Sirius - XM Merger Coming Soon?
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Finally, Sirius and XM are close to a deal with the FCC for approval of their merger. Talk of a merger goes way back to 2005. In 2007, they finally made a move, and now a year and a half later it may finally go through. It looks like Siriu/XM will need to sacrifice a bit much though.
…turning 24 channels over to noncommercial and minority programming, a three-year price freeze for customers, packages offering services from both XM and Sirius, and standards designed to encourage competition from the companies that make their radios. - Forbes
What shocks me about this is that this country says no problem to and Exxon and Mobile mergers, but when it comes to satellite radio… OH MY! Call in the troops! Satellite radio doesn’t have a monopoly on anything. They have to compete with all other forms of entertainment. iPods, CD’s, old-school radio, TV, and the Internet. Why is this taking does it take so long to put 2 struggling companies together so they can survive?
5 Comments
Suling
July 20th, 2008
at 4:28am
The “old school” communications cartel has strong influence in Washington.
Follow the money….as usual.
Frank J
July 20th, 2008
at 11:41am
Like all monopolies, with no competition prices go up. XM and Sirius obviously don’t have the lobbyists. Our economic policies of the last 20 years have resulted are destroying middle class Americans… and thats why the companies are hurting. The merge is a short term fix. When they have no competition, service will deteriorate, options will decrease, and prices will go up. I gave XM and its great and I hope the merge does not happen, and that future policies mean more competition, not less. Take a look at your cable bill lately?. In San Diego we have 2 zip codes with overlapping companies… they pay nearly 1/3 less. But hey… this is the USA… all about the shareholders and profits… not the consumer. Believe no news that is mainstream.
Pizzor2000
July 21st, 2008
at 6:59am
I don’t know if I see the merger as such a bad thing. It seems both providers offer unique channels that aren’t available on the other provider. Most average people cannot afford both services, so maybe the merger means both providers’ signature channels will be available from the same service.
It eliminates the hassle of having to choose, too. If I decide to get satellite radio, I wouldn’t know which of the two providers to choose, especially since both have completely different channel lineups. I have enough trouble deciding on a cell phone provider, but at least I can call the same people no matter which one I choose!
Mark
July 21st, 2008
at 7:43am
what part of this isnt a monopoly? if they merge, it’ll be one company that charges for satellite…ONE….they will have full control over what we get and how much we pay for it…sure, there will be a price freeze for current customers, but other then that…this is a monopoly.
Rambling Johhny
July 26th, 2008
at 2:50am
How do you define a Monopoly? You define it by the product sold the low or non existent competition to sold that product or a substitute and the market being sold to this is the last and most important point. The product need to be essential to the market like oil, water, air and food. In other words and for most geek out there. “The spice must flow!”
In the case of Sirius/XM the product is portable entertainment the competition is wide open with product such has MP3 players, cell phones, portable video game console, conventional radio and god know what else. And the market is peoples moving from point A to point B or in some case from A to Z and every letters in between. That a large market it include well everybody who alive and even barely moving!
So you tell me new merged corporation a Monopoly?