Its a good thing. ESPECIALLY if you anticipated this all along and scooped up soem sirius stock on the cheap a while back. This merger has been held up in congress for over a year which is ridiculous.

Basically, both of these companies have been losing money, allowing them to merge should help make them profitable fast and make for a better overall experience.

For example, Sirius has exclusive right to the NFL. XM the same for baseball. If you are a sportsnut like me, you had to choose. Now you don't.

Programs like Howard Stern are now available to a wider audience as is Opie and Anthony who were exclusive to their respective satellite companies before, now instantly have a potential audience of about 13 million.

They also, I believe, have an ala cart type programming where if you jsut want the commercial free music, you can pay as little as 5.99 a month as opposed to the 12.99 for the whole package.

The pricing structures will change and most likely go up a lil to get the FULL package, but overall, I think this is a good thing.

 

Nice post, but this is assuming they don't become greedy jerks and really raise the rates now that they don't have any competition. This is what probably held it up in Congress. Monopolies scare them, and they were probably just getting assurances that there would be no issues like wholesale price increases. As long as the service is priced affordably, and existing service contracts are honored, it's good for everyone.

 

Sirius stock is still cheap. It went up 85 cents to a whole $3.15! As I type this, my iPod Touch reports that the stock is down 11 cents to $3.04. XM is down 75 cents to $13.04. Then again, the entire market is down right now, albeit barely.

The Sirius/XM merger isn't exactly a stock boom the way, say, Apple is.

You want to listen to baseball games? "Nut" is right. :tongue:

The question with Stern and Opie/Anthony is, does anyone care? Stern's audience has dropped off significantly, and Opie/Anthony toil in relative obscurity. Plus, the whole "shock jock stupid radio show" deal is cooling off a little, IMO.

To me, the real question arising from this merger is, "Will the 2009 car models come with the unified company's equipment, or will I have to swap the thing out later?"

 

Watch it Desides! Listening to baseball games can be an absolute joy :D

Another good thing is that college football conferences were split between the two companies.

This is a great development, and long overdue.

 

I used to thnk the same thing...until I got sirius. The quality of sound is better, you never have to worry about your signal fading out as you travel throughout the U.S. and the ability to rewind radio (say if you wer elistening to a tlak show and went inside the store) is a home run for me.

 

Stern's audience dropped off signifcantly because he went to a pay service. Don't forget, his last year on regular radio, he was still number one in almost every market he was in and the revenue made off ads sold on his show was through the roof. In fact, it was a record year for CBS Radio in terms of money. Since he has left, the radio division has lost money hand over fist and most experts now agree, it is due to the lack of Howard Stern.

When he joined Sirius, they had a listenership of 800,000 in their entire universe (Sirius universe). They now have over 7 million two years later. A lot of that growth again, has been due to Stern's two channels. I know I bought it to listen to him and many others have too.

As for Opie and Anthony, I don't listen to them, but I know some who do (Pagan for example) and the fact that both shows' audience has effectively doubled in potential growth is a good thing.

There are 300 million people (roughly) in the U.S. Currently, 17 million of them have satellite radio. It the grand scheme of things, they essentially have just over 5% of the market share and would probably top out at 15% if all went well for them.

 

I assume you don't listen to the music channels then. No commercials whatsoever.

 

The powers that be (Mel Karmazin who will run the new, merged company) already addressed the pricing issues. In some cases, it may end up being CHEAPER then what you currently pay. The max out point is only 3 dollars more than the package now, so no, no price gauging seems to be occuring.

And if they did change it and try to pull a fast one on people, congress would be right there to slap them down. Besides, this isn't like to oil companies merging and then watching the prices rise with nothing you can do about it.

People don't need satellite radio. Their biggest competition essentially does the same thing (albeit worse) for free.

 

Dodge Caravan or the Plymouth Town and Country?

 

Radio play-by-play and color guys are generally better and more entertaining than the TV guys, who are more there to hock the station's Sunday evening lineup than they are to tell you what's going on out on the field.

If I could get the audio and video to sync up, I'd love to watch a game on TV with the radio feed on for commentary.

Or, y'know, just go out to the damn ballpark. Marlins tickets are cheap.

Stern has been unlistenable for a long time, at least for me. I can't stand him. Great when I was in 10th grade, but now that I have a functioning brain, no thanks.

I'm excited about this merger just for the idea that I can get NFL Radio no matter what car I buy. (Some of the cars on my short list have XM, while the one in the lead has Sirius.)

