FirstCuts: Sirius-XM Merger Fallout For Sports

I don’t think this is a monopoly.. Considering no one is being forced to buy this. It isn’t an essential commodity.

From what I’ve heard and read.. This a la carte thing will actually be less expensive within reason. If you are going to go higher than say 10-15 channels, why not just get the whole thing?

Not sure how it will work.. But as a current Sirius subscriber, I’m ecstatic about this. My rundown would probably look like NBA, NFL, MLB, College Football, and NHL sports wise.

I wouldn’t add much more. Whatever Howard Stern Channels there are, whatever Opie and Anthony is on and maybe one or two music channels. I didn’t get Sirius for the music, I got it to listen to NBA games, the Steelers with the oft chance they weren’t on TV and the Howard Stern Channels.

I’ve been waiting for this in a way. I have Sirius, and love it. They do have great sports coverage and I’ve been happy with it so far. I’d love to get more college football coverage, though, and this should take care of that.

I did some research on this and while it is a year old, the prices can’t be too far off from what is in this link. http://www.siriusmerger.com/uploads/ala-cart-Press-Rel-7-23-07.pdf Even if you pay 10 bucks for 50 channels. That isn’t half bad. Subscribers are going to save tons of money.

This is a monopoly? I don’t have Sirius or XM, yet I am still able to listen to the radio.

Why can’t a commodity be involved in a monopoly-type situation, JBeck? If it couldn’t, why did Microsoft get hit with a $1.35B fine? As for the ala carte pricing, I stand by my statement that it could get expensive — particularly after the three-year price freeze — because I guarantee that 50 channel group for $6.99 will just be the music stations. Then you’re asked to add others you want. Believe me, as a current subscriber I’m very interested to see the options. Note that it says AS LITTLE as .25 cents. Not each for 25 cents.

I definitely think they’ll go a la carte pricing eventually – and they’ll blame licensing fees from MLB, NFL as to why they have to do it too. Can’t have this system cutting into online audio subscription values.

I have XM and love to listen to the baseball games. I like being on vacation a thousand miles from home and being able to pick up the Diamondbacks. I don’t think I would order the NFL since I watch most of the games on Sunday, but the NBA might be interesting.
I really have a hard time listening to “regular” radio now that I have become accustomed to what XM has to offer.
I wonder what it will cost to order all of the channels from XM and Sirius? Also are we going to have to buy new radios to pick up signals from the other company?

From what I heard.. You shouldn’t have to buy any new radios..

First off, it’s not a monopoly as sat radio is competing with more than just sat radio.

Second, I guess this will be good for a lot of sports fans as I’m sure there will be some crossover that people want . Personally, it’s going to do nothing for me as there is plenty of football and basketball talk already. As a huge hockey fan, it’s good to have a dedicated channel devoted to it.

You will not need to purchase a new radio according to Mel Karmazin this morning.

It’s only a monopoly if you have no competition.  Sat. radio has CDs, free radio, HD radio, iPods, and frankly, cell phones as well to contend with.  And considering that the Justice Dept. didn’t find it that way, it’s a moot point that people keep trying to bring up as something to complain about.

Beyond that, I’ve had Sirius for almost 4 years and have never regretted it even once.  I got it mainly for the NFL over XM.  What do I want from XM?  I want ACC football, and the Cinemagic channel from XM.  And that’s really it.  I drove a loaner car for a week that had XM, so I had free range over the channels, and that’s what I honestly want from XM.

Mel K. said in the immediate future (Sept or Oct), they will offer a few select channels from Sirius for XM subscribers (including Stern), and vice-versa for Sirius customers for an extra $4/month.  If I could get ACC sports and Cinemagic, I’d pony up the $4.  If they’d set it up where I could buy an XM radio and they would only add it as an additional receiver on my account, I’d buy an XM radio right now.  And Mel said they will still support all radios in existence right now, or they’d piss off all the people who bought vehicles with one or the other installed already.  That’s why they named the company "Sirius XM" to retain both brand names.

Everyone can complain about pricing, monopolies, etc., but no one knows right now what will happen in the next year, let alone 6 months.  Before we all start whining about pricing, let’s see what happens first.  And speaking of pricing, Sirius has been the same price/month since I bought it.  XM raised their prices about 2 years ago.  When’s the last time the cable or satellite tv company you have raised their prices?  These people getting in a tizzy about prices going up don’t take into account that the price hasn’t changed in almost half a decade.

I want MLB now on Sirius!

Marty Schottenheimer has joined SIRIUS

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/42483-marty-schottenheimer-joins-sirius-satellite-radio