The Justice Department has approved a merger between Sirius Satellite Radio and rival XM Satellite Radio.

xm is gettin eat in that war. i would have never guessed it before h stern.

So, do we need a new radio, do we get more stations, does my 5 year subscription price still hold, and will the sound quality get better???

I'm hoping we get more and better stations. I had Sirius as part of my satellite dish package and love it. WAY better stations than I get on XM in my car.

This has been in the works for almost a year now....I would imagine our rates are gonna go up now that there is no competition.

the price you pay may actually go down if they begin offering a-la-carte packages...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=akGA_qdGXS0E&refer=news

I just hope my new portable Sirius receiver/MP3 player wasn't a waste of $.

Quality cant improve... They are going to cramp additional channels onto an already compressed to death satellite.. Cant see quality going up using the same equipment.

Aside from listening to Stern, I actually prefer the music channels on XM. I would assume all Sirius and XM subscribers should be allowed to get full use of their current contracts but I imagine we'll see some change in service.

The merger still needs to be approved by the FCC. XM says that the merger won't trash any XM radios in both cars and home. They anticipate that prices will come down and more will be offered. :bsmeter:

NAB is going to pull out the big guns to force the FCC to impose really tight restrictions on the merger. What that means is anybody's guess. Personally, I would be happy to see XM get swallowed up and disappear completely under the Sirius name. I have actually looked at new cars recently and shyed away from GM just because of the XM decision. Now I may have more options. Holding breath!

I'm hoping we get more and better stations. I had Sirius as part of my satellite dish package and love it. WAY better stations than I get on XM in my car.
I guess that must depend on the type of music that you like, I have 2 friends with Sirrius and they seem to think XM may be the way to go. Plus the added bonus of NOT having Howard Stearn.

I guess that must depend on the type of music that you like, I have 2 friends with Sirrius and they seem to think XM may be the way to go. Plus the added bonus of NOT having Howard Stearn.

True. I guess I was speaking more in absolutes than I should have. It was late... I was grumpy. :)

There are quite a few stations on XM that I like too, but there were a couple of my favorites on Sirius that have no direct analog on XM. I have very eclectic musical tastes, so I listen to everything from country to dance to pop to disco to classic rock.

I have found the dance music stations on XM not nearly as satisfying as the ones on Sirius, but you are right... your mileage may vary depending on what you like to listen to.

I only listen to XM in the car anymore and always find something that I like. It is still better than commercial filled local radio.

I'm hooked on it as well, I never regular FM unless I'm in a car that has no SAT. I installed it in my pickup,too.

i really can't see prices going down if this does happen.

Can anyone say Blu-Ray. Granted it is a much different issue, but when you are the only game in town you can price any way you see fit. The consumer needs to vote with their wallet. Personally I will not buy BD until it is licensed to the cheap Chinese manufactures and the prices come into line, but Sony is in no hurry for obvious reasons.

With that said, I still think the FCC can make it difficult for them, and impose some type of rule not to raise prices with serious restrictions. I know the anti trust issue is all but over but the FCC does have power to make things difficult. My prediction, which has been speculated by many, is that they will offer a base package and then offer al la carte options.

I understand that XM will continue to be offered independently with an option for a "Best of Sirius" and Sirius will continue to be offered independently with a "Best of XM" option until a unified hardware platform is adopted that will enable a Sirius/XM combo programming package to be delivered to all (new platform) users.
They will have to continue to offer separate feeds for each hardware platform for many years to the old technology. Ultimately, they will adopt one or the other hardware platform, but probably something that is more enhanced than what they have now. Let's hope we get DAR (digital audio recording) with the abilty to program the recording of future shows and, of course, playback and rewind. On-Demand would be nice. They could make a ton if the made it iPod interactive with the ability to download music, podcasts, and books-on-tape to either the hard drive (would have to be huge) or through an iPod interface. It would also be nice if you could upload your playlist from your iPod to the audio hardware platform and leave the iPod at home.
The combo programming package will enable them to combine and delete redundant programming that should bring down their expenses and the cost of the service to us (right, that's going to happen!).
They need to do something to attract new subscribers, as they now have less they 10M each and are losing nearly $20M annually combined. Have they ever heard of the concept of cutting the cost in half and 4 times as many people will subscribe?

How about this to save money... Can many of the hosts? Originally when satellite radio was introduced it was just commercial free music on the music channels, Now they have hosts on every channel, talking in between songs, even commercials and its almost becoming like regular radio stations...

HD Radio is free and might be a possible strong contender to Satellite Radio.