Satellite Radio Merger

Satellite Radio Merger Tonight?

Posted by samc on January 23rd, 2008

Will Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio merge? Regulators may be set to make a decision about the merger today, says a CNN Money blog.

Briefing.com”, a site that is widely followed by traders, is citing an unnamed report Wednesday morning saying that “XMSR-SIRI merger could receive approval from DoJ and FCC tonight.”

That isn’t much in the way of any real information. but don’t tell that to Wall Street. Shares of XM were up nearly 4 percent in mid-morning trading while Sirius’ stock gained more than 5 percent.

The proposed $4.6 billion deal is awaiting regulatory approval from antitrust lawyers at the Justice Department, as well as from consumer advocates at the FCC.

The merger of these two former Satellite radio rivals would likely create a single satellite radio entity in the United States in excess of 14 million subscribers. Don’t hold your breath for lower prices.

HD Radio (wikipedia), is the U.S. terrestrial digital radio system developed by iBiquity, to enable terrestrial FM stations to compete with satellite radio with a “free” digital signal. More than 1,500 radio stations are currently broadcasting in HD Radio in the United States.

HD Radio enables station operators to split their broadcasts up into multiple channels. The NAB is currently low-key about any “pay radio” plans on HD Radio. Wait for it.

In the future, satellite radio may face additional competition from mobile operators like Qualcomm’s MediaFLO and MobiTV on WiMAX which can deliver both video and music to cell phones and other mobile devices. Of course, their bandwidth is more limited than satellite radio, which can broadcast hundreds of channels to millions of people with near CD-quality.

source : dailywireless.org