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Post Merger Programming

A

arnoldevns

Even though XM and Sirius have a long long LOOOONG way to go before this is a done deal, it's still fun to speculate on what might stay or go on the merged service.

I think we can safely assume that the decades channels on both services will somehow merge. It's much tougher to figure out which rock, R&B, Country, etc.. channels will stay or how those might be merged.

There are several duplicate news channels including CNN and Fox. That's no big deal.

Obviously Howard Stern, Oprah and Martha Stewart will continue to have their own channels.

The comedy channels will probably merge into two or three channels.

I think Sirius' local traffic & weather channels will win out over XM's version simply because they are locally produced and probably offer better information.

What are your thoughts?
 
My 2 cents:

Decades channels would merge, but retain XM's wider playlists.

Music channels would be rearranged, with some genres getting a narrow (Sirius-style) and a deeper (XM-style) presentation.
Example: Sirius "First Wave" (new wave hits) would compliment XM's "Fred" (deep classic alternative). Deeper channels would have less DJ chatter. Music channels unique to each brand would remain.

Exclusives would probably remain (MLB, NFL, NASCAR, Air America, Oprah, Howard Stern, Opie & Anthony, Martha Stewart, NPR etc.). There would be merged programming on other talk channnels (much of which is duplicated). Most likely there would be a "Left", a "Right", and a general talk channel. Fox Talk and Air America would most likely remain separate from these.

XM's Navigation/Weather products would be retained. XM has the technology edge, and a lot more equipment in the marketplace (think of all the Toyota, GM, and Honda installs alone). Their system may win out in the end, though I suspect Sirius and XM will be running parallel systems for some time after the proposed merger.

A "tier" pricing system may emerge: A base "music-only" tier, an expanded tier, and a premium tier (sports, possibly Howard).
Let's hope the "full monty" is still 13 bucks/mo.

...or the FCC will squash the whole thing (very probable).
 
I was reading on the Sirius board about all-Sinatra replacing standards. I've been told Sirius has a great standards channel, but obviously it won't now. It has been my opinion, based on sampling in stores, that XM Frank's Place wasn't as good as, say, regular radio's Music of Your Life. Or XM 40s or XM Escape. Now if Escape could be all-instrumental, and Sirius Movin' Easy could take the vocals from Escape, and the old Sirius Standards channel could be revived, and XM 40s could take some of the 50s material from XM 50s ...
 
Obtuse1 said:
My 2 cents:

Decades channels would merge, but retain XM's wider playlists.

Music channels would be rearranged, with some genres getting a narrow (Sirius-style) and a deeper (XM-style) presentation.
Example: Sirius "First Wave" (new wave hits) would compliment XM's "Fred" (deep classic alternative). Deeper channels would have less DJ chatter. Music channels unique to each brand would remain.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing that there will be research into whether or not deep playlists help or hurt. Obviously, the music geeks like the the larger playlists but in the interest of growing the services they may be "too hip for the room". Mel Karmazin does very little by the seat of his pants.

Another factor here...assuming this merger happens, it's unlikely they'll keep both satellites, which means bandwidth (and # of channels) is pretty much limited to what exists now....maybe somewhat fewer if they determine that poor audio quality is hurting subscription growth.
 
Some of the decades are not completely compatible with each other. For example, Sirius has no 40's channel, and XM 50's on 5 is not the same as Sirius Gold because 50's includes everything from the 50's (including the vanilla pop standards) and Sirius Gold is pretty much a Real Oldies station with early 60's material (mostly Pre-British Invasion and some of it overlaps with 60's Explosion). But yes I agree that XM's deeper playlists and more niche stations and shows need to be retained and don't lose the Classic Rhythm & Blues channel (50's and 60's) that XM has and Sirius doesn't
 
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