BostonPocketPC

Well its about time...the Federal Communications Commission has officially and formally approved the merger between Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. Hopefully I can end one of my subscriptions and just keep one satellite radio in my car. Yes I am one of the few that have both because there is content on both that I like and have been waiting for this merger to be approved for quite a while. According to the details of the merger content will be available on all current radios and of course new features on future ones like a la carte channel selection.

Both XM and Sirius must cap their prices for three years after joining and allow consumers to choose the channels they want and pay less for packages of channels and a la carte menu pricing. Radios that allow a la carte channel selections will eventually be available for in car dashboard installations as well as stand alone radios.

On Thursday, XM, of the District, agreed to pay $17.5 million in fines and Sirius, based in New York, agreed to pay $2.2 million to resolve complaints that some of their radio receivers sold to consumers and signal-boosting radio towers violated FCC technical rules. Both companies said they would bring their equipment into compliance.  If you noticed newer radios no longer have the strong FM transmitter in them (you know the ones that bleed into neighboring cars when you pull up to a stoplight and share the same frequency and for a brief moment the content of your satellite radio until you pull away) and now have external FM transmitters that you have to string somewhere in your car making for a messier installation, but FCC compliant.

Right now I am wondering what will happen with my lifetime subscription radio, I wonder if they would wave the $75 transfer fee so I can also get a la carte programming.

For more information on the merger as well as pricing check out SIRIUSmerger.com and XMmerger.com.