So this week the Department of Justice gave the go ahead for XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio to merge.  The question is what does this mean for consumers?

So far the answer is nothing because we are still waiting for the FCC to issue their decision.  We can only hope that the FCC issues its ruling and soon.  The delay of waiting for approval has put the operation and expansion of both satellite radio companies on a hold since the merger was first announced.

I am sure the NAB will be doing what they can at the FCC to derail the entire process.  I find this funny, as throughout the entire merger wait the NAB has been saying that XM and Sirius are not competition to the broadcasters, but they have sure been working like crazy to kill this deal.  Why the NAB is fighting so hard to kill a technology they don’t consider competition is beyond me.  It seems to me that the NAB has a lot more important issues to tend to then worrying about satellite radio, but hey that’s me.

When the news of the satellite merger first came out, I was very excited by the thought of XM and Sirius merging.  The thought of combining the services and getting rid of the duplicate content and adding more niche programming seemed like a great things to me, that was until XM and Sirius announced that the merged companies would run as two separate companies.  This is when I turned to be against the merger all the things that were positive about the merger were now gone.  Sure I could subscribe to both services for less then I am paying now for both services, but the dream of getting rid of duplicated programming is now gone and from where I sit this means the bandwidth issues both companies have will remain after the merger.

No one from XM or Sirius have announced yet how customers who subscribe to their service will be able to enjoy services from the other service on their existing radios. When that question is answered I might be totally happy about the merger again.

While some of the benefits of the merger seemed to have gone away since the merger has been announced, if I weighed everything I would still ultimately be in support of the merger just based on the fact that I don’t believe that if they were not allowed to merge that one (or both) of the companies could survive.  In addition since the merger has been announced the quality of the programming of both companies has suffered. 

XM Satellite Radio recently announced that its main programming guru Lee Abrams was leaving the company.  Lee’s vision of XM is what made XM great in it’s early years.  But over the years the company was forced to tighten its belt as unique programming and staff was cut.  In addition when the merger was announced it was like someone hit the creative breaks on both companies.

So to the FCC, I say hurry up and make your decision. Millions of Americans like me are sitting here subscribed to satellite radio and millions of others are holding off getting satellite radio all because they are waiting for you to make your decision.

While I am having mixed feelings about the merger, I feel it is in the best interest for everyone for the FCC to approve this merger.

Red Sox in HD on Dish Network

After missing the first two games of the 2008 baseball season yesterday afternoon Dish Network made NESN HD available to customers.  This will allow Dish Network customers to enjoy the world champion Boston Red Sox in full HD.  This channel however is only game time coverage of NESN HD and not a 24 hour NESN HD feed.  While many would like to have the feed 24/7 I am sure they will be happy just to see the games in HD.

In addition to adding NESN HD, Dish Network also lit up 6 new local HD markets yesterday.  Much more HD is expected from Dish Network in April and that is sure to make lots of Dish Network customers happy.