AfterDawn: News

SIRIUS and XM now officially one company

Having finally gotten the blessing of the FCC yesterday, satellite radio providers SIRIUS and XM announced that their merger is complete. Both companies are now part of SIRIUS XM Radio.
The merger has actually been in the works for more than a year and a half, but had been held up by the FCC, who finally approved it in March. Yesterday FCC commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of allowing it.

"I am delighted to announce the completion of this exciting merger between SIRIUS and XM," said Mel Karmazin, CEO of SIRIUS XM Radio. "We have worked diligently to close this transaction and we look forward to integrating our best-in-class management teams and operations so we can begin delivering on our promise of more choices and lower prices for subscribers."



"We also believe that the completion of the merger will eliminate any confusion that has been lingering in the marketplace," added Karmazin.

The long approval process was largely a result of anti-trust concerns voiced by consumer interest group and other (terrestrial) broadcasters. However, unless significantly more subscribers are added in the next couple of years the new company's monopoly won't even be enough to help them survive.

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 29 Jul 2008 15:07

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• 16 comments

• SSSJDanny

  Wait.... I thought Howard Stern said he was against it, cause now the company can charge as much as they want, cause there are no other real competitors?

  29.7.2008 15:16 #1

• SProdigy

  About time. Less confusion over what services you get will add more to their bottom line, as long as they keep the pricing reasonable. Finally, all major sports on one network.

  29.7.2008 16:28 #2

• b18bek9

  howard stern was for the merger but said he wont make any announcements til its offical when he's on both radios. mainly because who knows what other backdoor schemes the NAB has up there sleeves to keep this merger from going through. the department of justice had approved this merger awhile back and the NAB/FCC had the final word when they have nothing to do with the marger. dont know why it took this long (some paid ppl in congress or congressman with money invested in radio stations/backers) when its not something ppl need like water electricity gas and so on. And there are many competitors like free radio? why pay for xm/sirius when radio is free ...the ipod and cd's are also a factor with other things as well.

  29.7.2008 16:28 #3

• SProdigy

  I have a friend that pays for it solely to listen to Opie and Anthony. He records it and then listens at work. I'm sure he's not the only one.
  
  If you travel enough, satellite radio is not bad, especially if you're a sports buff. It's not always easy finding ESPN radio, or even the game you were just listening to minutes before it fizzled out. That's about the only convenience I ever found.

  29.7.2008 16:52 #4

• varnull

  Seem to remember this discussion about the merger last year, and the general consensus then was it was a good thing for the customers, and also for the broadcasters. Can't remember which was the smaller business, but they were going broke in no mean fashion and if they had that would have left people with useless expensive equipment.
  I don't think a monopoly in such a small field as satellite radio is necessarily a bad thing.. more channels, more choice and full national coverage can't be bad. Only thing to watch out for is spiralling subscription prices, though as the market is currently tiny I don't expect that to happen straight away.
  
  Most people don't know but monopolies are allowed under US law, they must not abuse their monopoly position by attempting to stifle potential competition (like intel and M$ and Creative do time and time again)..
  There could be some choice again in the future if they manage to develop the market with at least a solid base now to build on. As it is now there weren't enough subscribers for 2 suppliers, and a merger makes perfect sense in that scenario.

  29.7.2008 19:21 #5

• trexxus

  I'm curious in knowing about their radio packages and how much they are going to be.Iv'e had Xm for 3 years now and I like it for the most part(minus the channels that clearwater runs commericals on)but if their programming goes up and the product itself goes down then I will be quick to drop it like it's hot.