What worries me is the possibility of the new company becoming DirecTV-like in its offering of tiers and packages with the really good stuff costing an arm and a leg. (Sunday Ticket still makes me cry, and now they add Superfan on? Come on, people.)

 

Thats what I meant. Stupid brain...stupid stupid brain.

 

If you guys really want to talk cars, go over to my "help me" thread and, well, help me.

 

I used to travel a lot for work. I spent the majority of the day in my car. Baseball season made all that driving enjoyable.
Even better is listening to a Mets game online while I post with you bozos :tongue2:

 

No, no, I don't care if you're OT or not. (It's not my thread!) I'm just trying to get some help here.

 

I used to drive a caravan (company car) which is essentially the same thing, just with less frills and without the uppity two worded name (town and country? every time I say it is with a british accent and wearing a monocle).

Not bad cars at all. But I was happy to get out of it as I have no kids (that I know of) and the ladies look at me funny when I holler at them from my silver bullet (caravan). Traded it in for my black beuty (Durango) and get less creepy looks now.

And that...is the extent of my car knowledge.

 

Yep, that be the one. :lol:

Maybe its time for a new pictures of your whips thread?

 

Wow...minivans.

Life is over, huh? :lol:

j/k :tongue:

 

:sad::yes:

 

Doesnt this have to get approved by the FCC still?

Im not sure if this will happen without a fight - knowing the fear of monopolies that present over here.

Teddy Roosevelt wouldnt be happy - still on the fence whether this is a good or bad thing.

 

The FCC is likely to approve it.

Teddy Roosevelt likely wouldn't care. It's Robert Taft who was the real trustbuster.

 

The FCC will more than likely approve it. I don't thnk there has ever been a merger that the FCC has disapproved after the Department of Justice hasalready approved it. In fact, the FCC has already said that their delay was in waiting to see what the DOJ ruled first.

I wouldn't be surprised if the FCC looks to add a caveat to it though, that a certain amount of stations are given to free enterprises or something like that.

But it is hardly a monopoly. The simple fact that companies like Viacom and Clear Channel
have spent MILLIONS on lobbying against this merger proves that there is competition. Besides, this isn't a product that people NEED to have, which is a main concern for the government (for example, oil companies merge yet we NEED oil). If people don't want to pay for radio, they simply can choose not to and get their radio programming for free with any standard radio.

 

Still don't understand how this is a good thing, but DirecTV + Dish Network was a "monopoly." :confused1:

 

Currently, both XM and Sirius lose money. Them together would make it a much more stable company financially. Why that is important is because if/when the new merged company has more money, it allows them to spend more money on programming/features/technology which will help us consumers.

Also, for sports fans, lets say, we no longer have to choose which package we want (football vs. baseball) and now we get a chance to have everything. The Michael Jackson station on XM is AMAZING, but I never got it because I had Sirius. The hardware wasn't, and isn't compatible to one another.

Once they are consolidated, consumers won't have to choose one or the other and sacrifice certain aspects they like about the other. And that, to me, is a good thing.

 

I didnt think the FCC was just going to rubber stamp it but I dont really know too much about securities... I only touched on it a little during school.

I guess it makes sense if neither company is viable, but at the same time, if they are merged and the merger causes them to have a disproportionate power to broadcast music and sports radio, they can use that power to shut out any third parties or company and charge whatever they would like to the consumers.. I think the worry about the monopoly isnt so much for the present...but for the future.

But, I suppose, you cant base decisions on speculation.

 

Teddy Roosevelt was most certainly a trustbuster, he was the original before Taft, he's up there as one of my favorite presidents which is why I used him.

 

Roosevelt didn't bust nearly as trusts as Taft did. Roosevelt having that reputation is silly.

 

I just got Sirius a little while ago in my new Mazda Speed3 its great for me. The radio stations play tons of music you just wouldn't hear on regular radio stations and no commercials is a revelation. The sports stations are great as well, I can see the NFL station getting a lot of play during the season. You can listen to Sirius on the internet as well with a subscription so you can listen to it at home or work (if they let you).

 

Having Sirius now in my new car... I love it! Sooooooooo many choices. The comedy channels are great. Now with the addition of XM and baseball. Being on the road is now even better.

 

Poor Teddy - Just because Taft took over for Roosevelt and furthered the cause more than him doesnt mean that Teddy doesnt have the reputation as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust-busting

Here you go - we are both right, I just like Teddy more as the original TB'r and because he is just much more intense person and figure.

Ruff Riding!!