Theme Time Now on SIRIUS. Air Time on XM Moves to 11 a.m. on Wednesdays. XMX Gone?

via a SIRIUS XM Radio Press announcement:

Effective immediately [November 12, 2008], and for the first time, XM subscribers will hear SIRIUS' dynamic and exclusive music, news, talk, sports and comedy shows and channels, and SIRIUS subscribers will have access to XM's equally diverse and unique content.

According to the SIRIUS page here, TTRH will be airing on SIRIUS Channel 16 (Deep Tracks) Mondays 8 pm ET, Wednesdays 11 am ET, Thursdays 12 am ET, and Sundays 8 am ET.

As of 8 am Wednesday, November 12, the TTRH page on XM remains unchanged, and the Deep Tracks page shows the Wednesday air date to have moved ahead an hour to 11 am, paralleling the SIRIUS air time.

XMX Channel 2 - which aired TTRH all day on Wednesdays, appears to have been removed from the XM channel lineup.

It's unclear whether the SIRIUS Monday show at 8 PM will be a rerun from the previous week, although that's likely.

Can Sirius XM Radio handle its $3.4b debt?

excerpted from The Boston Globe:

As the purchase of XM Satellite Radio by larger rival Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. closed yesterday, questions remained over whether the combined company can handle its $3.4 billion in debt, including $1.1 billion due next year.

Also murky was how quickly the companies can mesh their technologies without angering consumers....

...In the past, the companies have mentioned offering a "best of both" service for $17 a month, compared to the current price for one of the services at $13 a month.

Sirius and XM haven't disclosed which programming the best-of service will include. And there's no guarantee Howard Stern will be available to XM customers or that Sirius customers will see Major League Baseball games, for instance....

Full story

FCC Finally Backs Union of XM, Sirius

Excerpted from The Washington Post:

The government has approved the long-delayed merger of the nation's only satellite radio companies, combining Sirius and XM into a single entity with 18 million subscribers.

The decision last night came almost a year and a half after the companies first proposed joining. Based on yesterday's closing share prices, the deal is valued at $3.3 billion, not including debt.

...The companies must cap prices for three years after joining and allow consumers to choose the channels they want and pay less for packages of channels. Radios that allow a la carte channel selections will eventually be available for car dashboards -- the largest area of growth. The companies said they would introduce radios that receive both XM and Sirius channels...

Full article

XM/Sirius Merger: "I think it's fair to say an agreement in principle has been reached,"

via The WSJ:

WASHINGTON - A majority of commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission have reached a deal to approve Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s long-pending purchase of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.

The final hold-out, Republican commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, agreed to vote to approve the deal after winning several concessions from the companies involving enforcement issues.

"I think it's fair to say an agreement in principle has been reached," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said in an interview Thursday morning. "We're still trying to work out the language."

A deal was reached with the companies late Wednesday night to pave the way for Ms. Tate's vote on the merger, Mr. Martin said. Four of the commissioners had already voted on the deal, but they had split 2-2 on whether to approve it.

The two satellite radio companies agreed to enter into a consent decree to resolve complaints they violated FCC rules. Those violations include using excessive power levels on some radio units sold to consumers and erecting several unauthorized towers to boost their satellite signals.

The companies have agreed to pay almost $20 million to settle the complaints, with XM paying about $17.5 million and Sirius paying about $2.2 million.

Ms. Tate is expected to vote on the deal as soon as Thursday. The FCC isn't expected to formally release its decision for a few days, as staff attorneys draft the final paperwork for review by the five commissioners...

...The companies are expected to bring new a la carte radios on the market in the next three months that would provide consumers more choices in which stations they receive from the two services. ...

Full article here.

FCC Chair To Support XM-Sirius Merger

via The Washington Post

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin said yesterday (June 15 - fhb) that he will support a merger between the nation's sole satellite radio operators, XM and Sirius, a decision that could remove the last regulatory hurdle in the lengthy and heavily criticized move to make the companies one.

Martin came to the decision after the companies agreed last week to several commitments intended to prevent the monopoly from raising programming prices and from stifling competition among radio makers, aides to the chairman said in an interview yesterday. Critics have argued that a merger of District-based XM and Sirius of New York would hurt consumers, who would have fewer choices of programming and radio transmitters and who would be charged higher prices because of a lack of rivals.

As early as this week, Martin is expected to issue an order that the commission vote to approve the merger, which at least two of the remaining four commissioners must also agree to, the aides said.

