Opie & Anthony AND JamOn? for $6.99 a month?
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This would be IDEAL. Also, if this goes through and the FCC likes what they see and hear... this sort of itemizing should take place for Cable networks in the US as well.

And you think that picture/caption will make me want to do business with these guys?

This sounds like something a politician would come up with. "Elect me and I'll slash taxes by 50%!!!" I'm willing to bet these are empty promises to get the merger approved.

Why is "everybody" so happy to let cable companies have local monopolies, but there's so much trouble with letting a new service (the satellite radio) do something similar?

As it stands now, 99% of the country thinks having cable is a requirement for life...which really does give a cable company free license to jack up rates. The fact that cable companies are often the *only* broadband internet option in many areas only worsens the problem.

On the other hand, most people are still accustomed to free OTA radio, which actually creates a motivation for Sirius/XM to keep prices low (for the time being), whether or not they have a monopoly. Low prices and good service are the only things that will win over all those people who still get their radio OTA.

In other words, let the Sirius/XM deal happen, and force cable companies to break up and compete.

I better get a refund on the amount I prepaid then.

I'm in for this. I have a Sirius receiver that came with my Jetta - has there been any word on being able to use existing receivers? I haven't activated the radio since the 90 day trial ran out months ago. Just couldn't justify another bill for something I use an hour a day on average.

If new hardware needs to be purchased, count me out until I get the next car with whatever hybrid satellite radio nonsense is needed.

50 channels of my choice for $6.99? There's no way they'll let that happen. I hope they do though, who listens to more than 50 channels on satellite radio?

yeah i hope that no new hardware is needed. And i listen to about 10 - 20 stations max. sometimes up to 30 when college sports are on. but maybe more when they merge to listen to nba and nfl

Hmm. Wow. Wait til they decide to incorporate 1 year "service commitments".

i wonder if the 6.99 version would be like Basic Cable - i.e. full of crap? But I just got an XM radio, and would love to pay even $10/month and got all the goodness.

U dont need new hardware. They have already said that XM and SIRIUS players are capable of recieveing teach others signals w/ a minor update.

I hope the merger, goes through I have been patiently waiting as a stock owner to profit and to stop loosing money daily..

I wonder what tier II pricing will be (for family members). I am also wondering how much the new units that will accept the newly branded network will cost?

cross posted - missed coder4life's comments...

The one thing you'll get for the $6.99 package is a choice of ONLY channels that have shitty advertising every 30 seconds. I'm already disgusted by the amount of repetitive spam advertising I have to listen to on XM. It's like paying someone to read the contents of my spam filter to me.

XM and Sirius may actaully be 'truthful' about what they plan to charge. What they aren't telling anyone is that as soon as the deal goes through, you favorite satellite radio channels will be filled with just as much craptastic advertising as terrestrial radio. What are you going to do about? Drop them and go to the competitor? OOPS! There isn't one anymore.

Caveat Emptor

There needs to be a free 10 station, ad supported version, required. Then they would be competitors to radio.
Also, a $7 PG rated service.

What would be interesting would be how many people would sign up for that package and deliberately choose not to have the likes of Howard Stern included in their package. Giving Sirius a clear indication of how much money they wasted on that guy: Priceless.

We got our XM receiver during their second year on the air. Wonder if something that old can be updated?

Doubtful that you will be able to simply pick your choice of 50 stations, and if you read their press release they are a bit vague on this. Much more likely is that (as AV8THOR and Froggy said), they'll have a junky basic package. Then they'll split up the decent music and talk stations into different modules, putting a few winners packed with fluff into each one.

You'll end up spending $30 a month to get the stuff you really want.

The hardware cross-compatibility issue will be an interesting thing to watch.

Repetitive spam advertising? Craptastic advertising? What XM channels are you listening to? If you stick to XM's own programming, you don't get anything, other than an occasional plug for a different XM station. If you listen to XM's commercial stations (ESPN Radio, the news channels, the ClearChannel stations), you're going to get advertising, and XM tends to fill what would be local advertiser spots on a local ESPN Radio affiliate with spectacularly awful spots. You don't get any more ads on XM Channel 140 than you would on WMVP, you just get crappier ones.

And the idea that post-merger, Sirius-XM (I still like Xirius better, sounds like a robot) would run ads on the currently commercial-free stuff is just spectacularly stupid. They wouldn't compete with each other, but they'd still be competing with terrestrial radio and ipods and CDs and internet radio, blah blah blah. Who would pay even $6.95 a month for something indistinguishable from ClearChannel?

It's easy to forget that XM had advertising on ALL of their channels until Sirius came along and offered ad free channels. Only then, because of competition, did XM change their model to match Sirius. Take away the competition and I have no doubt that they will revert to having advertising on all of their channels. They may think they can compete simply because of the ability to have your favorite channel wherever you go.

@StackyBotrus:

Well I hope you don't have that many favorite cable networks, because going A La Carte and the majority of "newer" cable networks will disappear.

I am not as concerned about monopoly conditions in the satellite radio market because there are other competing solutions for the car audio market. While XM and Sirius are locked into a price war, they also have to compete against traditional radio, iPods and other DAPs, HD-radio, and, as 3g catches on, streaming radio over the internet. While satellite radio was unique and one of the only options out there when it debuted 10 years ago, it is no longer the only new kid on the block for the future of the car audio market.

The competition between XM and Sirius leads to car makers choosing one over the other, preventing further adoption of the format by consumers. For example, I may want Sirius because they have some radio personalities I may want, but I want to buy a GM car (I know its dumb, but it's an example). I may end up just not subscribing to satellite radio because of the vendor lockout.

XM and Sirius are hemorrhaging money because they're having to focus on differentiating themselves rather than attempting to get all the subscribers they can (e.g. by offering cheap, a la carte options). With slim or no profit margin, the satellite radio providers are not able to concentrate fully on improving quality of service until the price war is ended, either through bankruptcy of the competitor or through consolidation.

I'd rather they merge so I can get the service options I want on the car I want. Otherwise, I might just go with HD radio and skip the format war.

Weird, I came across this same stock photo twice today!

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