XM-Sirius merger OKd in fines plus booster-dump deal XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio are nearing a final agreement with US regulators to approve their long-pending merger. The companies agreed to pay millions of dollars in fines in order to grease the wheels of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for formal approval of their proposed monopoly. Some …
OK, if the new radios are required to recieve channels from both tiers, I want the chanel selection options for 50 and 100 chanel non-premium options to include ANY channel from EITHER provider, not just 50 from one or 50 from the either exclusively.
I'm interested in a whopping 30 chanels from XM, and about 20 from sirrius. I want all of those and nothing else for their $7 a month option.
I'd also like to see them go one more step and require the new radios to get digital HD terrestrial broadcasts as well, to further offset the device restrictions, as well as open sourcing the technology so other providers can broadcast to the same devices.
When I first heard of this deal and of the possibility of it being blocked due to "monopoly" concerns, I knew that this would be the fine result. Pay up and take it all. Not that I am affected, since I don't even have satellite radio, but it is sad and worrying to see just one company controlling it all. We all know how well that ends.
Sorry, for being an uninformed Brit pleb....
I thought that both XM and Sirius were broadcasting straight from satellite to in-car (and perhaps other) receivers.
So, what's this talk about "booster towers"....?
Does satellite radio suffer the same problems as GPS and sat TV in that if it doesn't get a strong signal all the time, it cuts out? If so, then I can understand a static booster tower providing a bit more signal to radio's....
But then, why not just cut out the (expensive?) satellite and link all the boosters via a terestrial infrastructure (such as IP ????).
Or, you could always use FM ?????
Satellite radio uses booster towers to fill in gaps where satellites can't achieve adequate line-of-sight; typically in cities with tall buildings that block signal to those on the streets.
You make a good point though, with all these towers everywhere, what's the point? But then again, it was nice being able to drive cross-country and not have to fiddle with the radio every hour or so. Country-Country-Country-Evangelical Preacher-Country-Country-Top 40-Country...
I'm also all for the logo in the article being the new SiriuX/Xirius logo.
Just another way for the government to get money from all involved, and I think digital radio has the same problems that DTV and all the other DIGITAL realms are going to have > that they are not fully tested and do not adequetly work in most instances (unless you live in the big city)....
...meanwhile the government wants us to pay to receive what we have had for free in the past. D=HDTV, HD Radio, and the emergency bands that no one wants....well they finally pawned that one off on Monopoly Digital Radio....
...and the logo was dead on...'cept it is the public on the receiving end!
The government is concerned about the possibility of price hikes due to a monopoly, so lets make them pay millions of dollars in fines, to ensure that there are price hikes, because we all know know who will foot the bill for all those fines, it wont be the shareholders, it will be joe public, the customer...
we need a Head-in-ass icon...
Paris, because she like taking it in the ass....
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