sirius-xm merger

Sirius XM sticks it to subscribers

How's the Sirius XM satellite radio monopoly working out for subscribers? Not so well. Now that Sirius XM is the only game in town, it's nudging up fees for subscribers. Nice!

The one and only satellite radio company's boasts of its ever-increasing subscriber base are gone now, and the decline is significant. The number floating around the Internet is a loss of 400,000 subscribers. That still leaves 18.6 million, but there's no way of knowing how many of that number are full-price-paying subscribers.

Could the subscriber losses be attributed to recent price hikes? The … Read more

Music radio? Is anybody listening anymore?

I read Matt Rosoff's Digital Noise blog all the time, and his recent lamenting radio's irrelevance hit me hard.

I think Matt was mostly referring to AM or FM radio, but what about Internet or satellite radio? Me, I'm still a die hard Sirius subscriber and listen to Left of Center, Sirius Disorder, and Underground Garage channels many hours a day. They turn me onto new music all the time, so I buy an average of two CDs a week.

Of course, now that the hoopla over the Siriius/XM merger has died down and the stock … Read more

FCC approves Sirius-XM satellite radio merger

The Federal Communications Commission on Friday formally approved Sirius Satellite Radio's $3.3 billion buyout of former competitor XM Satellite Radio with conditions.

FCC commissioners voted 3-2 to approve the merger, which will unite the nation's only two satellite radio providers and allow more than 18 million subscribers to receive programming from both services. Executives say that the merger will lead to huge cost savings and the first profits in the industry.

Republican Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate cast the tie-breaking vote after the companies agreed to a three-year cap on prices, set aside 8 percent of their channel … Read more

FCC chief expected to back Sirius-XM merger

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is expected to support the $5 billion merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, according to published reports.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's approval comes in exchange for concessions that include a three-year freeze on subscription prices and the turning over of 24 channels to noncommercial and minority programming, the Associated Press reported. Martin is expected to issue his recommendation as early as this week that the FCC should approve the merger.

"As I have indicated before, this is an unusual situation," Martin said in a statement. "I … Read more

Who's going to pay for the Sirius-XM merger? How about Howard Stern?

It seems like the Sirius-XM merger been dragging on for years, and both sides are eager to get it done, but what would I get out of it? I've been a happy Sirius subscriber for years. I love the commercial-free music channels, and the uninhibited talk channels are hugely entertaining. At least maybe Sirius' sound quality will get closer to XM's--it's always sounded a little better.

They still need approval from the Federal Communications Commission before the deal is done. If you ask me, it seems anticompetitive to let the only two satellite-radio companies in the U.… Read more