Sirius and XM merger
 

http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/...us-talks_x.htm

So, its still pending. I'm sure the FCC and DoJ will have something to say about compliance, monopoly protection, etc.

I think the main argument they are going to put forth against being a monopoly is that they are still in competition against terrestrial radio and satellite TV music channels or some other BS.

I hope the combined service doesn't suck, as I think Sirius content beats XM in a big way.

i wish i could afford to own a satellite.

I picked up XM a couple of years ago for the Nascar coverage. The switch to Sirius by Nascar stunk for me but now I see light at the end of the tunnel. Just hope that I don't have to purchase another reciever. Thanks for the great news Nick.

My Ipod murd0rEd radio to death.

I've got both... XM in the SVX and Sirius in the truck. Sirius is like 100 times better. If they just push all their content on XM and then start charging me the "additional reciever" charge for my XM subscription, it saves me from having to tear out all the XM hardware in the SVX and replace it with Sirius, which I was about to do before all this merger business happened.

Just what the country needs - more media consolidation! Best idea evar. :rolleyes:

Well... either they merge, or XM goes out of business 'cause they suck. Sometimes, this stuff happens for good old capitalism style reasons, rather than attempts at monopoly type market domination (i.e. RIAA or MPAA).

It makes total sense;
Sirius, although its content is great, is a failing company. They have an incredible amount of debt to which they are not putting forth enough profit for their stockholders, it was only a matter of time before they either merged with another company,(XM) or went bankrupt. Last semester I did a complete financial analysis of the company and it is astounding the kinds of debt they have racked up and the problems that they have encountered.

Um.. I thought XM was the one that was failing... didn't they lose every sport except baseball?

XM was still in better financial shape than sirius

I think their subscriber fixed cashflow and capital investment was their big wins.

At least it looks that way to the folks at XM who value a strong customer equity base to solving problems.

It really doesn't matter why - having more and more media outlets in the hands of fewer and fewer people is a Bad ThingTM.

So they are going to have commercials now? I thought their whole schpeal (sp?) was no commercials... Well I guess they had to make money somehow.

If they start playing commercials they'll die. That's the biggest reason by far that people pay for the service.

Actually, the biggest reason by far that people listen to sat music is that there's listenable music on it. Every terrestrial station is the same ClearChannel top 40 crap. Sat radio could go to commercials and as long as they continue to have actual content people will still listen... they'd be pissed about it, but what are they going to do, go back to whatever this week's American Idol runner up is putting out?

Uh... internets? It's the best place in the world for free stuff. If I subscribed to Sirius for the lesser known music and they started playing commercials on top of the monthly fee, I'd leave. Commercials on a service which you are paying for already is completely retarded.

Yeah, no one would pay for ads!

Oh wait... cable TV, satellite TV, newspapers, magazines, internet sites, movie theaters... :roll:

DUH! That's my point! It's stupid how we pay for shit, and then have to watch more shit that they want us to pay for. Now satellite radio is no different than any other entertainment media.

I dunno where I'm going with this, commercials just bug me sometimes.

The problem with the internet is the almost the same problem with stores though. Without knowing what you want, its hard to find music you like. For me, the word of mouth factor has dropped off significantly to the point where I don't even hear about music I would potentially like. Satellite radio plays stuff I haven't heard and do tend to like (more so than terrestrial radio). Its not the end-all-be-all, but its better than nothing in my opinion.

I get by without either one. I bought a head unit that plays .mp3s, I download a lot of music from cheap sites and add it to my archive of stuff I've gotten from other people or ripped from my own CDs. As for new artists and other stuff I don't know, Pandora an similar sites do a great job of showing me new music. I'm not trying to argue that Satellite Radio isn't currently the best broadcast outlet for getting new and/or good music, but I would go from considering getting it eventually as an outside posibility, to having zero desire to use it if it added commercials.
Most importantly to my original point, when hundreds of thousands of people bought XM or Sirius, they didn't play commercials. If they add them, that's the kind of BS that makes me stop buying a product or service.

Well considering how cheap some of the radios are and the fact that the service is only $10-15 a month still cheaper than a cd Album.

I for one did not buy Sirius as my sole music service. I bought it as a supplement to my music. I'm rich biatch. It takes the place of lugging CDs in my car which I like. I can also play my unit in my house when I feel the need. I don't believe in d/l'ing music for free anymore.

Of course I'm against commercials but like Scott said what are you gonna do listen to Taylor Hicks(name drop). They still have small talking ads the Djs do for things. If you had Sirius you'd know what I mean, they are not 100% music content.

I like the sources Scott mentioned that we have ads now but no actual difference in price. The theatres are a great example, more ads but somehow the prices still go up. And what about all the ads in video games like the banners and shit in GT4 and other racing games shouldn't those games be cheaper. Ad revenue is just another way to make money and not a public goods subsitute anymore, it sucks.

College stations, boys. It's about the only radio left that's still independent of the corporate overlords.

I'm sure your MP3 CD's get great local and out of market live sports, talk, traffic, and news.

Just b/c it's on clearchannel or Sirius doesn't automatically make it souless crap pop music controlled by overlords, although it's close with clearchannel.

I agree with AtomicMonkey a good college station would awesome to have.

When will seemless streaming internet to your car be available? Because after that happens it's pretty much all over, anyone will be able to make playlist and broadcasts. There are already many great free "radio by the people" communities.

Most of them stream over the internet for free as well; hell you could listen to NC state there in Reno on the computer just like I get it on the radio here. :)