The spawn of the XM Sirius fusion emerges tomorrow, and Orbitcast has picked up the complete channel listing for XM subscribers that goes into effect in less than 24 hours. It’s fairly grim for some diehard XM fans—a lot of rock stations have been erased (bye bye punk channel) or are being replaced by Sirius pseudo-equivalents. Hit the jump for the full list, but it might not be pretty. Makes those new la carte XM plans sound pretty good, right?
Now that Sirius and XM are merged, it makes sense that we’ll get a dual tuner that picks up both flavours of satellite radio, right? WRONG.
For those of you aspiring to be the next Satellite Radio Raheem, here’s a few newly leaked photos of the upcoming Sirius SUB-X2 Boombox. Much like the current SUB-X1, the new music player will sport a front-panel headphone jack, auxiliary input for other MP3 players, and a universal docking system. I wonder if that docking system will support XM radios as well, now that they’re married and all. Prices and more detailed specs have yet to be announced, though it shouldn’t cost you too much more than its last iteration.
We’ve already heard about the $US4 Best of Sirius and Best of XM expansion plans, but how else is the satellite radio merger changing subscription options? XM customers will now be able to subscribe to limited plans known as Mostly Music and Mostly Talk. Each offers a selection of channels for $US10. Also, on new Sirius hardware, a $US7/mo plan can get you 50 non-premium a la carte channels with additional channels purchasable for 50 cents a month. As you can see, this merger has done nothing to simplify subscription plans in satellite radio. [Sirius A La Carte via Zatz Not Funny]
Having seen—and tested—the earlier evolutions of satellite radio receiver, from dashboard model to in-home unit to hip-connected recorder/player, I’ve felt like I’m judging contestants in the Special Olympics: The radio service is fine, but the gadgets aren’t really expected to measure up to other contenders in the same field. XM’s latest, the XMp3, is impressive in that it records five channels at once and records your most popular stations automatically. But it needs this functionality to make up for the fact that it depends on spotty satellite reception for content.
All we have is a blurb in Popular Science magazine this afternoon, but it would appear there’s a first look of sorts going down today with the XMp3. The portable device is an XM Radio player that can record up to five satellite stations at once. “Other portable players save only one channel,” Popsci notes, “but the XMp3 can decode five incoming streams to snag multiple songs whether it’s in the dock or in your pocket.” That’s it for now. Expect more soon or whenever XM decides to give up more info. [Orbitcast]
To XM customers who’ve been jealous of Howard Stern content and Sirius customers who’ve always wanted to tune in to Oprah & Friends (a remarkably high crossover demographic we’re sure), the newly wedded Sirius/XM has revealed their cross-content “best of” packages available for US$4 a month. From what we can tell, subscribing to either offer looks to provide you with the most popular entertainment and sports channels that the other guy’s got. For a potentially incomplete list of channels in each package, read on. Otherwise, continue mainlining Apple news fix.
The Sirius-XM Merger was finally approved by the FCC today following a 3-2 vote by the commission. The final and deciding vote only came after both parties agreed to pay a US$19.7 million fine for violating FCC regulations. After 16 months of MTV-esque “drama” and gnashing of teeth, the US$3.6 billion merger means that subscribers of both services will now get the best of both worlds. [SF Gate]
It’s not official yet, but FCC Chairman Kevin Martin (one of five relevant votes) has decided to allow the merge between Sirius and XM satellite radio providers. However, there are a few caveats that the companies would need to accept–but it’s all good news for the consumer.
