I Oppose the XM-Sirius proposed merger

[Peter Parker]

Which is when they announced the Howard Stern Deal. I preffer XM myself and am defintely NOT a Stern fan, but their is no doubt he was a excellent investment. He has paid for himself already.

While I do not care for Stern I have not put him down---and I am not sure how you could read it taht way.. I just said that the 10 fold increase took more than one year.

 

[Sirius_Rich]

My mistake.

They went from 600,000 at the time they announced the Howard Stern deal (which was early 2005) to the 6 Mil at the end of 2006. So, factoring out units installed in cars, it's still a pretty good bet that many of these were Stern Fans (like me, who dumped XM BTW), and if Stern went to XM instead, SIRIUS would be a footnote.

Here is a graphical representation of SatRad growth compared to Sat TV and cell phones:

 

[igator99]

Lossing the 80's MTV VJ's?

I am undecided as I am worried as a dual subscriber to both XM and Sirius that I will be paying more for less service then I have now.

I enjoy the 70's and 80's channels on both XM and Sirius, I am worried that they will select one set of channels from one service then have the same 70's and 80's channel on both services to save money, while I am still paying $12.95 for each service.

I have no idea how things are going to be better when they are using two different systems, to enjoy the new service will I need a new radio? What about the radio built into my 2006 truck do I need to rip that out to enjoy the new service? Or since i have both XM and Sirius in there will I be able to enjoy it all with no new equipment needed?

Also no matter how they try to spin it, I am under the feeling that Sirius is buying XM and its not a joint merger. XM has gotten so stale over the past 2 years and Sirus has constantly improving, Sirius has crushed the giant.

With that said lets hope that both companies keep on pushing forward in case the merger does not go through. I also hope they use the name XM instead of Sirius, most people I know still can pronounce Sirius they call it Cy-russ.

I listen to the Sirius 80's channel most of the time in the car because I enjoy hearing the old MTV VJ's. I listen to the XM 80's channel through D* and I don't enjoy it as much. The consumer usually does not win when a company has a monopoly.

 

[Jeff003]

I am against this merger too.I'm afraid all the ninch channels will get axed.Escape is the number 1 reason I picked XM over Sirius.I also listen to enlighten and cinemagic neither of these is on sirius either.If Mel is in charge these 3 channels will probebly be scrapped.Sirius doesn't see the need for a beautiful music channel like Escape and all the FM stations that use to play this music no longer play it.Another reason I'm worried is that my receiver(I have the skyfi 2)may eventually be rendered useless.I hope they will offer free upgrades for commitiment to service like dish does.Then there is the price.I've heard it will double when this happens.However since they are going to offer ala carte the price might stay the same if you only get music channels.

 

[HCI]

I think Opie and Anthony will be out of work thankfully.

Why would you care first if you don't listen?

O&A have the biggest channel on XM. The only way they will be out is if the company's merge and they try to force them to promote Howard. Who I am really scared about is Ron and Fez. At this point they are my favorite show on the radio and maybe overlooked.

 

[withay]

My sister is "on" XM.... She says that nobody really knows whats going to happen, except that nothing probably willl happen until the end of the year.

 

[Darrell S]

Why would you care first if you don't listen?

O&A have the biggest channel on XM. The only way they will be out is if the company's merge and they try to force them to promote Howard. Who I am really scared about is Ron and Fez. At this point they are my favorite show on the radio and maybe overlooked.

O& A and Ron& Fez will both be out because Howie and his puppet Mel have personal grudges. They don't care if it is a smart business decision to keep them.

 

[FIREBIRD81]

as long as they keep hard attack, octane and buzzsaw I'm cool with it. And howard stern is very good since he came to Sirius in my opinion.

 

[BobMurdoch]

O& A and Ron& Fez will both be out because Howie and his puppet Mel have personal grudges. They don't care if it is a smart business decision to keep them.

Hey, it wouldn't be the first time they got fired and collected a check..... Mel did the same to them last time I believe....

That being said, O & A are doing just fine with Howards old morning shows on terrestrial radio. I don't see them killing the deal one way or the other. Howard will play nice once he realizes that his stock will do better with them around....

