Now that XM and Sirius are going to merge...

[BoostN]

Yeah, and instead of 20 minutes of music and 40 minutes of commercials every hour on FM, you get all music all the time on the music channels. The only channels that have commercials are the talk channels, and even then, there is only about 2 minutes or so and they are only about 3 commercial breaks an hour. On the Howard Stern channels, the breaks about 5-6 minutes long, but they will go about an hour to an hour and a half between breaks. Like I said, I just don't even turn on FM any more. I think Sirius has far and away the best music channels between the two. Classic Rewind, Classic Vinyl, Buzzsaw, Octane just a few of my favorites.

Octane is on mine most of the time..

 

[roosky01]

I fear the subscription price is going to go sky high once this merger happens. It is well known that Sirius has some very expensive programming and is a long way from making a profit. I think you might see different package options, along the lines of the cable and satellite TV industry, and to get what programming you get now will probably be around $25-$30/month... Hope I'm wrong....

 

[mmangels22]

good point roosky, interesting too. How are you aware that XM and Sirius aren't making profits? If anything the merger would be to consolidate services and make it cheaper to the consumer to make more of a profit, now how much they would charge for that ????? I was under the impression satellite radio does pretty well, in fact i never even listen to terrestrial radio anymore except in my honda because it only has am/fm.

 

[roosky01]

Everything reported prior to the merger was that one had to buy the other out in order to survive. I think Sirius was in a more dire financial situation than XM since XM had many more subscribers than they had when all the merger talk started. Sirius spent a lot of money on Stern, Oprah, etc. The only way to make a return is on the back of the subscriber since satellite radio is commercial free for the most part.

Don't get me wrong, I hope things stay the same as much as the next guy, but if there is only one tune in town, they can charge whatever they want in order to listen to it.....

BTW, Sirius has a long term debt of nearly $1.5 Billion, and is losing approx. $125-$140 Million a quarter in operating losses.....

 

[12ga diesel]

I fear the subscription price is going to go sky high once this merger happens. It is well known that Sirius has some very expensive programming and is a long way from making a profit. I think you might see different package options, along the lines of the cable and satellite TV industry, and to get what programming you get now will probably be around $25-$30/month... Hope I'm wrong....

I just think that if they are wanting to stay in business for more then 15 minutes after the merger, you won't see $30 a month subscriptions. They would lose everyone to mp3's or regular radio. It's not the only way to hear music out there, and there are plenty of options. As much as I love it, I would be getting an ipod if it got to that price. But I see them staying pretty competitive.

 

[mmangels22]

ok, i didn't know that. I guess satellite radio is not that popular yet. people are not yet ready to pay for radio services when they can get it free on terrestrial radio, although I would pay for a lifetime subscription for satellite because i can't stand am/fm radio anymore.

 

[RCpullerdude]

Since we got the '07 with XM, I'm hooked. We then got a reciever and put it in the truck in my sig, and now I have a Dual XDMR7710 I need to get installed and get an XMDirect reciever for. I really hope prices don't go up. Would be nice to get NASCAR on XM though.