Talks have intensified in recent days between the two satellite radio companies and FCC officials, says Reuters. Democratic FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein told Sirius he would provide a potentially decisive approval vote of their merger with XM if the companies met a stringent set of conditions designed to protect consumers and preserve competition.
As of Feb 28,2008 XM claims over 9 million subscribers, while Sirius claimed 7.6 million as of October 30, 2007.
A spokesman for Adelstein confirmed trade press reports that he had spoken with Sirius officials by telephone and laid out conditions for his support that go beyond those that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has already proposed the agency impose on the companies.
Martin has proposed that the five-member commission approve the deal as long as the companies make available to consumers radios that receive both Sirius and XM, cap prices for three years, offer programming on an “a la carte” basis, and make 24 radio channels available for noncommercial and minority programming, among other things.
Under Adelstein’s proposal, the price caps would be extended to six years, the number of set-aside channels would be increased to 25 percent of the companies’ total capacity, and any new satellite radio receivers on the market that were subsidized by XM and Sirius would have to be built with technology enabling them to also receive high-definition terrestrial radio signals.
In addition, the companies would have to disclose technical specifications that would enable independent manufacturers to make and sell satellite radios, and they would be barred from passing on increases in programming costs to customers.
Sirius service currently provides 69 streams (channels) of music and 65 streams of sports, news and entertainment to listeners.
XM service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional traffic and weather channels and 23 play-by-play sports channels.
Both satellite radio companies offer premium traffic services:
- SIRIUS broadcasts traffic data to 30 major U.S. metropolitan areas. It provides real-time information on accidents, traffic flow, construction, and road closures for $3.99/month, when added to your existing SIRIUS Satellite Radio subscription. It has contracted with traffic information service Navteq to provide live traffic data for 30 U.S. metropolitan areas.
- XM Traffic and Weather is available in 21 major metropolitan markets plus several interstate corridors nationwide.
The two satellite radio services use different (incompatible) technology and satellites to deliver their services.
XM’s Boeing built “Rock” and “Roll” satellites were designed to provide digital audio directly to cars, homes and portable radios coast to coast. But both satellites had power degradation problems caused by a solar array design flaw. In July 2004, XM reached agreement with insurers that covered 80% of the amount insured, so two replacement satellites, XM-3 (“Rhythm”) and XM-4 (“Blues”), were sent up.
Sirius has 3 satellites up, built by Space Systems Loral (FM-1, FM-2, FM-3). The fourth satellite (FM-4) is a ground spare. Sirius hoped that FM-6 could replace FM-1 and FM-2 but that request was rejected by the FCC.
While XM operates from geosyncronous space, Sirius operates in an elliptical orbit (perigee of 23975 km and apogee of 46983 km), inclined at 63.4 degrees.
Satellite radio uses the 2.3 GHz S band for Digital Audio Radio (DARS) in North America and generally shares the 1.4 GHz L band with local Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) stations elsewhere. Local repeaters enable signals to be available even if the view of the satellite is blocked, for example, by skyscrapers.
Sirius uses 12.5 MHz of the S band between 2320 and 2332.5 MHz. XM uses 12.5 MHz between 2332.5 to 2345.0 MHz. Presently, music is compressed to 44 kbps; voice, 20 kbps; and 16 kbps for low quality audio such as traffic and weather.
XM uses terrestrial repeaters to fill in coverage and better reach inside cars and buildings, a sore point with local broadcasters who say their 2000 watt repeaters have popped up everywhere and unfairly compete with “free” radio.
Satellite radio companies say combining resources will reduce duplication and save everyone money. They claim that competition from terrestrial HD Radio (via IBiquity), iPods, mobile television (via MediaFLO, ICO’s Mobile Media or Dish Network’s 700 MHz DVB-SH service), cell phones and Mobile WiMAX (featuring both unicasting and broadcasting) will effectively prevent monopoly pricing.
They may have a point.
Pandora’s streaming radio application is the fourth most popular free app on the iPhone (next to Apple’s remote, AIM, and weather).
According to TechCrunch, a streaming music service exclusively for indie music, StumbleAudio, is launching today with a catalog of over 120,000 artists and 2 million songs. StumbleAudio is designed to help listeners discover new music, rather than find their old favorites. It’s similar to streaming music services like Jango and Pandora. Users are asked to name one of their favorite bands, then the site generates a new “station” comprised of similar artists.
OrbitCast, Satellite Radio TechWorld and RadioWorld cover the beat.