 

[Peter Parker]

I am against this merger too.I'm afraid all the ninch channels will get axed.Escape is the number 1 reason I picked XM over Sirius.I also listen to enlighten and cinemagic neither of these is on sirius either.If Mel is in charge these 3 channels will probebly be scrapped.Sirius doesn't see the need for a beautiful music channel like Escape and all the FM stations that use to play this music no longer play it.Another reason I'm worried is that my receiver(I have the skyfi 2)may eventually be rendered useless.I hope they will offer free upgrades for commitiment to service like dish does.Then there is the price.I've heard it will double when this happens.However since they are going to offer ala carte the price might stay the same if you only get music channels.

\


Where did you hear that the price will double?

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

\


Where did you hear that the price will double?

www.insideradio.com

Willing to pay $18 to $20 a month for a “best of” Sirius+XM lineup? The same day Sirius boss Mel Karmazin was wriggling around the pricing question at the House Anti-Trust Task Force two weeks ago — XM COO Nate Davis was giving the Bear Stearns conference at the Breakers in sunny Florida a much better fix. He was ballparking the “best of both worlds” XM+Sirius lineup at perhaps $18 to $20 a month. The closest any of the House interrogators got with Mel was that the “significant discount” from the combined $25.90 sub price would be “closer to $10 than $2.” But for argument’s sake — a $10 discount would make the price about $16 ($25.90 minus $10 equaling $15.90). While the Nate Davis estimate was more in the middle ($18 to $20). Does price matter? It might to the regulators. It certainly will to the consumer advocates who in some cases are opposing this deal (lining up alongside the NAB on this particular fight).

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

www.insideradio.com

A study into the proposed merger aims to show that Mel Karmazin and Gary Parsons are promising more than what’s technologically possible. In congressional hearings the pair said the combined satellite service would allow subscribers to pick-and-choose among their channels. But the consulting engineering firm of Meintel, Sgrignoli & Wallace (MSW) says that would be nearly impossible. That’s because bandwidths, bit rates, data structures, and digital audio coding algorithms of these two systems are completely different. Those differences (for example) allow XM to get 148 channels into its spectrum while Sirius gets just 123. Engineers say tinkering with audio codecs and bit rates may only serve to hurt their audio quality. As for Karmazin’s promise to bring listeners more programming choice — MSW points out that both the XM and Sirius systems are chock-full of programming and significant spare capacity is not available. That’s proven by the occasional announcement that a channel is being dropped to make room for something new.

 

[Peter Parker]

www.insideradio.com

Willing to pay $18 to $20 a month for a “best of” Sirius+XM lineup? The same day Sirius boss Mel Karmazin was wriggling around the pricing question at the House Anti-Trust Task Force two weeks ago — XM COO Nate Davis was giving the Bear Stearns conference at the Breakers in sunny Florida a much better fix. He was ballparking the “best of both worlds” XM+Sirius lineup at perhaps $18 to $20 a month. The closest any of the House interrogators got with Mel was that the “significant discount” from the combined $25.90 sub price would be “closer to $10 than $2.” But for argument’s sake — a $10 discount would make the price about $16 ($25.90 minus $10 equaling $15.90). While the Nate Davis estimate was more in the middle ($18 to $20). Does price matter? It might to the regulators. It certainly will to the consumer advocates who in some cases are opposing this deal (lining up alongside the NAB on this particular fight).

That is nota doubling.

 

[BobMurdoch]

I think it is more than reasonable considering how much money they had to shell out to secure the programming. Everyone wants something for nothing, but when you consider what the E*/D* people have to pay for out of market broadcasts we are still looking at a bargain. ESPECIALLY if those of us with subscriptions to both get a substantial discount.....

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

That is nota doubling.

It is if you were on a 3 year contract for $9.95 a month.

Regardless, its ALOT more than you are paying now.

 

[XM DUDE]

I am also opposed to the merger as they will raise prices(stupid move) and subs will drop satellite radio like a bad habit.
The programming will become the SIRIUS model, repeditive shallow play lists. I am a music lover and I love to hear things that FM would never play, that is why we pay for satellite radio in the first place.

 

[avediswolf]

I don't think prices will raise, Mainly because, as said, subs will drop.
Do you really think they want subs to drop?

If I didn't think Sirius was a good deal, I would drop it, and listen to the music of my choosing via my MP3 player.

 

[XM DUDE]

I don't think prices will raise, Mainly because, as said, subs will drop.
Do you really think they want subs to drop?

If I didn't think Sirius was a good deal, I would drop it, and listen to the music of my choosing via my MP3 player.

XM and SIRIUS are way different in that XM has deeper content in it's music programming, take this away and all you have is FM without commericals. The lastest news I getting says the merger isen't popular with many and it stands a good chance of dying. I certanly hope so.