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XM and Sirius Merge! Good or Bad?

ericb

Full Member
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Feb 22, 2006
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On the one hand I think competition makes for better products and the best pricing, but I can see how this would also lead to better things for each company based on what you guys posted in another thread.  So what do you think?
 
I like the programing on Sirius,,,wife like the programming on XM so we have both....if the price goes down then they are heroes..if it does not then they are the suk
 
I think it is necessary for the format to survive.  Although combined they have achieved a critical mass of about 10 million HOUSEHOLDS with SATRAD (with a combined number of about 13 million subscriptions) neither has achieved and probably will not achieve on their own.  Customer acquistion costs will only rise due to attrition as both are experiencing a slowing of new customers despite all the OEM deals out there.  If you look at the business models, revenue and burn rate neither can survive alone, and I think they are realizing it.  Expect major push back from the American Broadcasters Association but my bet is it will be approved.
 
I heard just a little while ago that they have plans to offer and a la carte of services.  Maybe it's just me, but that seems a little far fetched when you consider what the cost is now.  Seems that administrative costs would be too high to offer true a la carte pricing.
 
Blah FlaBouy

:love: XM, but to each his own I guess. . .

Anyway, how will this work for existing subs?  With a limited amount of bandwidth, they aren't going to be able to add that many channels.  Can current XM and Sirius equipment be configured to use the other ones sats?
 
Firehunter said:
Blah FlaBouy

:love: XM, but to each his own I guess. . .

Anyway, how will this work for existing subs? With a limited amount of bandwidth, they aren't going to be able to add that many channels. Can current XM and Sirius equipment be configured to use the other ones sats?

No.  The formats are not compatible.  I actually believe both have gobs of bandwidth left.  The al a carte meny would probably apply to things like sports (NASCAR, NFL, MLB, etc. etc.) and speciality content like Stern, Opie & Anthony, Oprah, etc. etc. etc. and would not apply to the core music channels.
 
Both have similar alloted bandwidth layout however different modulation/data formats.

Receivers could be built to handle both, of course. Perhaps we will see that if the NAB doesn't go crying & squealing to the FCC about this deal.

The NAB is a real PIA for sat radio; not wanting to accept that the technology makes better sense than what they support presently, IMO.
 
I would be interested to see if the FCC will allow it. There are only two services in existence, if they merge there will be no competition.

AVid
 
Then Congress... It'll be a mess.

Dish and DirecTV are still interested, simply because of the orbital slots, satellites and necessary bandwidth needs facing them both in order to bring local area HD to all their viewers. This need, as well as other programming expansion. Even though the NAB cried and it messed up a lot for many viewers with the "Distant locals" mess..

Sat radio wants to expand into other spin-off technologies and joining up may just bring these ideas sooner to their subscribers.
 
From what I have read, there is already a FCC rule forbidding it. If they manage to get past that...then there is the justice department with anti-trust concerns.  I agree...this could be in court for a long time. Only the lawyers will make a fortune.

AVid
 
Could it be argued that the competition for Satellite radio is the "new HD radio" stuff?  I know anything could be argued, and probably will, but for those who are more in the know than me, would that be a valid argument?

Chief, I agree on the a la carte thing, I can see it making sense to add "premium" channels much like Satellite TV, and surely that's what they plan on, that's just not how it was presented today.  With all this being new, it could've been Shepherd Smith's misunderstanding of what was on the teleprompter! :beating:
 
Well this is different from Sat tv...

They offer the same channels....nothings different really

while these offer completely different channels

Howard will stay and so will bubba

I know oppie and anthony is gone...

so is oprah id think..thats a joke..ew she's on once a month!!!

what a deall

 
But from an "a la carte" standpoint don't you think it will be like Satellite TV where you can purchase HBO if you want it, or you can purchase Starz if you want it, or you can purchase a package that includes some of the premium channels or all of them or whatever?  I can't see the ability to just purchase Sirxm channel 229, the Waltz channel, without some additional programming.
 
Not too fast..

Unless it changes this: ???

z
 
EricB said:
But from an "a la carte" standpoint don't you think it will be like Satellite TV where you can purchase HBO if you want it, or you can purchase Starz if you want it, or you can purchase a package that includes some of the premium channels or all of them or whatever? I can't see the ability to just purchase Sirxm channel 229, the Waltz channel, without some additional programming.

