The Reverend Jesse Jackson today at an FCC hearing on localism voiced his opinions on the potential competitive harms he feels could come to minorities should the Sirius-XM merger be approved.

"The proposed Sirius-XM merger would eliminate the potential of any meaningful competition in the satellite radio market, which would, in turn, permanently block the potential for diversity of ownership and control by minorities in the only medium capable of nationwide broadcasting," said Jackson.

Jackson continued, "I urge this commission to view this proposed transaction - as it is currently structured - not in the public interest. It will eliminate diversity of content and meaningful opportunities for minority partnership in media ownership. This cannot happen. This commission must uphold the statutes and regulations that promote content diversity and opportunities for media ownership by minorities."

"The commission should seize the opportunity presented by this transaction to make a difference that serves the best interests of all concerned: Sirius and XM in their objectives, the marketplace and diversified ownership and competition, and the public's right of access to benefit from varied programming that is appropriate and feasible," Jackson continued.

"The proposed transaction would result in the business combination of the two most significant and largest companies in satellite communications. In effect, this creates a monopoly, virtually making competition impossible and programming dangerously subject to the combined entity's self-interests and whim. This puts the public at a disadvantage. It has the potential of serious economic havoc on any business attempting to be a part of this marketplace and to the communities of which these businesses serve," said Jackson.

This is in direct opposition to the opinion of the NAACP, which came out in favor of the merger earlier this year, stating that a merged satellite radio company would "strengthen its commitment to diversity."

As we near the final stretch of this high profile merger, it looks like things are really starting to heat up.

[Radio Ink]

Looks like XM reserved some key OEM announcements for SEMA 2007 this year. First we had the Hyundai announcement this morning, and now the word is out that Toyota's first factory-equipped XM vehicles are set to available this upcoming spring.

The all-new 2009 Toyota Corolla and Matrix (pictured) will be the first Toyota cars to offer XM as factory-installed equipment. The popular models will also offer XM NavTraffic as an option when equipped with a navigation system... another first from Toyota. XM and XM NavTraffic are already available as factory installed features on the Lexus LS 460 and 600h models, and will be available factory installed on the upcoming 2008 LX 570.

XM will be a standard feature on all 2009 Corolla and Matrix vehicles that come with the JBL premium audio system. These will of course include the standard 3-month free trial subscription.

Toyota announced earlier this year that they've extended their partnership with XM through 2017. They've also stated that the annual factory production of XM-equipped vehicles is expected to exceed one million by 2010.

[Photo courtesy of Jalopnik]

Enter the MusicPal by Freecom. It's a wireless internet radio that doesn't require a computer to tune into individual stations. It's also an MP3 player. And an RSS reader. Oh, and an alarm clock.

Using a WiFi connection, the MusicPal will stream internet radio - with support to over 5.000 radio stations - plus it will stream any MP3 music from your computer or home network. The RSS reader will display your feeds right on the unit - hardly useful if you want to be knee deep into your Orbitcast feed. But think more along the lines of RSS feeds of stocks, sports scores, local weather, etc.

And it's available for $149.

[Product Page via GeekAlerts]
Thanks Bearing Drift Ohio!

Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck issued a client note this morning stating that growth of Sirius remains strong, and they still expect the merger to be approved by year-end.

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (SIRI) stock dropped roughly 9% yesterday amid concerns that the DOJ process would be extended. But its Bear Stearns' view that the merger remains on-track and will close by year-end. Peck reiterated his Outperform rating, adding "Sirius could be worth about $5.50/share at YE'08."

Peck was also impressed with Sirius' results announced yesterday, with the company having had beat out many of Bear Stearns' estimates (sans total revenue which was impacted by higher than expected OEM gross adds).

Sirius' stock is up 3.65% this morning,

Hyundai has expanded its rollout of XM as a factory-installed, standard feature across several new vehicles in its lineup.

For the 2008 model year, Hyundai will add the Tiburon, Accent and Tucson as new vehicles with XM Satellite Radio as a standard feature. On top of that, XM will also be standard on the new 2009 Elantra Touring - the concept vehicle (pictured above) was revealed today at the 2007 SEMA Show.

Hyundai's rollout of XM as a standard feature the U.S. started with the 2007 model year. Since then XM is a standard feature on the Azera, Elantra, Santa Fe, Sonata and Veracruz.

All Hyundais with XM installed include a 3-month free subscription.

The new Elantra Touring is scheduled to arrive in the U.S. in 2008 and is taking advantage of the strong resurgence in small hatchbacks. The photo above shows the unveiling of the Elantra Touring "Beach Cruiser" Concept, a pimped-out, customized version by K-Daddyz Kustomz of Bakersfield, CA.

