The two satellite radio companies have agreed to merge.
If you own stock in either of the companies this is pretty good news, the stocks are up today (Sirius to about $4, and XM to about $16).
But if you are a customer you have other issues.
Will they be allowed to merge? I would guess no, but people more familiar with the matters say it's a possibility especially if they can convince the FCC that free radio and HD radio and other entertainment forms are their competitors.
If they do merge I would be worried about the following:
-a price increase. They might have to make a deal to not raise prices or to raise them slowly and incrementally in order to make the deal pass but I would imagine an increase to $14.95 per month is in the future
-programming. Will the combined company continue to be as aggressive pursuing new deals without another strong entity to steal them. Will the sports leagues, and Stern and Oprah be able to get such sweetheart deals at the end of their contracts without the leverage of another competitor
-your radio receiver. You will almost definitely need to get a new receiver in order to get the combined programming. Will you have to buy it? Will they give it to you free? Will they let you keep your old one and not offer you the new programming?
-your way of doing things. Billy loves that he can select 20 songs (like "Doin' da Butt") and be notified whenever those songs are on any channel. Will those features survive?
But the good part is combined programming. You can get NFL and MLB. You can get Howard and Oprah. Most of the music channels are redundancies but the orginal programming will all be under one umbrella.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
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3 comments:
I'm a shareholder in both companies and a sirius subscriber. I like the move as an investor, as a customer we'll see. As for the regulators, until I have a choice of more than just Cablevision, I don't want to hear it.
I actually subscribe to both services. I have sirius for a life in my car (one fee for ever) and I pay monthly for my x/m portable inno. Who knows whats going to happen
As long as BPM and Lucy survive the switch, I'll be happy. Maybe now they'll cave and create the 1991-1999 rap channel I have been e-mailing them for. I hate XM's current rap setup, where the old school channel (RHYME) plays shit that's way too old, and the new school channel (RAW) plays the awful rap of today. I want my breakup of NWA to Death of Biggie/Eminem channel now!
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