http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/24/news...rius/index.htm

Hopefully the FCC doesn't screw around and sit on this and we will be able to get the best of both XM and Sirius in our cars without having to buy new radios Best news I have heard in a while, I have been going through Howard withdrawals since I got traded g's

 

+1

I am missing my Sirius 32, Grateful Dead Channel FTW

Although Deep Tracks (XM 40 I think) is pretty nice.

 

According to what they filed with the FCC, it will be 6 months to a year after the merger is approved before the new packages are ready. 6 months for the basic packages, and 12 months for the ala-carte packages. With existing XM receivers you will only be able to receive "select" Sirius channels and vice versa (XM on Sirius receivers). It appears they will be dual broadcasting the "select" channels through both XM and Sirius sats. It will be interesting to see what the "select" channels are. I have a feeling they will reserve some of the more popular proprietary channels (Howard Stern, NFL, MLB, NASCAR, etc) for the ala-carte packages. And of course the ala-carte packages require new receivers

 

Directly from siriusmerger.com...

Same Radios

We guarantee no radio will become obsolete. Your current radio will continue to provide you with the programming you enjoy, whether you keep your current service or change to a new subscription plan.

... I completely disagree with the fact the the flagship channels will be a la carte . I would think that the more obscure channels like Maxim Radio and Playboy Radio would be in the a la carte category. Subscribers will be paying something like $16.99 a month for XM everything and Select Sirius which would justify giving the subscriber the premium channels since they would normally be paying $12.95 monthly. If it really is going to be six more months I can probably handle continuing to listen to it streaming online, but much longer than that I think I will just have the bite the bullet and change the receiver in the car.

Bfranks: great find initially with the receiver swap. hopefully they will get this done so that the change over would just take one phone call.

 

"Same Radios

We guarantee no radio will become obsolete. Your current radio will continue to provide you with the programming you enjoy, whether you keep your current service or change to a new subscription plan."

They put this on the main page.....but if you dig deeper (or read the FCC filing), it states that ala-carte packages will require a new radio that won't be developed until after the merger is officially approved by everyone. Hence the 1 year delay before the ala-carte packages are offered.

I could be completely wrong about the proprietary channels that will be offered with the non ala-carte pricing. I hope I am. However I believe most of the deals with the leagues especially were done in a way that would make it very difficult for the new merged company to offer it to a few million more subscribers without charging a premium for it....since you know the NFL, MLB, etc will want their cut. Only time will tell.

I don't really think we will get many more details until the FCC approves the merger, so I hope the hurry up .

 

Hopefully they're working together behind the scenes to bring this to market day1. I mean they've had a year so surely they're collaborating on this by now...

 

It's possible. That time frame is from the initial filing, however they haven't made any mention of changing that.

They've also been fairly vague on how they plan on merging the two "signals". From what I've read they use different enough technology to broadcast their signals that the two current sets of satellites will never be compatible. They've also stated that they plan to continue to use both sets of satellites for the time being to broadcast (XM has 2 in geostationary orbit over the equator, Sirius has 3 in polar orbit), so that only leaves two options. For existing receivers they will have to dual broadcast any stations that they want to be received on both existing Sirius and XM receivers. For ala-carte pricing they will have to build receivers that can receive both XM and Sirius channels.

Anyway.....the point being, I find it a little hard to believe it would take a year to bring dual tuner receivers to market. So hopefully you are right, and it won't take that long. I think day1 might be a little overly optimistic, but hopefully within a few months.

 

Here's a link to a yahoo article detailing some of the issues that have been discussed (requiring new radios for ala-carte packages, timeline for the roll-out, and such).

Link

Not real thrilled with them charging $3-$6 each for some "premium" channels like NFL on the ala-carte packages....... I figured they would only be offered in the ala-carte packages as opposed to the cheaper packages, but that much per channel is excessive

 

I just picked up a Sirius receiver from Grubbs today. I'll let you know how the install goes.

 

I don't think that it is $3-$6 per NFL channel, it is probably that much for the package which is probably an extra 10 channels.

 

Yes....I meant for the NFL package, not for each NFL channel. Sorry, I should have worded that better.

 

I had posted previously about having XM issues on my g37 w/ Nav. The dealer called today and said thay got the receiver in as part of the satellite unit, does this mean they have to take the dash apart to get to the receiver, by the way they still think the receiver in my car is in the trunk. I told him I had read otherwise, he said he was looking at some diagram.

 

I posted some pics from the service manual in this Link. For cars with Nav, it clearly shows that the Sat Receiver is built into the main AV controller. So if he's convinced it's in the trunk, they probably didn't even order the right parts.......

 

It works! I just removed the XM receiver and replaced it with a Sirius receiver. Everything plugs in and works! No need for an additional antenna and the info displays on the screen. Woo-hoo!!

 

Wow...took you long enough . J/K Glad it worked for you