Sirius is trying to buy XM for $4.6 billion in stock. I'm sure the SEC (that's Security and Exchange Commission, NOT Southeast Conference, for you U of K fans out there) will have something to say about it, as will terrestrial radio conglomerates.
Satellite radio was supposed to be an answer to the lame, homogenous programming on land-based radio. The advantage of terrestrial radio is that it's free to the listener whereas satellite radio has a subscription fee. Until satellite radio becomes free or very, very inexpensive, I don't believe it will take off. More people now listen to podcasts than subscribe to satellite radio because podcasts are almost all free. Free is good.
However, I am glad to see the merger. There were many things on XM that were not on Sirius and vice versa, making it difficult to decide to which one I should subscribe. This also means XM-Sirius will essentially have a monopoly on space-based radio, but I don't know how big an issue that is.
Posted by Matthew at February 19, 2007 07:35 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.opaquelucidity.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/1034