Reply With QuoteI Dunno yeah its great and all that but IMHO sirius is a decent ammount better then XM. Lately the XM programming has really started to blow.
It is a good thing though because it really will bring the market together and make it stronger.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/19/news...ion=2007021914
Nice times for those looking to get "even more stations" (tm).Rivals XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio announced Monday they would enter into a merger of equals, creating a satellite radio giant.As part of the deal, XM Chairman Gary Parsons would remain chairman of the combined firm, while Sirius' Mel Karmazin would assume the role of CEO.
I Dunno yeah its great and all that but IMHO sirius is a decent ammount better then XM. Lately the XM programming has really started to blow.
It is a good thing though because it really will bring the market together and make it stronger.
I'd been holding of on dipping into satellite radio but with the HUGE amount of standard radio ad spots on these days, this might make me want to try it out. From what I understand there are still a lot of channels with ads but they aren't nearly as ad-heavy as standard radio.
The competing between the two separated some of the content I wanted to hear. With it all under one provider now ... sounds like a great deal. (If approved.)
Awesome. I can't wait for them to compress the audio even more to cram more into their very limited bandwidth.
The only way I'd be for it is if they expanded their bandwidth to accomodate new content and eased up on the compression. Some channels (like XM42) sound terrible.
Edit in regards to Skipper's post: The only ad I ever heard was on XM 48 when they were advertising for the "guest host" of Cage in regards to the Ghost Rider movie. But even that was really talking about him coming on as a host, and not as much advertising for the movie itself.
For Sirius none of the music channels have commercials. I dont know if it is exactly the same for XM.From what I understand there are still a lot of channels with ads but they aren't nearly as ad-heavy as standard radio.
On Sirius the only channels with commericials are talk radio and even then its less than standard radio.
anarch..
It is.
The talk/comedy commercials are irksome. Mainly because they're literally out of spam email. "Hey! Order cialis from this website!"
There have been rumors that they were going to merge for like a year or more. And from reading previous articles on the subject, I thought the FCC was a lot more opposed to the idea than this CNN article lets on.
Its my understanding that the FCC recently reversed its opinion on the merge.
A few XM music channels have ads, but they are marked with "cm" on the display.
I'll have to look it up, but one story said while the FCC has a specific rule against merging satellite radio companies, it could waive the rule. The FCC is completely looney right now, taking some regulatory actions that specifically contradict federal statutes, so I wouldn't be surprised if they sign off on this.
Isn't this the kind of consolidation in terrestrial radio station ownership that people have always complained about and pointed at as the reason they want to subscribe to satellite radio?
Also, I lost interest in XM when I listened to it in my sister's car and they peppered the programming with ads for other XM radio stations after every other song. I guess I'm less interested in what they technically consider "ad free" radio and more interested in just "music." It's why I like my iPod so much.
"Oh, you're both going belly-up if you don't merge. Well, okay."Originally Posted by Marcus
Interesting thought processes going on here leading to "less competition will offer me more choices." Me am on Bizzarro world?
My main complaint with satellite radio is the horrible quality, and I don't really feel a desire to listen to news/sports/talk radio.
It's like having a lifetime all-you-can-eat meal ticket that's good only at Denny's. Only with a monthly fee.
Chairman Martin said something publicly just a few weeks ago about how a merger of the two would be illegal. I'm having a hard time understanding how they could come around that quickly, unless massive campaign contributions were involved.
Damn, that's a lot of exclusive content being brought together under one network now. NFL, NBA, NHL, Nascar, MLBA, Howard, Sinatra channel, Maxim, Oprah, Martha, CNN, Fox, Playboy...
Either we lose sound quality out the wazoo, or we lose some content. I can't see the companies requiring new radios and new satellites to accommodate the merge of stations.
Bones are are gonna be broken if I lose Hard Attack 27 >:(
.
Do XM and Sirius share a band, or do they each have their own?
YES! They have their own. Each has 12.5MHz of the S band available.
XM: 2332.5 to 2345.0 MHz
Sirius: 2320 and 2332.5 MHz
Source wiki.
Last edited by Jakub; 02-19-2007 at 09:44 PM.
But do XM and Sirius radios and satellites have the ability to change between different bands and compression schemes and modulation and...? Sat Radio has been going on for awhile now, who knows how firmware upgradeable their old hardware is.
Doubtful the old stuff works, but they could do an exchange/upgrade program and say "we're doubling your bandwidth! better sound quality, more music! exchange now, as we're shutting off old programming in X months".
"Quick! Keep your subscription to XM/Sirius in full working order by scheduling a car radio replacement with your local Ford dealer for NO EXTRA CHARGE to you!" I don't know why, but this doesn't seem likely considering the capital these 2 companies are working off of, without some HEAVY subsidizing by others. Otherwise, there's a lot of dropped sub's when their old factory/professionally/self installed car radios don't work anymore.
