XM/Sirius Merger
Posted February 21st, 2007 by Rich Heldenfels
Check, please, after the jump …
The big question in my house about the combining of the two satellite-radio companies is: when will our rates go up?
A price hike is pretty much inevitable. Both companies have lost boatloads of money while fighting a price war and paying for high-priced talent (Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey) as well as exclusive sports deals. Once they're no longer trying to cut the other's throat, they'll be in a position to cut consumers' instead. In addition to a regular rate hike, I can imagine an increasing number of premium packages adding still more to the monthly bill.
Which will be unfortunate. We're a house of XM, although that choice mainly had to do with the bride's having a car with XM built in and our then adding other units to that package. I might just as easily have wound up with Sirius.
But regardless of which service we chose, I like the pure idea of satellite radio — all those choices, all the time.
Some time back, I had to take a long, solo, overnight car trip; my company was one of XM's comedy channels, the voices and the laughter carrying me along when regular radio would have provided nothing comparable — and was barely available at all during some long, rural stretches on the drive. During the erratic broadcast scheduling of Al Franken's now-departed show on local radio, I could find the whole thing on XM.
The biggest drawback is that it encourages my restless channel-hopping while I'm driving, from the hits channels to Soul Street to Deep Tracks to the '90s, back to the hit channels, maybe a stop at Willie's Place, a few minutes with the Groove, checking in Frank's Place, and on again. And that's not even counting the sports.
Not that I listen to XM all the time. I do venture into the radio world occasionally, notably for Stephanie Miller's show. And for the last few days I have been concentrating on Lucinda Williams's new "West" CD. (Buy it. Buy it now.) But I do prize satellite radio. And I fear that once this merger goes through, the new combine will ask my wallet how much I prize it.
February 21st, 2007 at 1:47 pm
I have XM as well. I love the potential of getting all of the sports packages, but I'm hoping (probably for nothing) that they will allow you to pick your own packages. For instance, I'd want the sports channels, talk channels, and some of the hits and jazz stations. However, I'd have no interest in Howard Stern, Opie & Anthony, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, etc. Hopefully, they'll offer a basic music and talk combination and then let you choose which premium channels you want. I'm willing to deal with a rate hike, I'm getting more, but hopefully I won't have to pay for a bunch of stations that I have no interest in, although I'm willing to bet that will happen…
February 21st, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I think most of us would also like cable companies to offer everything a la carte, so we only pay for what we watch, and that hasn't really happened yet. We'll see if satellite radio decides to be kinder.
February 21st, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Mel Karmazin said yesterday (at least reported yesterday by MultiChannel News) that when he spoke (before the merger announcement) with each of the five FCC commissioners, three of them expressed great interest in an a la carte provision.
I am suspecting that if a la carte were offered by XM-Sirius as part of the deal it would greatly help to gain FCC approval.
That is because Chairman Martin and other Commissioners have talked openly about wanting to allow (if not impose) a la carte in the cab/satellite/telco world.
So I would assume that down the road a bit the cable folks will be fighting against this merger with great intensity — because a la carte threatens their entire world of rapacious billing, as well as the corporate good health of Disney, TWC, NewsCorp and GE. And, of course, this merger could just be a precursor for a Liberty/EchoStar DirecTV-Dish marriage in the future.
February 22nd, 2007 at 6:42 am
What would a la carte do for variety? I listen to sports on Sirius every once in a while and I'm very glad it is there sometimes. But I probably wouldn't pay for it a la carte. Same goes for jazz music, classical and the specialty, decade-type stations.
The huge variety is what makes satellite radio great but I suspect many of those kinds of stations would go by the wayside because they're nice to have but not something people will pay for.