Sirius to buy XM
 

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid=2007-02-19T233434Z_01_N19422718_RTRUKOC_0_US-XM-SIRIUS.xml&src=rss&rpc=23


I guess it was to good to be true. I hope the content is not to adversly affected when the FCC is done with this one

I doubt the FCC cares about content any more than they do now. Its the SEC and anti-trust that is a big issue. This would be a true monopoly.

I don't see the reason for the merger, neither company was making money. The only reason to merge with a competitor is to get what they are doingbetter, but then they would not want to merge with you. I guess they will save on overhead per subscriber (hopefully). Hope the existing customer bases doesn't get hosed on equipment becoming obsolete.

OH MAN!!! I love my sirius...... Hate XM...... Hope it doesn't ruin Sirius.... I am worried!!!

I've been thinking about this a lot.

Both XM and Sirius have a lot to gain - right now each is paying big $$$ to various celebrities (sp?) just to one-up their competition ($500M for howard stern...IIRC) IF they merge, they won't need to out-bid each other for star "talent" (term used loosely) and big sports franchises (again sp -2)
Both companies have not been doing well financially from what I hear, and reducing the competition cost would be good for the product.

I'm not sure what I think as a consumer, yes, the FTC/FCC isnt gonna want a satellite radio monopoly, but, if I (the customer) can get the same service for $12.95, what do I care ? Its not medical supplies, its entertainment.

What are the chances that they'd keep their price at $12.95 ? - not bloody likely =) If the price goes up, I'm going back to free-terrestrial NPR stations - best signal to noise ratio on the radio dial. Likewise if they are found unable to merge, and go out of buisness. If I had money invested in either company, my personal feelings would probably be a lot different.

From what I've seen/heard (I own a Sirius radio and rent cars with XM) the content is a lot alike, other than the big name sports/celebs that are only on one service - I listen to the music mostly anyway (its the only truly commercial-free channels on both services)

Let the .gov decide what it will, satellite radio is not guaranteed to me, nor am I obligated to give them my money. I'd miss the 24hr commercial free dance-mixes though =)

-John

Had SIRI, sold it. Damit.

Looks like XMSR is a slightly bigger winner over SIRI -- still either way. Damit.

In the end it will make for better value. Less cash to spend fighting each-other... can improve content and lower costs.

We'll see. I'm too cheap to buy radio... iPod + eMule = Almost free.

I found it odd that in the releases they did not mention hardware at all.

If you only listen to one or the other, here is a description I read on /. to sum the differences up (at least for the music channels) quite nicely:
-XM is like someone took a stack of CD's and hit the shuffle button
-Sirius is like normal radio without the commercials

I think people will be upset if 'their' programming goes away and gets replaced by the other. All my cars and my garage have Sirius, and I listen to it at work. My wife's car has XM and I hate it.

Originally, when I started listening to Sirius, I was upset that they have DJ's. Then I started listening to XM and hated that the songs just went on and on. On Sirius, you have Greg Brady as a DJ on the 70's channel making 5-10 second comments between songs about the Brady show, the 70's in general, etc. The 80's channel has a bunch of the original MTV VJ's as DJ's. I suppose it's a matter of preference.

SIRI will win, ultimately. Mel Karmazin is the best radio CEO there is and Sirius has the best talent on sat. radio. I don't really understand the advantage to Sirius in this merger since they have been kicking XM's ass for the last year or so, but if MK thinks so, it's good enough for me.

I do own SIRI. I've got a pretty good-sized stake in the company and love their product. I highly recommend the service AND the stock.

1. FCC issues the licenses for terrestial, cable and satellite broadcast. Therefore it is the FCC that would rule on the merger.

2. By joining in, the two sat companies would benefit from economy of scales. Plus they woldn;t have to blow such a such chunk of their operating budget on advertising. Without competition there is no need to spend money to outdo the other guy.

The merger makes sense. Without it, both companies may go under eventually.

I still think they are competing against terrestrial radio. Their biggest obstacle is to get folks to pay $13 a month for something they're used to getting for free.

You're right about the cost of aquiring customers, though. That would probably go down. I'm not sure if there are other economies of scale that would help or not. Perhaps if they could integrate their hardware and reposition some of their satelites to expand the geographic territory they cover, they could fuel faster growth.

I doubt they'll raise prices. The price is already at the cusp--a change would send subscribers away or prevent them from signing-up. I'm betting they expand commercial channels.

I have XM and enjoy it. The reason I subscribed was to get away from chatter. I don't listen to the chatter channels, I listen to music and enjoy not hearing some DJ talking, except to tell me the names of the artists. I'd probably like Sirius, too.

Just so they keep the format distinctively commercial-free and a reasonably priced subscription, I'll stick with whatever comes up. Otherwise, back to commercial radio and CD's.

Kept my SIRI for what ever reason up 7% this AM

Nice... Grrr... When I sold it I bought GM and did well -- can't help but ***** anyway. ;)

I meant the FCC doesn't care per se because they have already approved the content of each service. They do issues licenses etc. but the bg deal here is the total monopoly they will enjoy (not illegal by the way).

Now I just learned that there is a specific FCC provision that prohibits these 2 from merging, so they need an exemption of some sort or a repeal of the FCC rule.

I have XM because I'm on the family plan with my brother, so it's cheaper than on my own.
I like the music channels due to the fact that they are just that.
We also like the XM radio in the house, since my little Roady2 easily unplugs from car to home, and I also have the 'walkman' kit, so I can have it with me on the beach. The walkman kit was a little bulky, but the price was right.

70's channel plays 70's music and I don't need or want the chatter of a Barry Williams/Greg Brady.
There were a lot of other folks from the 70's I'd much rather listen to if I were to be forced to listen to DJ chatter. And I'm not talking about Danny Bonaduce, another has-been kid-actor from a prime-time TV show.
DJ chatter was fine when records needed to be changed and cued up.

XM has one guy, Sonny Fox, who discreetly does a lot of the announcing on multiple channels. No fanfare of who he is, he just spits out who played what.

Howard just isn't funny anymore and hasn't been for years. So long as I can minimize any exposure to him by keeping to my music channels, I'll keep XM.

With too much chatter, I'll switch back to the Ipod in the car.

I like a lot of the other XM channels, but due to the commericals, I just don't listen to them as much as I would.
Their comedy channels are funny, but they have some really skeevy ads about 40% of the time, mostly about viagra or some weight loss pill, debt reduction, or some other kind of crappy infomercial .

It is less than that if you pay for a whole year and/or if you have multiple subscriptions.

I have XM on the E320 (for when I drive it since my wife does not care for it), on the 300TE and, as soon as the new Alpine h/u arrives) I will have it in the 300CE as well.

I love listening to the Comedy Channel. :D