I love my Sirius, it's just I see what I loved about it being lower quality than before... In my low-tech view, Sirius and XM will merge channel lineups, XM Satellites and Sirius Satellites work the same as before with old XM and Sirius radios, just with the programming being beamed up to the 2 different Satellites being the same.
God bless 'em if they planned ahead enough to allow this kind off interoperability though.
People are so corp-whipped nowadays that they would upgrade, end of story. Besides, the prospect of significantly better sound quality (going from ~96kbps to 192kbps MP3s is a big deal) might attract many new users, and the cost savings involved in halving the staff would be significant.
Damnit. If they merge stations, I'll be pissed. I guess the good news is that I will now get all the sports, not just NFL, but the only other ones I want are hockey and college FB.
But my music stations are set. And if they start using stupid names I don't understand like Lucy and Squizz and shit instead of the Sirius version (which tells you what you are listening to) I'll be especially annoyed. I love Sirius just as it is.
OTOH, I should probably reserve judgment until we see how this will actually play out.
That's weird. I thought the FCC had no say in regulating satellite transmissions. I could see it being an antitrust issue as a monopoly, but that would be under the justice department, not the FCC.
The FCC has a say on satellite transmissions, at least for radio. They need approval from the FCC and an antitrust pass from Justice for this to happen.
XM has 4 music stations that have commercials, and that's only because ClearChannel was an investor early and part of the deal was content control. To address the lawsuit ruling that ClearChannel could insist on ads as part of the deal, XM duplicated those 4 channels (not second-to-second broadcast duplication, but content library) and then labelled the CC ones with .cm. That agreement expires in the relative future (although it'd be after a merger, if XM/Sirius are to be believed on the timeline), at which point those channels will drop commercials/go away.
Yeah because Buzzsaw, Octane, Left of Center, Faction, and Disorder are all obvious. Each company has "obvious" stations and "stupid" names.And if they start using stupid names I don't understand like Lucy and Squizz and shit instead of the Sirius version (which tells you what you are listening to) I'll be especially annoyed.
I don't get it, why do they care which station you listen to?
Unless he was listening to one of the ClearChannel controlled stations, he's exaggerating. I honestly don't remember hearing an ad for another channel when I've been listening to the 80s channel.
They do occasional station IDs, and I think that you might hear from a DJ at the top and bottom of an hour. They might mention stuff happening on other channels.
I don't think they "care" what channel you listen to, other than if they point out something you end up liking, you might end up liking the service as a whole more, which isn't bad.
The main comedy channel does occasional "Hey, this is airing on <other channel>, in case you want to check it out" bits (again, either at the top or bottom of the hour, when the DJ chats for a minute). I've actually flipped over to stuff I didn't know was happening (long interview with someone I wanted to hear), so hooray.
It might have had something to do with the fact that it was around Christmas time and they kept playing intersticials for their all Christmas music station and some upcoming blocks of Christmas programming. It wasn't after every other song or anything, but on a long drive it was still too annoying given that this was subscription based.
True that. I dread the approach of Christmas on XM because they devote several channels to nothing but Xmas music, thus ensuring that I'll get sick of it all in record time, then they will not shut up about the horrible boring crap on their other stations. Yeah, thanks for interrupting my hiphop listening to inform me of when you'll be airing Jingle Bell Rock for the 800,000th time this week, I wasn't certain I could last another five minutes without finding out.
But normally I like the advertising (such as it is) on music stations since it's all about informing you when certain shows are airing on that particular station. Bob Dylan's Themetime Radio Hour, Prince Paul's The Illout Show, certain DJ mix shows, etc. For some reason I can never remember when my favorite shows air on what stations, so I appreciate the reminders.
As far as I know, it's only on the talk radio and sports stations where you'll hear "traditional" advertising.
I'll believe this when I see it.
Good point. I was thinking of Hard Attack, Hair Nation, Classic Rewind, Classic Vinyl, Alt Nation, etc. I guess I meant at least SOME of Sirius's stations have names that help you ID what's on them.
You mean like the Decades channels (40s-90s), XMU (the Indy/College/Unsigned channel), Nashville, Bluegrass Junction, Willie's Place (Nelson, that is), Cinemagic, On Broadway, The Rhyme, Bluesville, Deep Tracks, Top Tracks, Big Tracks, and XM Classics?
That's my point. Both services have channel names that are useful and channel names that offer nothing to indicate what they might play. I get that Lucy/Fred/Ethel are all connected, but I don't see how it's connected to Alternative (90s/Classic/New respectively).
I think Squizz is a stupid name for a channel, but that practice is spread pretty evenly across both companies.
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