The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is giving thumbs down to the proposed XM and Sirius merger. The National Association of Broadcasters have demonized both satellite radio companies and have spent millions on lobbying in the hopes of blocking the marriage. The Catholic Church and the NAACP strongly support XM and Sirius joining forces. A line has been drawn in the sand and the government’s decision (anti-trust, etc.) may be coming soon.
So… where do you stand? Is the merger good for the consumer – is there any real benefit for the listener? Are we looking at two broken business models that will eventually break down even if they merge? Make your prediction now, and laugh or cry when the decision is announced.
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12 comments:
I think this will hurt the consumer. With two companies competing for one's business they are forced to lower prices in order to attract customers. By these to major companie's merging it can only hurt the consumer, and leave us hoping for a new company to enter the market. With a better product and a lower price.
I don't think that they will eventually break down if they do merge, but they will definitely lose business if another station comes into play. I predict that with these two stations merging, it will cause quite a stir with the consumers making it the "big, best new thing!" but when the hype dies down and another station arrives, it will only be bad for the company rather than the consumer. It seems quite pointless to me, because there will always be competition.
I believe the merge is good for the consumer, it will provide the consumer with the benefits of two great companies and offer both of their services. the only issue i see is if someone(consumer) likes one over the other. But if this does fail i guess we'll see which company will succeed over the other and be the ultimate satellite radio service.
This merger would hurt the consumer. As of now there are two companies competing for our business, and therefore are offering better prices and better service. But if they merge, we will be left with a huge company earning a profit. They will be able to raise their rates and lower the quality of service. Good for business, bad for customers.
This merger is coming into place because neither business is strong enough by itself. To overly simplify it, let's imagine that both companies need 500 customers to make even a marginal profit. Each company currently has 400 customers and as such, unless either makes a dramatic change in their services both business will fail. If these companies merge they will have a combined 800 customers, but the biggest benefit will come two-fold. First of all, consumers no longer have to pick between one company that has some of what they want and another company that has other things they want. But biggest benefit though is the lowerest costs. With a single company they now only need 700 customers and thus this is their one chance as a business to continue. With their current business model it is hard to say for sure what to expect the future to hold for these companies regardless to whether or not they merge.
Personally, I have never owned satellite radio. While if someone offered it to me for free I wouldn't turn it down, owning satellite radio has never really been a goal of mine, and as such I can't know why one brand would be superior to the other or how. Channels may vary between them, but it seems to me the quantity is so huge anyway that shouldn't matter much.
Even with the limited idea I have of the whole satellite radio thing, I don't feel that the merger would be a good idea. Since they're the only two companies that offer this service, upon merging they could raise their prices as much as they wanted since there would be no competition.
I don’t think it’s a good idea for the two satellite radio companies to merge. As a consumer I think the satellite radio company would be involved in a monopoly were the two companies could charge any fee they decided for their exclusive service. The only positive I see is that smaller satellite radio companies now have a chance grow because the top two companies in the business has merged, and now there the only other alternative.
What I don't get about this is why the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in against this. I think that this is very good for the consumer, both are very good companies and i think that the consumer would benefit from this by having even more options for music. I don't think that these businesses will break down, only get better.
I think the merging is really only an attempt to save both companies. The two companies may make alternatives to try to adjust and accomodate the listener's choices. This could be good for the consumer for the two companies may push and try harder in achieving more listener's. This could be a failed attempt especially if so many people are not happy with the merging. The company may be the one hurt in the end just because this seems like a sink or swim situation and disapointment from consumer from the very begining only spells ending solutions.
I believe that the XM/Sirius merger would be beneficial to everyone. The merger will help both companies to save money and increase capacity to be able to offer a greater variety of programming. The savings will allow the merged company to pass on the savings to the consumer.
Competition is not a problem realizing that there are many forms of radio that would compete with the merged company. Companies such as DMX are in competition with XM and Sirius right now but are not as well known. The merger might make the smaller companies in the market to become more active. Therefore, I disagree with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's position and support the XM/Sirius merger.
I feel that the proposed merge has some positives but all together is bad for the consumer. I feel that it would be almost like a monopoly in satellite radio and competetion for the consumer is always a good thing.I feel if more satellite stations came into play that the merge would be good, but as of now it wouldnt.
I don’t believe a merger between Sirius and Xm radio would be beneficial because if the two merge than the competition will be taken out of Satellite radio. The merger wouldn’t only affect satellite radio but fm and am radio as well. Right now the competition is between Sirius, Xm, Fm, and Am. If the two sattelites merged than it would become those two satellites ,as one, competing against Clear Channel radio. Eliminatiing the chances of all other radios. Oligopolie is defined as, A market condition in which sellers are so few that the actions of any one of them will materially affect price and have a measurable impact on competitors. If these two satellites merge than radio will have Oligopolies between Clear Channel and Satellite.
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