  29.7.2008 20:25 #6

• DJchemist

  What my stock accountant told me (cuz i have tons invested in the 2 companys as there growing rapidly)
  
  is that the merger is ONLY US companies, NOT canadian,
  and it will work on a you pick x amount of stations out of the grand total for a much reduced cost.
  
  sounds neat...altho i still hate sat radio all together haha

  29.7.2008 22:07 #7

• club42

  Quote:now the company can charge as much as they want, cause there are no other real competitors? No they can't charge as much as they want. They have been doing horribly for years. You can have a monopoly on dog crap but nobody cares because the product isn't worth it. I've been with xm for 2 yrs because of my wife but I dropped it for my personal car. Each station still plays the same select songs over and over again just as normal radio does. The difference in sound quality is eliminated now that you can buy an HD head unit and receive the same quality sound for free from most radio stations. The biggest factor is price. $140 a year. Just like cable I only like a few stations and can not justify the money when I can plug in my mp3 player and play gig's of music commercial free of exactly what I want. The only benefit as SPodigy said is the sports channels.

  29.7.2008 22:34 #8

• CF01

  Thank god Ive been waiting for this for awhile

  30.7.2008 03:11 #9

• spydah

  I am glad this happened and if they allow us to select our package that will make this deal that much better. All i want is more Comedy, Sports, and Music stations after that i dont care for the rest.

  30.7.2008 11:46 #10

• christ93

  Originally posted by spydah: I am glad this happened and if they allow us to select our package that will make this deal that much better. All i want is more Comedy, Sports, and Music stations after that i dont care for the rest.Be prepared to wait a few months. The interop radios, as far as I know, arent ready yet. It is a nice service to have. Ive been over most of the US Mexico and Caribbean listening to the same stations. I also recored O and A and listen later. Best of all, no commercials on the music channels.

  30.7.2008 17:29 #11

• JOHNSTARR

  Maybe by 2020 I'll be able to sell my siri stock and break even :(
  

  Premium 360 Benq 1.3
  XBOX 1.4- Zenium Chipped 300 Gb Maxtor

  31.7.2008 02:34 #12

• sgriesch

  They are already able to put the different programming on the same account. My wife called last night. They tried to merge our 3 accounts. It's still separate stations, but you pay one place.

  31.7.2008 19:04 #13

• Mr-Movies

  The government should have stopped this merger even if one or both companies were claiming to go bankrupt. If that were true it is only because of extremely poor management decisions like paying too much for Oprah and Stern and then charging too much to their customers which alienated me, I’m not going to pay more for that crap. The fact that they allowed this shows how corrupt our government really is and the fact that there is a 3 year no price hike proves it the gov knows they are going to try and gouge us down the road. It is NEVER good to have monopolies!
  
  I was fine with satellite radio as long as it was less than $10 a month but $12+ is crazy and why do I have to pay so much more for add-on receivers.
  
  It’s amazing how many people will give up good business practice for less confusion as SPRODIGY has put it. This attitude was prevalent during BD vs. HD-DVD and other format wars it seems people never learn and really don’t understand how the world works.
  
  When Sirius starts jacking the pricing again I hope you all aren’t going to complain about it and if you do shame on you.

  2.8.2008 16:33 #14

• bykaholic

  So much potential so little interest, better to hope for better stock divendends than lose them to chapter 13 bankruptcy.
  
  The Fed are too busy bailing out the to good "to be true mortgage suckers", to bail out an American Company. The Chinese will be happy to take over their (XM/Sirrius) satellites. Reduce the stock share price to near zero and then buy them all back. Or take a loan with a variable rate mortgage/equity loan that you know deep down inside you can't possibly pay off buy Satellite Radio Stock and expect the rest of the tax payers to feel sorry for you. You'd only make more bad investments after these are forgiven.

  6.8.2008 01:57 #15

• cowface

  i just started reading this artical and then comments if your wondering wether ornot this is a good move and u think that howard st word is qospel how about this for try to keep prices down no person is worth the money that they have paid howard in shares i have sirius and think its a outrage that i pay 15.00 a month to hear music and then the company takes my hard earned money and hand it away to one person thats crazy we would still be listining to music without howard or the jail bird market scam aint got enough money martha stewart

  17.8.2008 10:29 #16