NBA and Dish Network Strike a Deal
While no details have been announced it appears that the NBA and Dish Network reached an agreement over the weekend, as Dish Network has started accepting orders for the NBA League Pass package.
A number of Dish Network customers contacted me over the weekend relieved that the package was remaining on Dish Network for the 2008/2009 NBA season.
Customers may order the NBA League Pass by calling Dish Network or by ordering via the Dish Network website by CLICKING HERE.
While this is has been a successful negotiation for the Dish Network programming team, lets hope they continue to ride the momentum as I am hearing that various local stations around the country are now running ads stating that they could be removed from Dish Network on December 31st if a deal is not made between Dish and those stations.
Siriusly Mad
The first channel merger happened last week between XM Satellite Radio and Sirius and not everyone is happy about it. In fact it seems like many Sirius and XM fans are very upset about the change made.
Internet message boards have lit up since Wednesday with many upset satellite radio fans voicing their anger at the changes that were made. Most were upset that the changes were not announced before they happened. Most satellite radio customers did not find out about the changes until they turned their radios on Wednesday morning or when they got the email from Sirius XM about that changes which have already taken place.
Sirius / XM should have announced the changes to its customers BEFORE it made them. For customers waking up and finding that their favorite channel is no more is not a great way to treat their paying customers.
Even for those who read things like The Satellite Dish and online satellite radio forums such as XMFan.COM and DigitalRadioCentral.COM who knew about the changes before they happened were upset about the changes. For many of the channels which were not removed there were still changes made to many of the channels. This was done so that they could merge the XM and Sirius offerings together of like channels.
For example on XM 80’s on 8 the only XM DJ to remain in the changeover is Rick Stacy, all other XM DJ’s have been replaced with Sirius’s DJ’s which in this case are all of the original MTV VJ’s. Also XM’s version of the 80’s channel had a deep rich playlist that played everything from the 80’s while the new channel only seems to play the top 40 songs from the decade. In listening this weekend I heard two songs played twice within 2 hours of each other, to me and others this is unacceptable.
Also some changes don’t make sense to me and others, for example XM Comedy was replaced by Sirius’s Raw Dog Comedy Channel. Now for me I was looking forward to this change since comedian Jim Breuer hosts his own show “Breuer Unleashed” on Raw Dog Comedy every weekday. For some reason though the Jim Breuer show is not carried by the XM version of Raw Dog Comedy which makes zero sense to me.
Another group upset with the change is parents with young kids as Sirius’s Kids Stuff (which was geared towards younger kids and had no DJ’s) was replaced by Kids Place Live which has DJ’s and aims to 3 – 7 year olds. The parents want a channel which is aimed towards preschool aged children which was what the old Kids Stuff channel was geared to.
It appears that a number of folks have been so upset at the changes made and the way that the changes were made that they have called to cancel their satellite radio service. Judging by the reports of long hold times to speak to the cancelation department it appears that others are upset as well.
While I personally understand why the changes were needed, I must agree with others who are upset about not being told in advance about the changes. Why did Sirius XM management feel like they couldn’t communicate with its paying customers before making all of these changes? As a paying customer it almost made me feel like they didn’t care about us and were going to do what they wanted anyways. For me that did not leave a good taste in my mouth, no wonder why their stock is down to around a quarter.
Kyle Luna commented:
Some other channels aren't full blown simulcasts either, for example Sirius's Sirius XM Stars doesn't have GMA Radio like XM's, and Sirius's Mad Dog Radio doesn't have the Dan Patrick show like XM's.
TSW commented:
As a counterpoint to the comments here, I've been loving the merger. I have both XM and Sirius receivers in my car, though the Sirius receiver was vastly inferior (in terms of the user interface), and the only reason I used it was to receive Howard Stern's channels. When I want to listen to music, I listen to my iPod. When I want news or Stern, I listen to Sirius. Well, the sirius receiver finally broke, and I went without satellite for a year until the merger finally completed. I'm very happy now that I have XM again, with Best of Sirius, providing Stern on XM. If you want to listen to a good stream of music, buy an iPod, use the new Genius Playlist feature. ;-)
bjf commented:
I could not believe all my favorite XM channels got deleted by Sirius.
After many years a loyal XM customer I cancelled my service for all my radios. No sense is spending lots of $$$ for nothing.
SiriusXM is now a wasteland run by morons. Really pathetic how bad they our now.
This merger should NEVER have been allowed. Talk about your anti American behavior. Satellite radio is now pretty much over.
bjf
jerryez commented:
Sounds like they way Dish Network has been treating its' customers for years.
xmrblondex commented:
I'm convinced that they waited until the early bird pass was over so they could charge everyone the 20 dollars extra. What a bunch of pricks.
Tim Grimm commented:
I've been an XM Radio subscriber for about 8 years. I was hoping that the merger would offer more music choices. I listened to The Boneyard on XM and would have gladly paid extra to also get Hair Nation and Buzzsaw from Sirius. Now two of those stations are gone (although The Boneyard is scheduled to return next year). IMO, it seems like a lost opportunity for Sirius XM to capture more revenue.