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 N3OGHYo Soy Col. "Bat" GuanoPremium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
kudos:1
1 edit | The merged company will suck, and I will miss XM Regardless of what they call the merged company, you can be sure Karmazen will ruin it, just like he ruined terrestrial radio.
I like XM the way it is. I like that on the decades channels I'm not always hearing a top 40 tune. I did not like what I heard when I tried the free trial of Sirius on line.
The big wigs will tell you that the merger is needed for both companies to survive, that it will bring more choice to the consumer, programming won't change, and prices will go down. I say bull.
1: The only way tiered programming will be implemented is with new radios. Current technology does not support a la cart or tiered servicing. You might be able to get the $6.95 tier Mel's promising with a new radio. That new radio will be more expensive due to a lack of competition AND, you can bet Karmazen will pack that entry level tier FULL of advertising.
2: The "synergies" the executives at these companies talk about are YEARS away at best, non existent at the worst. Both companies have committed to keep 2 constellations of satellites in orbit for at least the next 10 years. That means little or no cost savings on that end of the infrastructure.
3: Proponents of the merger argue that the cost of content will go down since the merged company will have to pay less. Guess what, both companies are paying content providers (including folks like the recording industry, MLB, NHL, NFL, and Nascar) based on the number of people listening. You can bet the farm that if the merged company tries to cross platform content (eg, put MLB on Sirius) they're going to either void that contract, or force it into re negotiation for more money. When it comes to content in broadcasting THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH PEOPLE. No cost savings here..
The only people who win with a merged company are the stockholders and the suits.
I have no sympathy for the stock holders. Should have bagged out of this one long ago. By all rights, both of these companies should be left to go into bankruptcy separately, and then be acquired by folks with at least a shred of business acumen. It's clear the folks running both companies don't know how to read a damn balance sheet and figure out that if you keep spending money hand over fist, you're never going to turn a profit.
The suits, well they're doing what they do best. Just another example of the Gordon Gekko shuffle. Make a killing on the acquisition and merger, stick around a month or two, and then blow the whole thing out with a big sack of Benjamins.
Feel free to disagree with me, but 1 or 2 years from now when the merged company, whatever they call it, is charging the consumer more for service and equipment, and offering less by way of innovation and programming, I'll link to my post and say "see I told you so".
Oh, in case you didn't notice, I think the whole idea of the merger sucks 
edit for typo
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Petty people are disproportionably corrupted by petty power… | |
|  vasta
join:2003-04-07
Orlando, FL | Re: The merged company will suck, and I will miss XM does Sirius spend $91,000,000 a month? ($13x~7mill) | |
| | | said by N3OGH: I like that on the decades channels I'm not always hearing a top 40 tune. I did not like what I heard when I tried the free trial of Sirius on line. I have Sirius Radio in the car and they have the decades channels just like XM and I listen to the 50's and 60's channels all the time. Not like Top 40 at all.
5 SIRIUS Gold Pop The '50s
6 '60s Vibrations Pop The '60s
7 Totally '70s Pop '70s Pop
8 Big '80s Pop '80s Pop
9 The Pulse Pop '90s Hits & Now
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| | N3OGHYo Soy Col. "Bat" GuanoPremium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
kudos:1 | Re: The merged company will suck, and I will miss XM I know they do, but the play lists are much deeper on XM.... | |
| | |  ztmikeMark for moderationPremium
join:2001-08-02
Michigan City, IN | Re: The merged company will suck, and I will miss XM said by N3OGH:I know they do, but the play lists are much deeper on XM.... I've had both, and from my experience Sirius has the deeper playlists.
XM plays mostly radio stuff, but unedited of course.
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"I am the worst president in U.S history, I'm either stupid or dumb most of the time, but people still believe me." George W. Bush | |
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| | said by N3OGH:1: The only way tiered programming will be implemented is with new radios. Current technology does not support a la cart or tiered servicing. You might be able to get the $6.95 tier Mel's promising with a new radio. That new radio will be more expensive due to a lack of competition AND, you can bet Karmazen will pack that entry level tier FULL of advertising. edit for typo Actually this is wrong. They stated from the start, the programming can be heard on ANY radios, both XM and Sirius. It's very simple to simulcast the content over the existing radios. The satellites may be different but when they reach transmission stage, they can be routed anywhere. | |
| | Reviews:
 ·Great Works Inte..
| Re: The merged company will suck, and I will miss XM said by CopperMux:Actually this is wrong. They stated from the start, the programming can be heard on ANY radios, both XM and Sirius. It's very simple to simulcast the content over the existing radios. The satellites may be different but when they reach transmission stage, they can be routed anywhere. No that's just not the case. XM does not have any more bandwidth for simulcasting Sirius channels. I'm sure Sirius is in a similar situation in regards to simulcasting XM. The music channels and operations are obviously going to be consolidated post merger, but certain things like sports content are going to require a new receiver with interoperability between the two services.
