After a long 13 months, the DOJ has finally approved the proposed XM and Sirius merger. Keep an eye on Orbitcast in the coming hours and days for continuing coverage. (Concessions…? FCC?)
After a careful and thorough review of the proposed transaction, the Division concluded that the evidence does not demonstrate that the proposed merger of XM and Sirius is likely to substantially lessen competition, and that the transaction therefore is not likely to harm consumers. The Division reached this conclusion because the evidence did not show that the merger would enable the parties to profitably increase prices to satellite radio customers for several reasons, including: a lack of competition between the parties in important segments even without the merger; the competitive alternative services available to consumers; technological change that is expected to make those alternatives increasingly attractive over time; and efficiencies likely to flow from the transaction that could benefit consumers. […] Accordingly, the Division has closed its investigation of the proposed merger.
i knew i held off on satellite radio for a reason.
guess, I’ll be having to look at a new radio. Although my MyFi is getting pretty old anway. Now my question would be are they going to combine the service so we can now not only get MLB/NCAA as XM fans but also NBA/NFL. Now that would be a killer package I’d pay a few more bucks for.
Dave, what will come first Slingcatcher or the combined XM/Sirrus? j/k
If only I could laugh… ;)
As far as my SatRad desires – How about XM un-abandon my Helix? Give me some software updates and sell me some accessories! I do see some new table top speaker sets are coming but I have to buy an additional 20 or 30 dollar adapter. I’d rather just invest that money into the Stiletto, which does have an ecosystem.
All of my SAT radios are built into my cars and not easily changed out. One car has XM and the other Sirius. It will be interesting to see if content from one provider can appear on a radio for the other without any upgrade.
Also, I look forward to a multi-radio discount since I will now have two subscriptions to XM-Sirius Sat Radio (or whatever the merged company name becomes)!
My car came with Sirius, and I’ve been pretty happy with it. My main concern is that the merged company doesn’t start putting ads into the channels I like – Sirius is all ad-free, XM has ads on some of their channels.
If I get new services, great. But I suspect that would call for new hardware, and I don’t plan to do that.
I am sure there will be some sort of a hardware change, they have to give people a reason for new radios. But, it will be tough with all the built in radios and those of us that have bought adapters for cars/home/office/boats etc. I still love the idea though of getting an NCAA Game sat then a NFL game sunday on the same radio. I love when I am out on the water over a wknd. Or when out of range of (KNBR) and I can’t get my Giants games, but I put it on XM and there they are hearing the good ol’ voice of Jon Miller and the crew.
And sorry Dave about the Slingcatcher dig, just been waiting so long to see it………couldn’t help but makin a joke.
On an unrelated note, the Netflix website was down all day today. Maybe they need a merger of their own?
Stiletto 2 all the way Dave. Sexiest portable I’ve ever owned and it actually works all the time unlike the S50 or Stiletto 10/100.
I’m pumped about the merger. I hope they offer some tiered packages right out of the gates.
One more hurdle (everyone’s favorite gov body, the FCC) and we’re home free. If they reject it after a DOJ approval, well, I’m moving to Canada…
From what I’ve heard btw, all existing hardware will be able to receive all remaining channels that stay on after the merger. Overlap will be cleaned up (duplicate/very similar channels) but the rest will be available to all. No firm word on pricing yet but supposedly no one will be forced to increase monthly subscription rates. That could mean a lot of things though, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
I’ve waited this long, I can wait until Xmas for The Unified Device (or the Satellite Radio Godbox) – Hey it’d be great if they included an HD radio tuner as well…
Could not be happier as a subscriber to both.
Current receiver won’t be extinct. You just won’t be able to do the a la carte. However, you’ll be able to add a ‘best of’ from the other guy.
Let’s go FCC….this is going to make the commute even less bad
While I don’t have or want SiriXMus, I am concerned about though who do. Aren’t you worried that without a competitive market the monthly subscription cost will just keep going up and up, while the service quality plummets? Or worse, forced hardware upgrades to go with those perpetual annual fees – ala Microsoft?
I must say I am surprised no one brought up the free XM Online thingy
http://xmro.xmradio.com/xstream/index.jsp
All they want is an email address for each sign-up, and obviously you all have unlimited aliases in your gmail account ;)
As a big fan of Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez on XM 202… this upsets me greatly… the mixing of these two companies will not be good for my favorite talk radio.
Who cares. They both suck!!! The FCC will take forever to aprove this merger. Then on top of that since both comapnies are bleeding from every orfice with money being wasted neither of them have any money for R&D to make a unified system. I guess after the merger they can layoff thousands employees…..that always helps with companies running in the red.
Also both comanies have very lousy portable devices. Poor battery life, poor internal storage size, some you need to wear a head unit like you are trying to phone E.T. What a joke!!!
Also look out for XM to dump their hardware to current customers………slashing prices by $130 but you can’t return the products….NO MATTER WHAT!!!!!
The only units that are nice are the ones that come in a new car………..which I don’t have.