It has been nearly a year and a half since the nation’s only two satellite radio operators, XM and Sirius, announced their plans for a merger. Throughout that time, the merger has been pending approval from the FCC. There have been many concessions asked of the two operators prior to approval including the most recent requirement that $19 million be paid to the U.S. Treasury for outstanding charges of certain FCC rule violations. Having met that final requirement, the merger has at last been approved. This leaves the nation with only one satellite radio company but they say this is not a monopoly because of the fact that there are so many alternative methods of listening to audio entertainment.

Subscribers can keep the radios they have now to receive a mixture of channels from the merged company but new radios will be released within the next few months. The companies plan to maintain their own separate programming identities. They will be offering a variety of packages, including some at a lower cost than those available now, which include channels from both operators but each package is composed of more channels from one or the other. New radios offering these packages could be built into cars within the next year or two.