XM and Sirius set to announce "merger of equals" today
UPDATE: It's official!
Both XM and Sirius have been dropping hints since last summer that the two could merge into one giant satellite radio provider with a subscriber base of 12 million. It appears after a marathon negotiation session last weekend, the two are finally ready to make it offiicial sometime today and start the long process of gaining SEC approval. Though approval will likely take over a year, we doubt the feds will break this one up. While XM and Sirius technically compete with each other for subscribers, satellite radio as an industry is in a fight for its life with other forms of audio distribution, like regular old terrestrial radio, internet radio and the 800 lb. gorilla, Apple's iPod. These two company's have a better shot at surviving by jumping in the same bunker.
Of course, auto interiors are the primary front in this war, which makes the merger interesting to us. Car owners subscribed to one of the two services will be the big winners, as Howard Stern and Oprah will now occupy the same dial. You'll be able to get all your satellite radio sports coverage with one subscription now, as well.
Trying to meld two established brands into one, however, is not an easy thing to do. Just ask DaimlerChrysler if you need a reference. We chuckled out loud while reading the linked article from the New York Post when the author describes the deal as a "merger of equals". Sure...
[Source: The New York Post]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rick Lyon 3:21PM (2/19/2007)
Get that overpriced $12 a month down to $5 or so and I'll sign up. I just can't justify it at it's current price point especially when you have to factor in the cost of devices, home and auto kits, etc.
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Howard Kerr 3:15PM (2/19/2007)
As often happens in this type of merger, there will be "consequences". Service and billing will be the first to suffer, followed by programming. What do you bet that within a year, assuming this gets appproval and survives, commercials will enter the "picture'. Economies of scale will be trottrd as a reason to go ahead with the merger...but they will never really be seen.
Just my $0.02 based on what has happened in "regular" radio or cable tv.
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TyreDurgan 3:25PM (2/19/2007)
"Howard Stern and Oprah"
Wouldn't an Opie & Anthony vs. Howard Stern comparison be more appropriate?
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ruggels 3:25PM (2/19/2007)
yeah they're not even making a profit, clearly they're charging too much O_o - it's still free to send satellites into space right?
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ruggels 3:27PM (2/19/2007)
yeah they're not even making a profit, clearly they're charging too much O_o - it's still free to send satellites into space right?
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Gardiner Westbound 3:29PM (2/19/2007)
Satellite radio just isn't a very good product. I can't imagine how creating a monopoly will improve it.
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Richard Warren 3:47PM (2/19/2007)
Satellite radio? Oh, yes, it's right on the shelf next to the Betamax tapes and machines.
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Sonny 5:33PM (2/19/2007)
"isn't a very good product", are you nuts?
It will be good news to take the non-compatible hardware issue out of the equation and just be able to focus on the huge amount of diverse content available.
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Rich 3:49PM (2/19/2007)
So will both XM and Sirius equipment work after the merger?
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JJ 4:06PM (2/19/2007)
All i know is while i'm up at school i'd be without anything to listen to without satellite radio since the area i'm in has 0 radio stations i listen, plus i travel a lot (usually long distances) so having satellite is a boon there.
and 12 bucks a month sounds like a lot, but to somebody that uses the service, its not. I mean shoot... i pay more than that for HBO/Starz/Showtime on cable and i dont even watch those channels half the time *shrug*
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rick 4:22PM (2/19/2007)
as a sirius subscriber, i'll have to pay the price. i'm sure they'll make everyone buy new equipment that has sirius (being the smaller of the two companies).
i'll also have to listen to commercials on the music stations, where as i didn't have to with sirius. everyone knows xm's programming is terrible compared to sirius'.
xm even has their own music in between songs... who the hell wants to hear that? one time listening to it on tv (through direct tv, i believe), the rap station was on and i was listening to a guy rap about xm. you tell me if that's not the most moronic thing you could possibly hear on a service you're paying $13 a month for.
as soon as sirius becomes tainted with xm's crap, that is when i will pull the plug on it and go back to burning cds to play in my vehicle.
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Jugomugo 4:28PM (2/19/2007)
I'll keep my free Sirius for now. They've managed to lose my account in the system and I'm receiving free service.
With that said, I would never go back. Poor audio quality and mediocre at best bit rates... repetitive music selections, and the commercials on the talk stations are annoying as hell.
I'll stick to MP3s and CDs.
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Liquid 4:40PM (2/19/2007)
TyreDurgan, generally if you listen to Howard then you don't listen to O&A.
Anyway, I'm glad I only got a 2-yr sub to Sirius, because once this happens then yes I see commercials creeping into the music channels. Then I'm out. :(
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Carguy 4:42PM (2/19/2007)
I have XM and have had Sirius in my car before. I don't subscribe to either. The reason? They sound like crap! They keep adding more and more channels which keeps lowering the bitrate per channel. Pretty soon they are going to sound worse than AM, if they don't already...
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Timothy R. Butler 5:07PM (2/19/2007)
Well, as an XM subscriber I'm rather sad about this. I liked being on the system that didn't have Howard Stern. But, to those Sirius subscribers worried about commercials, let me put your fears to rest: only 4 music channels (those from Clear Channel) have commercials, and XM doesn't want them even on those. The big thing is that XM has more music stations without commercials than Sirius.
Of course, without competition, I fully expect commercials to pop up. So, I'm not happy about this either.
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Dave T. 4:55PM (2/19/2007)
They had the official announcement a few hours ago and say they are committed to commercial free music. And will do an a la carte type subscription plan. I'd rather have that for my CABLE but oh well.
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Bart 5:16PM (2/19/2007)
I love sattelite radio (I have Sirius)... I can't even imagine going back to terrestrial radio. For a time, I subscribed to both XM and Sirius, but I found stations that really appealed to me only on Sirius and not on XM... they are not identical as some people claim. While I don't mind a merger, I don't want my Sirius programming altered!!
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john riley 5:22PM (2/19/2007)
How do you merge two different satellite systems with completely different receiver systems? Seems to me like the issue is not programming, it is incompatible technology.
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castleb 9:51AM (3/23/2008)
Wouldn't they simply simulcast on both formats?
john riley 10:09AM (3/23/2008)
Seems like it would be expensive to maintain two different satellite systems.