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After months of deliberations, the FCC has finally Ok’d the merger between the only two satellite based radio operators; Sirius and XM. Supposedly was held up in part by Republican Deborah Tate whom refused to vote for the merge until the companies paid the U.S. Treasury $19.7 million for fines regarding radio receivers and ground based signal repeaters. Sirius will be purchasing its only competitor for $3.3 billion dollars. I have mixed feelings over this merge. While I believe that monopolies are created by combining all companies within a certain market, that particular market would have to be providing a necessity to the public. Something that we all could/should not live without. Not something that is optional. And as we are all aware, satellite radio is completely optional. We still have free broadcasting from radio waves.
However, knowing that there will be only 1 provider now does make me feel like the price will increase. There will be more stations and even though Sirius may be taking on XM’s listeners, they will have to pay for this extra addition – not to mention they must make up for that $3.3 billion paid to XM! I’ve heard talk of Sirius charging for just the stations you would like to listen to or you could choose to have them all for a set price. This does not sound like a bad idea. Between my MP3 player and the local radio stations, I probably only listen to 5 channels on Sirius now; Alt Nation, The Spa channel, Howard Stern, Shade 45 and CNN. So I would love to be paying for just those 5 channels, maybe a few others to mix things up every once in awhile.
The overall idea of Sirius is brilliant. And the fact that it is uncensored is the best. I will definitely be a subscriber for years to come but I hope that this industry continues to expand and new satellite companies will form. How does that proper little saying go? “Fuck the FCC!” The have taken away our rights to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. That includes freedom of speech, able to speak without censorship. Switch to Satellite and do not give them the satisfaction of taking away our freedom. Or at least until they find a way to censor that as well…
Please visit http://www.sirius.com
