this is just horses**t...

when was the last time any merger (oil, telephone, etc) asked for such lame ass requirements.

that's like saying minorities are not GOOD ENOUGH or able to get programming by themselves (read: social radio programs... sigh).

it all boils down to the NAB (national assoc of broadcasters) who have paid tons of $$$$ to olbbyists to stall or halt this as much as possible.

The whole reason the FCC is even involved is because there's public bandwidth involved here. I assume Satalight radio has only so much bandwidth and so many frequencies assigned to it. We're going from an era where at you at least had competition from two companies, to a single who will essentially own that bandwidth and no other company, no matter what will be able to enter the satalight radio business, because no other bandwidth is available for it.

There's monopoly because you're so big and powerful that you have all the markeshare, and then there's monopoly because you own something that nobody else can reproduce or break into no matter what.

I think the requirements they asking for are stupid and silly but i also don't like the idea that one company will essentially control and an entire medium forever, unless the FCC opens up more bandwidth, which is very unlikely. It's sort of like the internet or all of public radio being controlled by a single company and no other company can start up and enter the market, because the government has issued only one license to one company and won't issue anymore.

I understand the personal motivations for wanting just one company so you can get more channels and only have to buy one service, but there's more at stake here than one's personal pocket book. If we keep looking at these issues from a selfish short term finicial gain, like we do on just about everything else...i.e. shopping at walmart...we'll end up losing in the end.

Merger of Sirius and XM Approved by F.C.C.

Question? How many of you guys have cable? How many of you pay for movie channels?

Currently paying for cable, but not for any movie channells...we're talkging about swtiching, as it feels like Time Warner is intentionally make the service suck, in an attempt to get us to upgrade to HD....bastardos

We watch dvds and videos. No cable, no broadcast tv.

Our movie rentals come from Redbox. Mainly on Monday nights (free).

No cable for me. I don't watch much TV. The little that I do watch is mostly pro sports like the NFL and 90% of the games I'm interested in are freely available in OTA HDTV.

I do have Sirius and the only reason I got it was because I got the lifetime subscription. If cable/sat TV offered a 1 time payment lifetime deal I'd seriously consider it, even if it was like $3-4K.

Netflix for me...I can't stand to pay money for commercials, Then Extra money for movie channels that play cruddy movies. Besides if I want to see the show I can rent the season through Netflix. When I want to watch football, I'll grab the Rabbit Ears <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Don't forget to buy your converter box by Feb 17, 2009 <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Update as far as yesterday. The merger is complete and signed off. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />
Go figure the new name is Sirius XM. The company is trying to work out some planning bugs before letting both satellites be heard from one head unit.