Sirius and XM Merge

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Krack Korn

AND, as Jordon said, next they gotta sort out this Blu-ray vs HD-DVD thing...I think Blu-ray will win...just a hunch.

Someone thinks Sony will win a format war? That's funny!

I've toyed with the idea of getting satellite radio, but I've nixed it because neither provider had, in my mind, the kind of music I want to listen to. Sirius came closest with the CBC Radio 3 station. But I can only take so much Canadian indie.

[metallicat]

I have two years left on my XM contract. This better not affect that, and I better not be receiving a bill with them wanting more money.

[Boreal]

I just hope this ends the questions about exclusive NHL rights and you can get games on both services for good.

[Shin Pad]

I have Sirius in my house and XM in my car. For what I listen to, they are about the same. I can see that they will be cutting a lot of channels - ie - no way they'll have all the blues channels from both XM and Sirius - they will eliminate a lot of duplication.

For me, as long as the Blues channels and the Reggae channels stay - I couldn't care less about the rest.

[mykalberta]

You will likely see a price cap on current subscribers but they will be able to increase the charge for new ones.

These definately compete with Ipods as well as terrestrial radio.

The up front capital costs are simply to much with the margins to thing in order to justify multiple competitors in the market.

If they merger doest happen, one will die and the other will scoop up its best assets anyways.

MYK

[burn_baby_burn]

I think the subscription rates are quite reasonable. Sure terestrial radio is free. But the music stations suck. And the commercials drive you up the wall. I get more hours of use out of my $15 Sirius subscription. Than I get out of my $80 Bell Subscription.

[Slava]

I was skeptical of the sattelite, until I got one. I can't stand terrestrial now. Too many commercials and not enough choice. I hope that the merger is good though...it seems like there are a lot of cost savings/sharing to be had for the corporation, so hopefully the benefits outweigh the negatives.

[Salisbury]

The way I read the article in todays Herald indicates that this is not a done deal, still needs to be approved by the competition board, apparently only a 50-50 chance of this going through.!

[Slava]

Yeah there are still hurdles accoring to the globe articlle as well. It also looks like you will need a new receiver to get all of the offerings from both companies, but its a little bit in the future; the deal could be completed by year end apparently.

[Jayems]

Originally Posted by Slava

I was skeptical of the sattelite, until I got one. I can't stand terrestrial now. Too many commercials and not enough choice. I hope that the merger is good though...it seems like there are a lot of cost savings/sharing to be had for the corporation, so hopefully the benefits outweigh the negatives.

I was the same way. I really stopped myself from buying one, until one day in Banff, I decided it was time, and the GF tried to talk me out of it becuase of the price. I did it anyway, and can not believe how i listened to music in the car before. I'll tune into Richards at 8:10 to hear the Maher report on the way to school every day, but before and after that, its 10 minutes of commercials. Brutal. So it's opie and anthony for me in the mornings, and music on the way home. Its just so good. I just don't want this merger to cost me more, or mean less quality. Wouldn't mind the Stern show, however.

[ricoFlame]

Whatever, as long as this has no effect on Howard 100.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

I have a lifetime subscription to Sirius, should be interesting to see how it will affect me if this deal goes through.

I just hope they keep all the 80's channels from both companies. Love that stuff.