KJT13 Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 The Justice Department approved Sirius Satellite Radio's $5 billion buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio on Monday, saying the deal was unlikely to hurt competition or consumers. The deal was approved despite opposition from consumer groups and an intense lobbying campaign by the land-based radio industry. The buyout received shareholder approval in November. The companies said the merger will save hundreds of millions of dollars in operating costs — savings that will ultimately benefit their customers. The Justice Department, in a lengthy news release explaining its decision, said the two companies compete not just with each other but also with other forms of radio and entertainment. "The likely evolution of technology in the future, including the expected introduction in the next several years of mobile broadband Internet devices, made it even more unlikely that the transaction would harm consumers in the longer term," the Justice Department said. "Accordingly, the division has closed its investigation of the proposed merger." XM Satellite shares rose $1.97, or 16.5 percent, to $13.90 in afternoon trading after the government's announcement while Sirius shares rose 28 cents, or almost 10 percent, to $3.18. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12'SROCK Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 interesting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOB47 Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 Can't understand why with cd's, free radio, i-pods and MP-3 players why anyone would pay to listen to the radio. Anyone want to try and explain? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fast4popper Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 Can't understand why with cd's, free radio, i-pods and MP-3 players why anyone would pay to listen to the radio. Anyone want to try and explain? commercial free coast to coast music. i know what you mean, but i also know i drive several thousand miles a year (over 20K per year) and never take a cd with me. I currently have Sirius in the truck and love it. this past weekend i took the wifes car 1350 miles round trip with just an FM radio and CD player. i will say that the music was totally off more than on cause i got sick of searching for a station. If you like rock, you know where the rock stations are on satellite radio, you know where country is, where talk is, where punk music is... you dont have to search. at first i felt the same as you do, then i got it, now i wont got without it. give it a shot, you might like it and for the price of one CD per month, its worth it, but thats just my opinion! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usabodyguard Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 I pay $6.95 per month on my XM unit... it is a nice alternative if I am tired of my playlist on my ipod and radio around here pretty much sucks... I also like the variety of XM - way more than I have in my arsenal of songs and cds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePDB Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 commercial free coast to coast music. i know what you mean, but i also know i drive several thousand miles a year (over 20K per year) and never take a cd with me. I currently have Sirius in the truck and love it. this past weekend i took the wifes car 1350 miles round trip with just an FM radio and CD player. i will say that the music was totally off more than on cause i got sick of searching for a station. If you like rock, you know where the rock stations are on satellite radio, you know where country is, where talk is, where punk music is... you dont have to search. at first i felt the same as you do, then i got it, now i wont got without it. give it a shot, you might like it and for the price of one CD per month, its worth it, but thats just my opinion! ;) I agree. I don't travel that much- but after not having XM for a few weeks now I really miss it. The thing I like about XM is that you hear new songs MONTHS before they are ever available to download or even be heard on FM. I guess if I didn't have XM, I'd eventually hear them as "new" on regular radio later... but what fun would that be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brobradh77 Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 maybe rates will drop now???? I have debated Sirius Radio for a while. I have had XM and have Sirius on my dishnetwork and like that programming better than XM. I just thought it was pricey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shakesvho Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 hooked on XM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSThunder Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 I drive plenty and regular radio is fine for me, plus the 6 disc changer stays full so I can listen to a CD every so often. My buddy had one of those and the music was fine, just seemed like a waste to me. He got the free subscription with his new GM truck but after it ran out, he didn't renew it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KJT13 Posted March 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 I don't have either. I've heard both and kinda prefer Sirius. I thought about changing the module in the truck to convert the stock XM to Sirius but never got around to it. Then I heard about this potential merger. I mainly just throw my iPod on shuffle and let it play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOB47 Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 commercial free coast to coast music. i know what you mean, but i also know i drive several thousand miles a year (over 20K per year) and never take a cd with me. I currently have Sirius in the truck and love it. this past weekend i took the wifes car 1350 miles round trip with just an FM radio and CD player. i will say that the music was totally off more than on cause i got sick of searching for a station. If you like rock, you know where the rock stations are on satellite radio, you know where country is, where talk is, where punk music is... you dont have to search. at first i felt the same as you do, then i got it, now i wont got without it. give it a shot, you might like it and for the price of one CD per month, its worth it, but thats just my opinion! ;) My wifes TB had XM in it when she got it and I really couldn't find anything to get excited about. I like such a variety of music that I can almost always find something that I like on regular radio. Between that and 5-6 cd's I'm good for a few hours at least. I guess I could see it if you drive extremely long distances all the time. FWIW--XM radio at least DOES have commercials. Not a lot, but they do have them. Just the idea of paying for radio gets me. When cable tv first came out it was commercial free and reasonably priced. Now it has as many or more commercials than regular (free) tv. But you almost have to have it if you watch sports at all. You used to see movies on cable almost as soon as the theaters, now it's a good 3-4 months at least. Free tv had about 10 channels in my area. Cable has 200+ channels. About 10 of which I care to watch. I'll bet pay radio is going to go the way of cable tv in not too many years. They'll get you hooked then start raising the prices and do away with free radio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leaper Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 Can't understand why with cd's, free radio, i-pods and MP-3 players why anyone would pay to listen to the radio. Anyone want to try and explain? I personally listen to it for the variety. I get to hear a lot of songs that I might not have on my MP3 player. There also is no good way that I am aware of to hook up my MP3 player to the stock stereo. I have a Microsoft Zune so there is virtually no support compared to the iPod. Plus, it is one of the few ways I get to find out about new bands, hear bands that I have never heard or hear new songs from bands I like before they are released. I bet probably half of the CDs I have bought recently are because I heard a song on XM. I drove 5.5 hours to Vermont last Thursday and listened solely to XM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTMD8R_SS Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 I don't drive my truck much. So paying for xm/serious satelliet radio is out of the picture for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stitches040 Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 Can't understand why with cd's, free radio, i-pods and MP-3 players why anyone would pay to listen to the radio. Anyone want to try and explain? Hey Bob ... Seeing that I live in a nice rural area of the state, I can barely get any good radio stations. The FM alone in my SSS sucked, then I did the Antenna Delete... then it sucked even more. (held down with windshield weather stripping so it won't rattle, doesn't have the metal ground). Secondly, I have a second portable XM unit I put in my Cruiser at work (and my beater). Due to all the electronics in the cruiser, and weak FM signals, you can't pick up anything. So XM again is the way to go. I also like the ability to have so many choices at ones fingertips. I get sick of listening to the CD's I have in the changer.... But having 150+ stations is a great option, for not too much a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePDB Posted March 24, 2008 Report Share Posted March 24, 2008 maybe rates will drop now???? I doubt they will... look at the price of BluRay movies now that HD DVD is gone! The first thing they did was add 5 bucks!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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