Sirius and XM plan $13B merger -- does this strike anyone else as a terrible idea?

[Kidlicious]

I don't know if people realize how much risk there is that satilite radio may not be big enough in the future for the idustry to make it. There's an even a bigger risk that the future demand would not support two companies providing the same product. I think that the two companies and realized this and are doing this to minimize some risk.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
Do you seriously believe that consumers will benefit from this? This industry is FAR from mature.

With economies (presumably) realized, profits will happen. Prices will likely remain stable, but sign-up incentives to new subscribers will probably become more common. As Asher says, the motivation to provide improved programming will basically be eliminated if a monopoly is created. In fact, I would suggest that the total number of satellite channels will decrease, since there is similar genre-based content on the two systems.

Thing is, they aren't going to be a monopoly. They're competing against all sorts of things - FM/AM radio, cable television, and the internet. FM/AM radio is free, and thus XM can't entirely price compete; they have to, to some extent, content-compete with FM/AM.

Cable, is the same; they don't really directly compete here, but some people undoubtedly get Sirius to listen to out of market MLB games instead of the MLB extra innings package or whatever. Internet, provides both sports coverage and all the benefits of a radio, with the only drawback being lack of portability...

So I suspect in the short run at least, this won't hurt consumers, as XM still needs to win them over. In the long run, who knows... but if they prove profitable, who knows if another company will emerge?

[asleepathewheel]

merger approved by doj

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/24/news/companies/xm_sirius/index.htm?postversion=2008032415

will be interesting to see how this affects current users. I have (xm) a sky fi 2 and a roady xt (I think those are the models), so both are a couple years old. Would rather not replace, but we'll see.

[Asher]

Hoping they bring NHL to Sirius now...

[asleepathewheel]

It will be extremely nice to get all of the sports rather than choosing some over others. Though I wonder if one merged company can maintain the expense of all of those offerings (and contracts)

[DanS]

Looks like I guessed wrong. DOJ approved the deal. Sure took them a long time, so even at the end I thought they would reject the deal.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
It will be extremely nice to get all of the sports rather than choosing some over others. Though I wonder if one merged company can maintain the expense of all of those offerings (and contracts)

They mentioned different pricing levels (6.99-16.99 USD) for different service, and sports will undoubtedly be one of the major drivers of that leveling I'd think. Adding a few bucks a month, plus a much larger subscriber base (thus a larger pool of people to offset fixed costs against) should make that feasible (though whether it's optimally profitable, who knows).

[Dinner]

Absolutely horrible idea from a consumer perspective. It essentially makes a monopoly in the satellite radio industry. No competition at all.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by DanS
Looks like I guessed wrong. DOJ approved the deal. Sure took them a long time, so even at the end I thought they would reject the deal.

Let's face an uncomfortable fact here. The Bush DoJ has never seen a merger it didn't like. They rubber stamp everything no matter how damaging to consumers.

[-Jrabbit]

This merger clearly creates a monopoly. There are only two players in the industry, all the obvious properties are locked up contractually, and the cost of entry for potential competition is astronomical.

It doesn't afffect me in the slightest, so it's hard to care. But it's hard to believe that this sailed through.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
This merger clearly creates a monopoly. There are only two players in the industry...

...which competes with other, related industries, so whatever.

[-Jrabbit]

Please, don't insult us with such claptrap, LS. It's beneath even you.

[LordShiva]

There is currently only one manufacturer of Ferraris. OMG monopoly! Kille it!!!11

[Wiglaf]

Asher perhaps you should stop the contradiction train before it runs out of gas microsoft monopoly fill in the blanks.

[Asher]

XM and Sirius merging is like Apple and MS merging.

WIGLAF

Get off your moran train and buy a bagel.