Friday, March 16, 2007

XMSR SEC Filing: In Defense Of Sirius-XM Merger

In defense of Sirius-XM merger
By DAVID FREAR, New York

On behalf of everyone at Sirius and XM, we appreciated Tribune columnist Kelly Hagen’s proclaiming satellite radio to be among the “greatest things ever.” (“XM-Sirius merger is not music to my ears,” March 9) In fact, we couldn’t agree more. But we would like to correct what he wrote about subscription prices once the proposed merger between Sirius and XM is completed.

The merger of Sirius-XM is a win-win for consumers because we will be able to offer more choices and better prices. That’s the bottom line — and it’s something that we have committed to publicly for everyone to hear.

It’s as simple as this: If people are Sirius or XM subscribers and currently pay the normal rate, they will not pay more than that rate for the same level of service after the merger. Alternatively, if after the merger they are interested in obtaining the best programming from both SIRIUS and XM, they can get it for less than it would cost to subscribe to both services today. In either case, they’ll always be able to use their current radios.

As Hagen noted, XM and Sirius compete against AM/FM radio — a free, ubiquitous service with over 230 million weekly listeners in the U.S., as compared to the 14 million combined subscribers satellite radio has today. In order for us to effectively compete and continue to win over subscribers from free radio, our pricing needs to remain competitive. In an industry characterized by constant change, the merger of Sirius and XM will make audio entertainment better for consumers in myriad ways: More choice, more innovation, better pricing and a stronger competitor in the audio entertainment landscape.

As for Hagen’s suggestion of an “All Lynyrd Skynyrd, All The Time” station, we’ll gladly take that under advisement...read more: here

Labels: merger, sirius, xm