I want XM and Sirius to merge

by Brian Reich | 20 Jan 2007, 2:00am

I really want  XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite  Radio to merge.  

Why?   I want to  hear  Dave Niehaus, the best color man in baseball, call  Mariners games for me every night.   I want live happily in Boston and know how  my Seahawks and Sonics are playing without stalking the crawl  on the bottom of ESPN2 each night.   I want to follow NASCAR without having to sit in front of my television for six hours on a Sunday.    Its not just about sports though, I  want to  hear what Oprah and her friends have to say about  eating healthy and decorating my house.   I want to get public radio coverage from around the country without having to sit by my computer and stream it.   I could go on.

All that is available to me, of course, but only  if  I subscribe to both XM and Sirius.   I have come close to choosing before.   I  received Sirius as a Christmas  present two years ago and never activated it - mostly because because the football season was already winding down and I didn’t want to wait until next season to start getting full value out of my subscription.   I have gotten all the way to the checkout screen on the XM Satellite Radio  website three times in the last few months, in anticipation of another exciting baseball season, only to bail out  in hopes that the rumors of a merger will soon come true.  

If  XM and Sirius merged, I could buy one good piece of hardware and one subscription and get everything I wanted.   I would pay good money for it.     I would enjoy it thoroughly.   I don’t think I would be alone.

Simply put, I don’t think my desire to hear a variety of different types of programming from one source  is unreasonable.   And I think it is well past time when the two satellite radio giants, and the government, got in line with my thinking.

Joe Nocera writes in the New York Times today (Times Select subscription required) about the possible merger between XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.   While most of his column is about the regulatory aspects of the proposed deal and whether the FCC would support the  creation of a single satellite radio giant, he does get to the heart of the matter - and seems to be in agreement with me.

[The two companies]  also compete, of course, for content. Most famously, Sirius has Howard Stern, who signed a $500 million five-year deal with the company and moved his shtick to satellite radio at the beginning of last year. (Last week, the company announced that Mr. Stern had earned an $82 million bonus, claiming that he brought in far more revenue than he cost the company.) XM has an Oprah Winfrey station. Sirius has professional football and has pried Nascar away from XM. XM has Major League Baseball — and took the National Hockey League away from Sirius. Both have loads of news and talk and music channels, but XM’s channels tend to be more eclectic than Sirius’s.

On the face of it, this all sounds terrific for consumers. “Choice is always a good thing,” said Ryan Saghir, who blogs about satellite radio at Orbitcast.com — and opposes the idea of a merger. But it is not quite as terrific as it sounds. For one thing, what if you are a fan of both baseball and football? What kind of choice is it to have to decide between them? Or what if you like both Howard Stern and Oprah? (Well, O.K., that’s not a good example.) It is hard to think of another technology that forces subscribers to make that kind of choice.

Joe Nocera wants to listen to baseball and football on the same device, and the same subscription, as well.   His column sounds like a desperate plea from a  radio junkie like me  to make it happen.   Hey, Sirius and XM… hey, FCC… if you won’t listen to me, will you listen to Joe Nocera?

I can understand why the FCC might be nervous about giving the green light for a merger of this size.   But with appropriate monitoring and regulation - to ensure that a merger betwen XM and Sirius wouldn’t drive prices for consumers out of proporition with the market (something Nocera seems to argue isn’t likely because of the continued  influence of free radio) - the potential benefits to consumers far outweighs the risks.    And I can understand why XM and Sirius are both believers in their product so much that they would rather compete to the death than cede control of their operation to their arch rival.   But really, would you all think about the consumer for a moment?

Rather than  forcing customers to choose betwen services (a fact that I believe  is actually driving down interest in satellite radio, and probably radio in general), the FCC could bless the creation of something  that would provide a far better radio product than what is available today.   XM and Sirius could create the ultimate radio programming center, pitting their efforts against folks like Clear Channel who have sucked all the feeling out of radio in their quest to dominate the airwaves everywhere.   The merger would force  traditional radio stations to  compete  with better programming and an alternative business model (advertising instead of subscription — a mix  which  I think is totally possible if you do it right).   And, best of all,  I wouldn’t have to live without access to the programming I want because I find it unreasonable to have to buy/subscribe to two services instead of one.

Please FCC?   Please XM and Sirius?   Do it for Joe Nocera!   Do it for me!

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