Getting weather info in flight has gotten cheaper due to FIS-B (ADS-B In). However, years before the FAA’s eventual roll out of FIS-B and its array of free weather-information products, the dominant player in that industry was Baron Services though XM Radio. Sirius radio offered a competitive product from WSI. Eventually, Sirius and XM merged. The leading hardware was probably Garmin’s GDL 69 and 69A receivers getting XM’s Baron offering.
Like many, I installed a Garmin GDL 69. The (then) Sirius weather packages ranged from the insufficient Aviator LT for about $25 a month to the over-the-top Pro package for a whopping $95/month. I selected the $55 Aviator package and still felt the value was lacking. But when you really need the weather, it’s priceless—a concept probably not lost on Sirius execs. So, at over $700 a year I had on-board weather.
