... almost! FCC still has to approve but the Justice Department has OK'd the deal:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23781933/

I can't imagine ever listening to regular radio. I'm a huge fan of Howard Stern and all but I love listening to NPR, the NBA channels, the NFL channels, Fox News, etc on my Sirius Stiletto. I couldn't imagine going back to regular radio with 20 minutes of commercials during the talk-shows and 10 minutes of commercials during the music...

It's only 13$/mo too, so I hate when people say "I'LL NEVER PAY FOR RADIO. IT SHOULD BE FREE." Get real. The level of programming on XM/Sirius blows any terrestrial content out of the water. Even diamonds in the rough like A Prairie Home Companion have broadcasts through NPR on Sirius and XM so, I mean there is literally nothing I can't hear on Satellite that isn't better than anything on regular radio. Even my local sports broadcasts are on Sirius.

This deal is nothing but good for every single consumer in North America. It's only bad for the terrestrial radio stations because everyone knows their content is shit and the monopoly stranglehold they held on talent is gone with people moving on to a better medium to broadcast unhindered and uncensored.

Have you read the full merger deal. Prices look to be going up (unless you want fewer channels). You will have to make package choices and many channels will be removed.


http://www.xmmerger.com/uploads/ala-car ... -23-07.pdf

http://www.xmmerger.com/uploads/XM_Channel_Lineup.pdf

I don't see an Everything XM and Everything Sirius package but if it's only 19.99$ I would gladly pay that.

Besides... prices going up only 4$ for a ton more content from XM / Sirius? Where's the big deal? Sirius subscribers can keep their Sirius only sub for 12.95 and XM can keep their XM only for 12.95 OR pick FEWER channels that many people don't fully utilize for 6.99... how is that anything but good?

I don't listen to 50 channels on Sirius as it is, I just *like* having the option. To me, 12.95$/mo (plus 6.95$ for a 2nd subscription) isn't very much money for something I listen to a lot. I probably listen on average to about 4 hours of Satellite radio a day. Couple hours during my commute to and from work and to and from school, and then a couple hours a day when I can catch it at work or while I'm studying.

I think that if you can Rave: Sirius Satellite Radio and XM satellite Radio Merge ........Almost!

I can point out that its not as cut and dried as it would seem.

Yeah, but I already get that for free on my local NPR station. Why would I switch? NPR already doesn't have any commercials, and it's pretty much the only radio station I listen to.

The point of the argument is that I never have the need to listen to regular radio. Not the other way around. The content on Satellite radio extends far beyond that of NPR but if you don't think it's worth it -- then it's not worth it for you.

Out of curiosity, as this is likely the only reason I'd ever buy it. But are you able to get like sports broadcasts of games? Typically in the evening if I'm playing a game or doing school work or whatever I usually have a hockey game or bball game or whatever on the TV quietly while I do the other. However (especially here in NS canada) selection of what games I can watch tend to be somewhat limited.

If I had this and the selection is good, I could like, put the TV game on mute, put the radio on another game and do whatever else all at the same time!

So I guess I'm asking if they DO broadcast sports games, what's the selection like? Can I get any sports game anytime? Have a choice between like 75% of them? What?

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-Rileigh (aka Golliwog)

Sirius has:

NBA
NFL
Nascar
NHL

XM has:
MLB

That's pretty much every sport as far as I'm aware... they all have full-time sports programming for each respective sport as well. They broadcast every game AFAIK.

I sure hope the merger don't mess up my Patriot channel!

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Jake Rivers - Senex Legio
Get off my Lawn alliance

It's just hard for non subscribers to understand...

The merger is a good thing, it was dumb that it was cock blocked to begin with.. Before you'd have to have 2 radios and 2 subscriptions to get a full range of programming.

It's hard to explain to a non subscriber why pay for satellite radio but you cannot, at least where I live, find a good choice of musical selections... all the radio stations are owned by the same big business radio company, and play the same damn crap.

I thought paying for radio was crazy. Then I got a new car that came w/ three months free.

Renewed for a year after that.

