XM & Sirius To Merge?

Satellite radio made big news in the business world today. The two satellite radio providers, XM and Sirius, are talking merger. Yahoo! News reports the companies will make an official announcement today.

The merger was (quietly) discussed for months, and recommended just last week - check out this CNN article. What does this mean for subscribers? It’s too early to say just yet; if the merger should happen, it could be a year or more before the technical and content questions are settled. Which shows will survive and which shows will get the axe? Will your Sirius radio tune in an XM broadcast, or vice versa? Sirius already has the NFL and NASCAR; XM carries Major League Baseball. A single service providing all three would cover the needs of most sports fans. XM’s Bob Dylan channel might be of interest to Sirius fans; likewise with the Sirius channel devoted to The Who. XM carries Oprah, Sirius has Martha Stewart and Howard Stern. Would all 3 larger than life personalities fit in a single company? Will consumers get over 400 channels worth of content — and if so, what’s the price? All important questions for the growing satellite market. We’ll follow this story & keep you guys updated.

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This entry was posted by A.Rehak on Monday, February 19th, 2007 at 3:46 pm

Viewing 6 Comments

pchan 02/20/2007 09:52 AM 1 point
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Received a email from Sirius about it this morning (I'm a subscriber) too bad it wont happen till the end of the year. =)

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R. Eric 02/20/2007 11:50 AM 1 point
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to be honest, as an xm subscriber, i'm hoping they don't go with sirius' channel lineup. i started as a sirius subscriber, but when i kept hearing the same annoying songs and the same annoying between song banter from the djs, i couldn't switch over quick enough. as far as the music goes, xm is far superior. outside of stern, there's nothing that sirius offers that i'd even considering listening to. My fingers are crossed that the powers-that-be will make the right decision or else I'll be canceling.

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A. Rehak 02/20/2007 12:09 PM 1 point
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Sirius content will probably dominate. According to the financial press, Sirius is actually buying out XM. Bloomberg News calls it a "takeover by Sirius;" they agreed "to buy rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc."

Link to the Bloomberg News story

Yahoo! News is telling us that "Sirius Satellite Radio plans to buy U.S. rival XM Satellite Radio for $4.6 billion in stock..." The story is here.

Why they're calling it a merger when it's really a buyout, I don't know. But if Sirius are running the show, most of their stations & programming will likely survive.

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http://realnewyorkersknow.com

R. Eric 02/20/2007 12:42 PM 1 point
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What a shame. Especially considering that fact that XM is still killing Sirius in the market (even with Stern). I give Sirius 2 years tops before they are out of business.

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wolrah 02/20/2007 03:10 PM 1 point
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Any chance of it both line-ups combining? At least for a while... maybe it's just wishful thinking. Howie, Opie & Tonie...

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SiriusPayola 02/20/2007 10:57 PM 1 point
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Doubt it. Sirius will fire all of the great PDs that work at XM and keep the horrible group they have now.

XM - programming for real music fans.
Sirius - programming for your 15 year old cousin that thinks the Black Eyed Peas are the voice of a generation.

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