XM + The Little Doggie Company

I’ve been through this before. I was a PrimeStar customer several years ago, until one fateful day when we received a letter describing how WONDERFUL it was that DirecTV acquired PrimeStar. This was, of course, in my best interest as a consumer, and I would soon receive many new benefits.

The migration from PrimeStar to DirecTV took quite some time due to incompatible equipment. They gradually rolled out service across the nation, and once the final customers were switched over…BANG! Rates went up.

Fast forward a few years, and the XM and Sirius merger is approved. Oh, wonderful. I cannot wait for the benefits. Here are my predictions:

• Opie and Anthony will be fired from their XM show sometime in 2008.
• Rates will go up in January, 2009, just after the holiday season.
• Existing subscribers won’t receive any additional channels. (Aren’t they already at bandwidth capacity?) We’ll basically have the same overall number of stations, but content will be simulcast across both Sirius and XM satellites to save production costs. So if U-Pop is your favorite station on XM, it may go away and be replaced with something roughly equivalent from Sirius.
• Advertisements will continue to increase. All of you non-satellite radio people might be surprised to hear that MANY satellite radio stations now include significant numbers of commercials. The number continues increasing, particularly with a larger audience and ad revenue these owners cannot refuse.
• In 2009 we’ll see a “next generation” receiver that uses some new format. While current subscribers can continue using their existing equipment, new channels will only be available to people buying the new equipment.

Those are my cynical predictions. I REALLY enjoy Opie and Anthony and will stay with XM until they are fired in late 2008. Then I’ll cancel my subscription and will listen to Java Posse podcasts while driving to/from work.

Posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 8:16 pm in Technology.