Full article

Sirius Buyout of Rival XM Approved

via Jailbait Jones, who walked into the house last night and said, "Who woulda thunk that Bob Dylan would ever share the same airwaves as Howard Stern?":

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has approved the $5 billion buyout of XM Satellite Radio by a rival, Sirius Satellite Radio, saying the deal was unlikely to hurt competition or consumers.

The merger was approved without conditions despite opposition from consumer groups and an intense lobbying campaign by the land-based radio industry.

The combination still requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which prohibited a merger when it granted satellite radio operating licenses in 1997.

The Justice Department, in a lengthy statement explaining its decision, said the two companies compete not just with each other but also with other forms of radio and entertainment. Customers must buy equipment that is exclusive to either XM or Sirius, and subscribers rarely switch providers.

“People just don’t do that,” an assistant attorney general, Thomas O. Barnett, said in a conference call with reporters.

The government also appeared to endorse the argument of the companies that they compete with other forms of audio entertainment, including “high-definition” radio, Internet-based radio stations and even devices like Apple’s iPod.

The buyout received shareholder approval in November. The companies said the merger would save hundreds of millions of dollars in operating costs — savings that will ultimately benefit their customers.

“The likely evolution of technology in the future, including the expected introduction in the next several years of mobile broadband Internet devices, made it even more unlikely that the transaction would harm consumers in the longer term,” the Justice Department said. “Accordingly, the division has closed its investigation of the proposed merger.”

The F.C.C. had no comment on the decision Monday. In the past, the agency’s chairman Kevin Martin said any approval faced a “high hurdle.”

Mr. Martin said last week that agency staff was “drafting various options” in preparation for a final recommendation. The five-member commission could vote against the deal, approve it or approve it with conditions. The agency could require the companies to freeze prices or make part of their satellite spectrum available for public-interest obligations.

Both XM and Sirius declined to comment n on Monday.

Senator Herb Kohl, Democrat of Wisconsin and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on antitrust, said in a statement that the merger would create a satellite radio monopoly and asked the F.C.C. to block it.

“We are particularly disturbed by this decision, given the Justice Department’s record in recent years of failing to oppose numerous mergers which reduced competition in key industries, resulting in the Justice Department not bringing a single contested merger case in nearly four years,” Mr. Kohl said.

The companies have pledged that the combined firm will offer listeners more pricing options and greater choice and flexibility in the channel lineups they receive. If the deal is approved, the companies have said they would offer pricing plans ranging from $6.99 a month, for 50 channels offered by one service, up to $16.99 a month, where subscribers would keep their existing service plus choose channels offered by the other service.

Despite the consumer-friendly promises, most consumer groups have opposed the proposed merger.

“If this is what our competition cops do, we might as well close shop and save taxpayers a few hundred million dollars because they’re not doing their jobs,” said Gene Kimmelman, the Washington lobbyist for Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine.

XM Satellite shares rose 15 percent while Sirius was up 8.6 percent.

For those interested, the DOJ statement on its decision can be read here.

Deep Tracks (and Theme Time) Back on AOL Radio

As AOL promised after removing XM Deep Tracks from its playlist late last year, the XM station that's home to Theme Time Radio Hour has now returned to free AOL Radio in 2008. That means that for those whose circumstances don't allow any other way of getting TTRH their fix is back, at least for awhile until AOL rotates the playlist again.

http://music.aol.com/radioguide/xm_radio_guide will get you to the AOL XM Radio guide. Scroll down a bit to find XM Deep Tracks. Sometime since the last time I checked AOL improved its web and radio player interface to work with Firefox, too.

XM Deep Tracks Temporarily Off Air at AOL Radio

June 2008 UPDATE: In March 2008, XM Radio and America Online announced that they were ending their relationship "by mutual agreement," and that after April 30, 2008 the XM Radio channels on AOL Radio would no longer be available. It is no longer possible to listen to Theme Time Radio Hour through AOL Radio. - fhb

January, 2008 UPDATE: XM Deep Tracks is now back on AOL Radio, and the link below or this one...

http://music.aol.com/radioguide/xm_radio_guide

will take you there - fhb

Expecting Rain reports that AOL Radio has removed the XM Deep Tracks (home of TTRH) station from its free service "for the holidays," with the service expected to resume in January 2008.

Disappointing for non-U.S. listeners who have few other options to listen to the show.

I've re-directed the AOL Radio link in the right column over to this post. If you want to give it a try on the off-chance that Deep Tracks returns earlier, the link is...


http://music.aol.com/radioguide/bb