I'm not sure how the merger will affect me, if it all. Maybe I could drop back to a cheaper plan. I don't listen to more than 50 stations. Or maybe I want to get them all so I can see what's on the other side and offer some variety to passengers.

It'd be nice if they entice existing subscribers with some free time on the other network.

Last weekend my second receiver got jacked from my friends car. I called up sirius to get it canceled and found out that they don't black list stolen gear. So the thief is fine to get it reactivated, greedy bastards eh'.

I considered the lifetime plan with sirius, but its not really worth it.

Lifetime is only good for up to 3 different receivers. So if you loose a receiver due to theft, or just burns out, or if you just upgrade to the latest model, you get charged $75 each time and then after the 3rd time, thats it, so decided against the 'lifetime' rate.

Sirius did say I was a good customer and are sending me a brand new unit to replace the one stolen.

I am a sirius dealer in Canada, and get a free demo account, but I keep my US subscription just for the patriot channel.

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Jake Rivers - Senex Legio
Get off my Lawn alliance

I'm too lazy to read, was there anything in that merger information about those who have the lifetime activation through Sirius?

P.S. KICKASS

I have both. To be serious, there are only like 4-8 channels combine that I really listen to and another 5 or so because some I have in memory play there.

XM was worth every penny when I drove a cab. Now that I spend nearly no time in a car, I won't pay for it. If you spend any amount of time driving though, it's worth it.

The first night I had XM my sides hurt so bad from laughing at the stand-ups. That was the first time I ever listened to the "hot pocket" bit.

i don't really listen to the radio but if there's one thing i do enjoy it's listening to a baseball game which has always made me want to get xm but i never managed to do it maybe i'll make that happen when all of the sports are in one place

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I like Sirius for the football and nascar coverage during both seasons. One thing I like about the nascar coverage is if you tune to the driver's channel, they keep the mrn coverage flowing and just cut the driver/pit chatter into it as opposed to when you're at the track and listening to the drivers frequencies will keep you from hearing the track coverage. /shrug

Football is great, in most cases they have the radio broadcast from both the home and away teams and on the sunday night/monday night games there's the additional national "non biased" coverage as well.

I'm quite probably wrong, but I don't think they cover every single nba and nhl game, though they do cover a bit of european soccer (live).

I'll have to see how this changes things as there's a ton of channels I don't use, but since 100/101 are two of the channels I listen to a bit, I can't imagine that cutting the selection in half and then paying for the premium channels is going to be financially worthwhile.

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...

I might consider getting it come next season (nhl and nba). Not really much point now with playoffs starting soon. And as far as I'm concerned baseball can die a fiery death, I can't stand watching it let alone listening to it. So listening to nba/nhl is all I'd use it for.

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-Rileigh (aka Golliwog)

If you live in an area like I do you would gladly pay for your radio.

My choices are, one top 40 country, cbc (argh), one fuzzy local station, one christian station.

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Jake Rivers - Senex Legio
Get off my Lawn alliance

i'm almost 100% certain they cover every single nba game.

http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentSe ... A&team=all

When does this happen for the end user?

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Still has to get by the FCC.....

I really can't believe there are people here naive enough to argue for a monopoly.

thanks for your input

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So... basically what Dola is saying is that terrestrial radio is not compitition for sattelite radio?

l0lz~

Basically you want a NFL and MLB fan to pay for 2 services?

You're known for googling up an issue and then trying to play off as being an expert on the subject, why didn't you do that for this one?


For customers this merger:

More content for around the same price.. and for even a little more it's worth it.. lord knows everything else has gone up in price lately.

For the companies:

They'll save money, perhaps even get more customers from those who haven't bought into sat radio waiting for one to 'win' the format war.

Look at Blu-Ray and HD-DVD... pretend a company came up with a way to make a single disc with the good features of both competing formats on the disc, and the disc still works on the old players, no new equipment is needed.

That would've been awesome (yes technically unfeasible but eh that's not what we're looking at).. but would you oppose such a 'dual format' disc?

Looking at the situation and saying 'that would make them a monopoly, and the customer would lose' is a moronic assumption... do some research then we'll talk.