Part of this additional article..

"It's a given that the new company will offer its combined 14 million subscribers more programming options than ever before - what's not a given is the deal receiving regulatory approval from the powers that be. In a move industry observers see as early catering to the FCC, part of the merger deal includes the option for subscribers to pick their channels via a la carte."
 
They shouldn't have spent large sums signing so-called "talent" like Opie & Anthony and Howard or Oprah. Howard Stern has been a bust, he's a has-been and I never liked him back when he was on local Detroit FM. Same goes for sports programming, they spent too much.

Don't get me wrong, I like my XM but I can only listen to ONE station at a time.

I think the merger is a good idea.
 
Considering that Sirius is in the drivers seat of this deal it looks like Mel has done all the right things with Sirius talent wise to go from only 600,000 subscribers to 6,000,000 in only one year, and then be able to gain control of XM.

I just hope they drop all the XM formats as they are too much like terrestrial radio.
 
i guess i just see all this as a logistical nightmare.  yes, it would be nice to have the best of both channels, but how would it affect our current xm/sirius receivers?  and w/ them having a monopoly, i don't see the price going down, but rather up. 

i'm also curious as this whole new hd radio plays into all this.... inquiring minds wanna know.
 
Ghostwheel said:
Considering that Sirius is in the drivers seat of this deal it looks like Mel has done all the right things with Sirius talent wise to go from only 600,000 subscribers to 6,000,000 in only one year, and then be able to gain control of XM.

I just hope they drop all the XM formats as they are too much like terrestrial radio.

I disagree with the downplay of XM lately. I see that in the world of certain genre' and sports preferences, that XM's programming interests few. What and why would that apply to the other interests? It didn't phase mine, and except for the same catagory, I see no difference or preference that would make me switch from one to the other.

There is NO likeness in my stations to terrestrial broadcast radio at all. And fortunately XM doesn't waste as much bandwidth space on things I'm not interested in, on Sirius.

Sirius: Supported by Furd and Daimler - Chrysler
XM - GM & Honda..

And if XM is/was doing so poorly, why have I not heard of such other than rumors spread by Sirius salesman to store salesmen trying to sell the product?

Folks sign up to the service they like and it's great to have the choice. The "hype" is nonsense.

6-months activity:
z


Shareholders know!

And I can't spel. :(
 
Avalanche Fox said:
... i'm also curious as this whole new hd radio plays into all this.... inquiring minds wanna know.

Holly, iBiquity Digital best describes the HD radio technology, since they developed and "deployed" it.

The vast improvement still is limited to the terrestrial abilities of a given broadcast station.
While one would have a cleaner audio than with the standard AM & FM, one will still have to put up with station changing when out of range and the other usual broadcast crap. If subscription channels are in place, it may be better but the range crap could still be an annoyance.

Regardless, it's a nice improvement for the (terrestrial) broadcast industry.
 
Avalanche Fox said:
... i guess i just see all this as a logistical nightmare. yes, it would be nice to have the best of both channels, but how would it affect our current xm/sirius receivers? and w/ them having a monopoly, i don't see the price going down, but rather up. ..

Each service has their own 12.5 MHz allotted space within the 25 MHz licensed service in the 2300 MHz part of the spectrum. Each service is split into three sub-bands. Sirius has three polar - low-earth orbiting satellites over the Americas. Any two of the three are within view at a time, over the Continental North America. XM satellites are geo-stationary in the Clarke belt, 22,500 miles up, as DirecTV and Dish, etc are.

In order for XM to provide a "saturating" signal from such a distance, to a small antenna, they're more powerful than any of their TV counterparts! Both services use the upper and lowermost portions of their allotted bands for their satellites and a center band for their terrestrial repeaters.

OK, now picture what could or would they do with the current hardware?

■ Offer upgraded factory-integrated units?
■ Add-on external dual-platform receivers?
■ Cross-port popular channels?

I would be certain they have some plan in place to convince the powers that "it's in the best public interest" as they see it. They need to both become more competitive with the world of the other gadgets like HD radio, iPods and cellphone entertainment video/audio and quite likely this scheme will come in with something appealing.

By the way that the spectrum of the services is set up, adjacent sub-bands of each could be used for this type of technology. There's just nothing but the news releases and speculation at this point.
 
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