Sirius channels at the same time.

Still, having these channels always available to you and unlikely to get fuzzy or fade out (because it’s satellite, not over-the-air broadcasting) means parents can take fewer DVDs with them, and as any parent will tell you, the less stuff you have to carry, the better. As for additional channels, a Chrysler spokeswoman said Sirius is always thinking about its offerings, but that Chrysler would want to make sure any content (meaning more channels) would be appropriate for their cars.

The service isn’t free, of course. First you have to sign up for Sirius Satellite Radio for $12.95 a month, then the TV service is an additional $7 a month for a $19.95 per month total. 

If you don’t want to drive a minivan (I do, but I know “minivan” is getting to be a bad word around Suburbia) and don’t mind the price, Chrysler plans on putting Sirius TV in future editions of the Charger, 300 and Magnum.