Radio Ink: 'Monopoly Price Hikes' Coming

[unknown]

WASHINGTON -- July 28, 2008: In a dissenting statement on the merger of XM
Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps
said the Republican commission majority's own findings provide a "compelling
case for rejecting this merger."

Copps said, "The inescapable logic of the majority's findings is that by
2011 satellite radio subscribers will face monopoly price hikes by a company
with the incentive and ability to impose them. No one has been able to
explain to me how this could possibly serve the public interest. I
understand why the companies would prefer to escape the rigors of
competition. What I cannot understand is why the majority thinks consumers
will be better off without it."

Full article at:
http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=143005&pt=todaysnews

[YKW (ad hoc)]

Post by unknown
WASHINGTON -- July 28, 2008: In a dissenting statement on the merger
of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, FCC Commissioner
Michael Copps said the Republican commission majority's own findings
provide a "compelling case for rejecting this merger."
Copps said, "The inescapable logic of the majority's findings is that
by 2011 satellite radio subscribers will face monopoly price hikes by
a company with the incentive and ability to impose them. No one has
been able to explain to me how this could possibly serve the public
interest. I understand why the companies would prefer to escape the
rigors of competition. What I cannot understand is why the majority
thinks consumers will be better off without it."
http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=143005&pt=todaysnews

By 2011, not only will Sirius XM not be able to impose "monopoly price
hikes" thanks to competition from terrestrial and internet radio, but
internet radio's variety and pricepoint (i.e., free) carries the
potential to kill satrad dead, regardless of satrad's pricing or its
so-called "monopoly power".

This isn't guesswork or theorizing on future technologies. The iPhone is
already here. It's brought streaming online radio to the automobile.
Data-network-enabled in-dash car radios will just be an extension of the
function you can already get with an iPhone and either an FM mod or a
simple jack plug.

To have any hope of competing with this monster, Sirius XM will have to
keep sub fees as limited as possible =and= build a stable of unique in-
house programming and formatting/branding that makes people want to stay.

That means niches, not FM-sans-ads or payola-radio. That means the kind
of envelope-pushing stuff that Mel seems eager to toss overboard in even
its most tepid form (the remnants of the old X, The Virus, The Move, et
al). That means making a special effort to court the satrad evangelicals,
both professional and in the satrad fan ranks, rather than the terr-rad
old-boy players whose approval Mel so craves.

Without a visionary in the mix who sees all this (you can't fix the
Tribune, Lee, come home!), I'm not holding out much hope for satrad as we
know it in the long run. Heck, or even in the medium run.
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<http://tinyurl.com/5rxsvp/#comment-665962>

[Joel Koltner]

Post by YKW (ad hoc)
This isn't guesswork or theorizing on future technologies. The iPhone is
already here. It's brought streaming online radio to the automobile.

Big differences:

1) Even in heavily populated areas where your iPhone's service is always
available, connections to the Internet have no guaranteed latency or
throughput. If those metrics aren't good enough, you end up with choppy or
unusable audio (and while satellite radio can get choppy if you're driving
through, e.g., areas with tall buildings, the problem is predictable -- and
fixable with repeaters, unlike your iPhone's Internet connection)
2) There's great appeal with satellite radio in areas that aren't well-served
by cell phone providers -- if you look at cell phone provider coverage maps,
there are very few places in the country other than on interstates where you
can drive 100 miles in any direction and not lose coverage during some of the
drive. Many rural towns, even if they have regular voice cell phone service,
don't yet have the high-speed data services needed make an iPhone player
viable.
3) Cost. In most cases, an unlimited usage data plan with the cell phone
providers costs *far* more than a satellite radio subscription. This is
entirely reasonable as well -- 1,000,000 people receiving audio over iPhones
uses up orders of magnitude more bandwidth than those same people all
listening to the same satellites.

Post by YKW (ad hoc)
Data-network-enabled in-dash car radios will just be an extension of the
function you can already get with an iPhone and either an FM mod or a
simple jack plug.

Eventually, yes, but I think satellite radio is going to be alive and kicking
for at least another decade.

Post by YKW (ad hoc)
To have any hope of competing with this monster, Sirius XM will have to
keep sub fees as limited as possible =and= build a stable of unique in-
house programming and formatting/branding that makes people want to stay.

Yes.

---Joel