Saving the signal

From The New York Times:

The nation’s two satellite radio services, Sirius and XM, announced plans yesterday to merge, a move that would end their costly competition for radio personalities and subscribers but that is also sure to raise antitrust issues.

The two companies, which report close to 14 million subscribers, hoped to revolutionize the radio industry with a bevy of niche channels offering everything from fishing tips to salsa music, and media personalities like Howard Stern and Oprah Winfrey, with few commercials. But neither has yet turned an annual profit and both have had billions in losses.

While there had been speculation of a merger, neither side had engaged in serious negotiations until December, when both companies determined it was in their best interests to complete a deal while the Bush administration was in power, people in the negotiations said.

As a Sirius subscriber I hope they pull this off. I would hate to have to go back to terrestrial radio. There is just no comparison.

This is another reason why it is important to have Republicans in charge. Democrats knee-jerk hatred of business would cause them to shoot the whole thing down in order to prevent a monopoly. Even though the alternative is both services going belly up and no one having access to satellite radio any more.