BTW, those with sat radio love it, don't mind paying for it because they know what it's value is.. and they're a niche customer that some people just don't understand.

I've personally not met anyone with access that opposes the merger.

So long as I don't get surprised with Howard Stern on every station, I'm cool with it.

Howard Stern is considered premium programming so unless you go for the "everything" channels, stay with your current Sirius-only subscription, or manually add him into your subscription you won't get it.

Yeah, I don't honestly think Howard Stern is somehow going to start taking over the airways.

Any virus faegs in this thread? I hope not... sigh.

Sirius went from: 400,000 subscriptions pre-Stern to:
Sirius went to: 8,450,000 subscriptions post-Stern.... That's in a period of less than 24 months. Imho, I think the merger would be nothing but good for the rivalries. I mean look, Stern pioneered the Shock Jock shit, she's done pretty much anything another shock jock could to, so why not give him credit where credit is due?

Btw... Sirius is buying XM.

virus faegs

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Jake Rivers - Senex Legio
Get off my Lawn alliance

Opie and Anthony fans.

This is the premise for your entire argument. Exclusivity clauses in contracts are anti-competitive and should be illegal. Then, it wouldn't really matter, would it? Likewise for your Bluray/HD-DVD comparison. If all studios released on both formats, it wouldn't be a problem.



You're known for pulling stuff out of your ass.

you're known for exactly what you're doing in this thread.

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The contracts are exclusive only in that the winner of the competitive bid has the rights to broadcast the product they paid for.

Sarissa Candyangel

The sound quality is terrible, it's like listening to a bad mp3. If they try to jam even more stations onto one signal after the merger it'll only get worse.

The exclusive rights. And being an ardent socialist, you will have an uphill battle convincing me that exclusivity clauses in contracts benefit the general public in the -least-. As far as I'm concerned, it's abuse of copyright.

I know I'm pissed when a store only sells one of either Pepsi or Coke and I happen that day to be looking for a product sold by the competitor.

There's no room for competition in a niche market like satellite radio. They're simply taking measures to insure they remain in business.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

The sound quality is fine. It's CD-quality. Ha. FM and AM don't even come close to the quality of Satellite radio. So, I guess you must hate radio in general.

Also, they're not going to merge all onto one satellite orbit. From what I understand they'll continue to use all the satellites in space.

The sound quality is not the same as if I'm listening to CDs, I'll give Salamren that. The sound is a bit... flat from my XM receiver.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

I can't tell a difference from the music channels and the CDs I play in my car but I also have it hard-wired into Aux. I'll grant if you're listening over the FM transmitter then yeah you'll have a lower quality sound but that's because of how you have it installed.

Mine's hardwired into Aux too It's the same place I plug my Zune, which sounds fantastic.

it's as if the XM unit can ignore my EQ preset or something, because I get no low bass or high treble.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Mine is certainly not like that at all. I'd be very displeased if that were the case. In all the cars I've been in, Sirius has always sounded great. I've had 2 rent-a-cars in the past couple of years and drive w/ buddies who have Sirius. Always sounded fine. That sucks your service is like that though.

Shrug. The radio was a gift from my dad, it might be the unit itself, but I'm not sure his (obviously) more expensive unit sounds any better.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Yeah, maybe it's just XM?

I used an XM thing that would play to my radio station when I was a cabbie.. it sounded o.k. but it wasn't great. I never really cared though, I mostly listened to the talkin' stations

If you use the FM transmitter to play in your car, you will get the odd bit of interferance, best to use a AUX jack if you have one.

Tape adapters are another option, but those things are finicky at best.

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Jake Rivers - Senex Legio
Get off my Lawn alliance

I don't notice a significant difference between XM or CDs in my car.

I did use a tape adapter in one of my cars but it would get wicked hot.

I use the FM transmitter that came with my XM in my car and keep the aux open for my ipod. I've never had a problem with interference that I couldn't change quickly. I just keep FM1 set to the XM's radio frequencies and FM2 on the local stations.

But this merger is great, and no this does not make them a "monopoly" of the what people listen to in their cars in any way.