XM already sounds horrible in their current setup because their bandwidth is stretched way too thin. If they continue further down that road by simulcasting everything under the sun that Sirius has, I'm going to ditch the receiver and all its nasty wires from my car and get an MP3 player instead. | |
| | | | | Re: The merged company will suck, and I will miss XM said by ElJay:said by CopperMux:Actually this is wrong. They stated from the start, the programming can be heard on ANY radios, both XM and Sirius. It's very simple to simulcast the content over the existing radios. The satellites may be different but when they reach transmission stage, they can be routed anywhere. No that's just not the case. XM does not have any more bandwidth for simulcasting Sirius channels. I'm sure Sirius is in a similar situation in regards to simulcasting XM. The music channels and operations are obviously going to be consolidated post merger, but certain things like sports content are going to require a new receiver with interoperability between the two services. XM already sounds horrible in their current setup because their bandwidth is stretched way too thin. If they continue further down that road by simulcasting everything under the sun that Sirius has, I'm going to ditch the receiver and all its nasty wires from my car and get an MP3 player instead. Again, this is incorrect. They CAN provide content on the existing set up. It is already in testing and is part of the merger agreement. | |
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Reviews:
 ·Frontier FiOS
| said by N3OGH:1: The only way tiered programming will be implemented is with new radios. Current technology does not support a la cart or tiered servicing. Are you sure? On my super crappy Sirius tuner I can already opt in / opt out of Playboy radio - conceptually I don't see why other programming couldn't be tiered the same way.
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Jon Cellini
You've glimpsed the fist within the Bene Gesserit glove. Few glimpse it and live. | |
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 ·Comcast
| Re: The merged company will suck, and I will miss XM said by joncellini:said by N3OGH:1: The only way tiered programming will be implemented is with new radios. Current technology does not support a la cart or tiered servicing. Are you sure? On my super crappy Sirius tuner I can already opt in / opt out of Playboy radio - conceptually I don't see why other programming couldn't be tiered the same way. You are correct , both radios have a conditional access module that allows for tiered services. The OP has no idea and is reacting on emotion.
To OP
They won't load anything with commercials except talk , like it is now , or they lose subs who pay to not have commercials.
They will restructure the deal easily based on listeners who sub to it. They already said sports will be a seperate tier. You don't listen you don't pay.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!" | |
| | | Reviews:
·Great Works Inte..
| Re: The merged company will suck, and I will miss XM It's already said that a la carte is going to require a new radio.
See: »arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20···ent.html
quote:
But there's a hitch: customers who want the new à la carte plans need new radios to support the feature. Current radio owners will be limited to more traditional plans, included combined "best of both" packages that will feature popular XM and Sirius channels.
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·Comcast
| Re: The merged company will suck, and I will miss XM said by ElJay:It's already said that a la carte is going to require a new radio. See: » arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20···ent.html quote:
But there's a hitch: customers who want the new à la carte plans need new radios to support the feature. Current radio owners will be limited to more traditional plans, included combined "best of both" packages that will feature popular XM and Sirius channels.
Again the only difference in the conditional access module is space. As it stands the older radios mostly XM's side has slots for only 8 "tiers" of service if they want , Sirius has I think 18 slots.
The reason they say this is ala carte requires each channel to have a tier. At this point no radios can hold a tier for each channel. So they use a package system much like the tv providers.
In short if you want to be able to turn on just 10 channels plus other services you need to have more space , older radios have limited space because ala carte was never thought of. They can still offer packages at this point but they can not offer channel by channel selections which is why they want you to upgrade your radio.
I have worked in labs with conditional access modules , its fun stuff , but this is what happens when a non technical person has a technical statement prepared for them.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!" | |
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3 edits | I COMPLETELY an whole-heartedly agree with you.
Synergies between companies doesn't mean crap as far as operations go. The two satellite systems are only compatible with each other on the surface. They use the same modulation techniques, but the audio codecs are completely different (Coding Technologies AAC+ on XM, and Lucent Perceptual Audio Coding on Sirius). Existing radios CANNOT use both satellite/repeater networks, and for them to subsidize millions of existing retail radios and already installed OEM radios would be impossible.
They can't simulcast content and maintain quality because they are already at their usable bandwidth ceiling at 12.5 MHz on each service.
The only synergy that could come would be the reduction of executive employees, and some programming infrastructure. Licensing fees would remain the same for all programming. In other words, minimal synergy.
It's a bad idea. But, you can't count on the FCC to make any sound decision in this, they couldn't even enforce their own ruling back in 2000 which required XM and Sirius to produce compatible radios which would operate on both systems.
They need each other to keep satellite radio ahead of terrestrial, and they certainly don't need Mel at the helm of a combined company.
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2 edits | I agree with you. I've been an XM subscriber for a couple of years. It's alright but not something I'd recommend to somebody. Still, I don't see how anybody benefits from this merger except for the corporate knobs and the shareholders.
The only way this merger would be anywhere near good for the consumer would be if the bandwidth could be merged between the services and that's just not going to happen for many, many years. They've already pledged that no hardware will be made obsolete from this merger so that means they will be operating two unique satellite infrastructures for some time.
The proposed "almost a la carte" plans for a cheap music subscription sound interesting, but I don't know if I want to buy yet another radio to access the a la carte pricing. The money would probably be better spent on an MP3 player since I highly doubt XM will improve with Sirius at the helm. | |
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