CEO Mel Karmazin, aka the dude who paid Howard Stern a retarded amount of money, said today that the merger didn't magically fuse together satellite capabilities. Says Automotive News:

Merging XM and Sirius technology and installing it in new vehicles could take as long as 15 years because of the new chips required and automakers' lead time.

Fifteen years—when your car will look like this. Karmazin said other stuff about the subscription business(es), most of it was equally depressing. (No chance of it spreading to Europe and Asia, for instance.) How long do you give satellite radio? I say dead in two years. [Automotive News (subscription required)]

What kind of concessions? How about the one everybody wants to hear: price controls. Yep. He added that they'll "leave it to the regulators" to enforce promises they're making about "more programming and better services at lower prices." Whether or not you trust the regulators is another story though, I suppose.

Also combatting suggestions that the new company would be a monopoly, Karmazin repeatedly emphasized that within the context of the broader market—traditional radio, internet radio and mp3 players—they are not.

There is, I feel, some weight to his argument, as much like it sounds like hot air. I have an iPod—I don't think about satellite radio, though I might if I didn't. There's enough competitive pressure coming in from all sides, it seems, to drive them to keep things balanced, lest subscribers flock elsewhere. Whether or not Congress and the FCC buys that argument remains to be seen. – Matt Buchanan

Sirius Chief Talks of Ways to Get XM Deal Approved [NYT]