Well your right, but what Im saying is of the 100 channels available, you could pick and choose the ones you want. 90% of the channels I dont listen to. So its like picking from a menu. Each channel has a fee, Pick as many or as few as you want. Pay for only what you want.

 

This whole thing may never even happen. A few years ago Directv and Echostar(Dish Network) were going to do the exact same thing. Then the Feds stepped in and said no and that was the end of it.

 

What do I have against the merger? How about the fact that it would create a monoopoly. Once there is only one company with a service, they can do whatever they want. They can change the programming to lower quality, raise their rates, etc and not have to worry about it. With the current setup there is competition keeping them fairly equal.

What would you think if all the cell phone providers merged into one company? How about all car manufacturers?

Monopoly's don't work - remember when there was only one phone company?

 

Some markets are much better suited to monopoly status. Ask Californians how increased competition worked for electrical markets. One argument that XM and Sirius make is that improved efficiencies would make their businesses work better (I believe they are both awash in red ink) and that the failure of one of them is probably assured.

Also, monopolies are not necessarily illegal. Only monopolies who abuse their status are illegal.

One wrinkle in this case is that when the FCC (?) allowed for satellite radio, they had to have two or more companies; one company couldn't have all of the licenses. I'm not sure if this was a statutory requirement or merely a regulatory requirement.

As far as the phone company monopoly, I know plenty of people who would like to have one again for various reasons.

I suspect this will pass if they can get it through in the next 11 months. The current administration doesn't seem to have a problem with mergers and acquisitions, and isn't interested in enforcing monopoly findings (witness how the Bush DOJ treated Microsoft in the early 00's). But unless they can get pretty far along, I bet Public Citizen or some other 'helpful' group would sue to reverse a merger, especially if a Democratic candidate wins the White House in the fall.

 

I have had SIRIUS for a couple of years now and I love it! All of my buddies also have SIRIUS! My wife and I rent a car last year that had XM and we hated it!

 

I think the merger will eventually be approved, although I am also against it.

 

yes, yes, if they merge, you wont be allowed to listen to regular radio, or buy an ipod, or watch tv and no one else will be allowed to ever start a new satellite company, oh yea, and you also wont be allowed to have a cd player or an mp3 player in your car, you will have to buy satellite radio and pay whatever they tell you to pay. you will have no choice..
boy, that kool aid tastes good !!

 

Using your analogies, if there was only one cell phone company you wouldn't be allowed to stop at a rest area to use a pay phone either. You also wouldn't be allowed to ride a bicycle if there was only one car manufacturer.

 

I was trying to point out how ridiculous it is to think the merger would create a monopoly, there would still be plenty of other choices, the companies wouldnt be able to just offer substandard programming and charge whatever they want. people would simply cancel and use one of the other many forms of entertainment,
get it?

 

Actually, nobody could start another satellite radio company in the US; only two frequency allocations, and sirius has one, xm the other.

Now be quiet, or Radio Ray will come learn us some.