Sirius, XM Say Existing Radios Are Merger-Proof

rickaren · #1 (**permalink**) 05-01-2008, 05:06 PM

I've been wondering whether the satellite radios owned by current subscribers to XM and Sirius will work with all aspects of the combination service that would result from the proposed merger between the two companies.

Today brought official answers from both companies. XM stated, "existing radios would ultimately be able to receive a mix of programming from both services," while Sirius issued a "guarantee to its more than 12 million listeners that existing radios will not become obsolete if the merger is approved." When I asked a Sirius representative about this issue a few days ago, I received a similar response, which was helpful, but also didn't totally answer the question.

XM and Sirius plan to combine their channel line-ups to provide increased variety to their customers, but I don't think existing subscribers will actually get more channels, unless there's unused bandwidth on both services as things stand now. In order for the channel count to increase, XM satellites would have to be capable of reaching Sirius radios, and vice versa (which might be the case). Otherwise, they'd only be able to increase the number of channels by providing a different selection of channels on each set of satellites.

Part of XM's statement reads, "in the future, we will be able to offer the best of both companies' programming," indicating that subscribers with pre-merger radios would get something like their existing service with some percentage of them replaced by a selection from the other company's line-up.

While it's certainly true that giving subscribers access to the best of both services would represent an improvement over the existing services, it's possible that only subscribers with new radios would have access to the full channel line-up of the combined service. Alternatively, the only other option, the way I understand it, is that each service would have to lose about half its channels. I sent Sirius and XM links to this item, and will post an update if I hear more about this.

Article Link:Sirius, XM Say Existing Radios Are Merger-Proof | Listening Post from Wired.com