Glass, Lewis & Co., a leading independent proxy advisory firms, has recommended that stockholders of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (SIRI) vote "FOR" the companies' merger proposals.

According to Glass Lewis's analysis, "the transaction is fairly priced and will yield substantial cost synergies for shareholders of both companies." As a result, Glass Lewis believes that the "proposed merger is in the interests of shareholders of both companies."

I'm not a shareholder of either company (never have been, never will be), but I know a lot of you are. So I'm curious, how will you vote?

This might very well be the last quarter that we will be comparing XM and Sirius subscriber numbers, as two separate companies at least. So, let's get to it before time runs out and we're forced to hold hands and sing Kumbaya together.

And because pictures are much easier to look at than a matrix of mind-numbing digits, here's some charts to help us along.

Total Satellite Radio Subscribers

• Sirius Satellite Radio: 7,667,476
• XM Satellite Radio: 8,570,000

In other words, Sirius is currently where XM was in 4Q06 (~7.6M). In the 2nd-quarter of this year, Sirius was where XM was in 3Q06 (~7.1M).

Remember, there's a seasonality in retail which historically sees a spike in Q4. So this may not be a fair comparison. The killer question is whether either company has the momentum to have a stellar holiday season this year to make a difference. So far, the signs have not been encouraging.

Quarterly Net Subscribers

• Sirius Satellite Radio: 524,938
• XM Satellite Radio: 315,000

Quarterly Gross Subscribers

• Sirius Satellite Radio: 999,284
• XM Satellite Radio: 952,000

Since gross subscribers scrubs out the effects of churn, and evens out other factors like including together promotional/non-promotional subscribers, here we can gather a better sense of market penetration. So I really do like to look at gross subscribers over net subscribers when looking at how both are performing.

Again, we see that in 4Q06, there was a tipping point where Sirius now leads XM consistently in gross subscriber additions.

XM and MySpace have announced the grand prize winner of their “Show Us What Ya Got!” contest: Tanya Morgan.

Selected from among the three finalists chosen by the MySpace community, Tanya Morgan (pictured below) won the chance to appear live at the Power Summit last week. They performed their original song, “Walk My Way,” at the Las Vegas event which also featured performances from artists Chamillionaire and Talib Kweli.

A re-broadcast of the industry-packed event will premiere tomorrow, October 31st at 6pm ET on RAW (ch 66).

Over 6,000 original song entries were reviewed and considered by a panel of judges which was comprised of music editors and industry artists who narrowed the submissions down to five finalists. The final three, Tanya Morgan, Metafore and Mitch Gunz, were then selected by the MySpace community to perform at The Power Summit.

The competition was hosted by Mz. Kitti from XM’s RAW. The performances were judged by XM’s DJ Xclusive of The City (ch 67) and Leo G of RAW and Dion Summers of The Heat (ch 68).

As the grand prize winner, Tanya Morgan will receive a mixtape created with a high profile DJ; the opportunity to appear as the opening act on the MySpace Secret Show; a local grassroots sniping promotional campaign; and all expense paid trip to be a guest on XM Satellite Radio and two weeks XM airplay; and a MySpace Music Feature.

Check out myspace.com/xm to view Tanya Morgan’s winning song, “Walk My Way” as well as view the other finalists' songs. Or follow the jump to see a ridiculous amount of photos from the event...

While the subscriber and revenue growth of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. looks pretty darn impressive, some analysts aren't quite swooning over the numbers, particularly none other than Bank of America's Jonathan Jacoby.

In a client note issued this morning, Jacoby warns investors "don't be fooled."

His reason? SAC and Cash EBITDA were worse than expected, despite higher net subscriber additions and a lower churn rate. Jacoby adds that the higher ramp up of OEM subscriber additions will catch up on the churn rate over time.

Jacoby points out that OEM additions for the quarter are understating churn, as those many automotive subscribers carry an estimated 6-month contract period. So by default, no churn can occur.

Sirius Satellite Radio continues its march of amazing growth with the release of its 3Q07 results.

Sirius saw a 45% increase in revenue from 3Q06 to $241.8 million, and subscriber growth of 524,938 net additions during the quarter, driving ending subscribers up 50% year over year.

Sirius ended third quarter 2007 with 7,667,476 subscribers.

Growth came from 64,101 net subscribers from the retail/aftermarket channels and 460,837 from the OEM channel.

Advertising revenue was $8.5 million and ARPU was $10.71. SAC per gross subscriber addition was $103 compared to $114 for the year-ago third quarter. The monthly average all-in customer churn rate was 2.1%.

(I'm stuck on the train right now, so more coverage to come shortly)

UPDATE: I'm back now. No live-blogging of the conference call (sorry) but I'll have a recap of what was discussed soon.

See the full financials after the jump...