The Alabama House of Representatives has unanimously passed a resolution opposing the proposed XM and Sirius merger.

House Joint Resolution 144 was introduced last Tuesday, March 20th, and will now go to the Alabama Senate.

The resolution stated "that the Attorney General of the United States and the Federal Communications Commission are encouraged to disapprove the proposed merger between the only two national satellite radio companies."

The resolution also says: "that the merger will result in consumers, musicians, and other entertainers being subject to a single company with unlimited market power to impose anti-competitive terms, conditions, and prices;" "the combination of these two satellite radio companies will potentially restrict programming, reduce diversity, and diminish creativity; each result negatively impacting the public interest;" and "unquestionably, a government sanctioned monopoly is harmful to consumers and the public and should be avoided and denied."

In a statement, the NAB said that "It is our hope that similar resolutions will be introduced in other states."

[FMQB] 

UPDATE: XM Satellite Radio has issued a statement about the Alabama resolution:

"The NAB’s unprecedented campaign against the merger demonstrates that AM and FM broadcasters vigorously compete with satellite radio. The more the NAB does to oppose the merger, the more it weakens their credibility."

Perhaps the most significant revelation about Sirius Backseat TV is the content partners. At CES we saw that Cartoon Network was a content partner, but the adding of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel shows that Sirius has a powerhouse of children's programming backing this effort.

That's huge, because Sirius has essentially covered all the bases for the leaders in children's television.

In a statement, Denise Dahldorf, Executive Vice President of MTV Networks Content Distribution and Marketing said, "like all of our MTVN brands, our goal for Nickelodeon is to be everywhere our audiences are, and the launch of Sirius Backseat TV gives kids and families even more screens to interact with us."

"Disney Channel viewers expect to be able to access their favorite shows and stars wherever they are on a wide variety of devices," said Ben Pyne, President of Disney and ESPN Networks Affiliate Sales and Marketing.

"Cartoon Network Mobile is a customized programming service designed for the on-the-go mobile lifestyle," said Coleman Breland, Executive Vice President of sales and marketing for Turner Network Sales. "This new venture with Sirius is one we think parents will see the benefits of and represents the next generation of back seat entertainment."

The one-year of free Sirius Backseat TV and free Sirius Satellite Radio is pretty significant as well. Just like satellite radio, I think the Backseat TV product requires consumers to first experience the product before they realize that they want the product. While $470 isn't a cheap offering - that price does include the full year of service as well as the hardware - which might make it an easier sell at the dealership.

My only concern with Sirius Backseat TV: there are tons of ways for a substitutive product to overtake them in the marketplace. Yes, it's live streaming content while on-the-go, but - as the iPod has shown us - people are just as accepting of a cached solution (especially if it's without a monthly charge). With WiFi-enabled households becoming nearly ubiquitous, what's to stop a device to download new programs while your car is parked in the garage? I'm not saying that Sirius Backseat TV doesn't have potential, but ignoring the competitive risks is silly.

But with Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network on their side - as well as the key OEM partnership with Chrysler - Sirius might have a decent jump on the competition as demand for this type of service grows.

Sirius Backseat TV will initially be available in the new 2008 Chrysler Town & Country and 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan minivans. Sirius Backseat TV will also be available in the 2008 Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, Dodge Magnum, Jeep Commander and Jeep Grand Cherokee.

These factory-installed options (MSRP of $470) will include the Sirius Backseat TV receiver plus a one-year subscription to Sirius Backseat TV as well as Sirius Satellite Radio. After the first year, the Sirius Backseat TV subscription price will run you $7/month (but you knew that already) with the regular Sirius Satellite Radio subscription price of $12.95. Sirius Backseat TV is only available to Sirius Satellite Radio subscribers.

An after-market version of the Sirius Backseat TV receiver is expected to become available this summer.

Content partners include Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network. 

The Sirius Backseat TV service will be available to the rear-seats only while driving, but passengers in the front can listen to Sirius Satellite Radio at the same time. When the vehicle is in park though, passengers in the front-seat can watch the video programming if it's equipped with MyGig. Check out hands-on photos of Sirius Backseat TV from earlier this year.

[Sirius.com]
Thanks Nathan!

Directed Electronics has a lucrative distribution agreement with Sirius, but renewing that agreement may be difficult when the contract expires if the proposed XM-Sirius merger passes.

Under the agreement with Sirius, Directed distributes Sirius receivers, tuners and other accessories - comprising over 90 percent of Sirius' aftermarket volume. The deal between Directed and Sirius is set to expire in April 2008.

On Wednesday, RBC Capital Markets analyst Scot Ciccarelli cautioned that Sirius' issues may weigh on Directed's share potential.

"We were already concerned about the pending expiration of Directed's contract with Sirius given our expectation for a more difficult negotiation, but the pending merger of the two satellite operators has magnified our concerns," wrote Ciccarelli in a client note.

"XM and Sirius will push hard to get this deal done and maximize cost synergies without significantly raising their monthly fees (a possible requirement for regulatory passage) which will likely squeeze their respective business partners – including Directed, in our view."

Ciccarelli said there are also worries about changing market conditions and the satellite radio model begins to move from a retail to an OEM driven model.

Directed has already warned that's its Sirius sales could be slowing, with sales of its satellite radio products expected to decline between 11% and 22% in 2007. The company acknowledged that retailers were left with 30 to 90 days of excess inventory of Sirius products, depending on the dealer, at the end of last year. But dealers are now supposedly working through that inventory and some are beginning to reorder in larger quantities.

[Forbes] 

Year-over-year retail sales fell 33% in February, an increase from the 44% drop in January (and 46% drop in December). Remember that this time last year was when we were just beginning to slide down the Stern Effect, so YoY comparisons are going to get easier from this point forward.

The Quick Glance:

• Sirius February 2007 Retail Sales:
  Down 31% YoY
• XM February 2007 Retail Sales:
  Down 35% YoY

• Sirius Feb '07 Retail Marketshare: 56%
• XM Feb '07 Retail Marketshare: 44%

Sirius continues its lead in retail marketshare, gaining a percentage point from January (if your math is rusty: Sirius had 55% retail marketshare in January, while XM had 45%). Still, considering the dismal retail sales numbers from December (particularly for XM) any signs of improvement is good news.

Baring any unforeseen hickups in production, we can easily expect retail sales YoY numbers to rise in the coming months.

Bridge Ratings has continued their study about the impact of the XM-Sirius merger on consumer interest. It's probably going to be an ongoing study because, well, it's great media bait (hell, I'm talking about it).

As with an earlier study released back in February, Bridge has found that a majority of potential subscribers (people who expressed an interest in subscribing to either one or both satellite radio providers) would rather hold out until the merger goes through before making the jump.

That majority who will wait to see if the merger passes before signing up equals 58 percent even - that's up from the 55 percent of respondents last month. A lower number of people said they'll subscribe within 60 days anyway (19% this month versus the 24% last month).

This trending says to me that XM-Sirius need to do a better job selling their current service to customers and at the same time selling the possible future service to regulators (a hard feat since media interest centers around the merger).

An additional aspect of Bridge's study is the interest in Howard Stern by current XM Satellite Radio subscribers (again, media bait.). The thing that confuses me is that the results are absolutely unchanged from the previous report. Bridge doesn't indicate a timeframe for when they polled the 1,000 XM subs, so it's hard to say for sure (I would assume it's a different set of respondents?). Either way, a whopping 88% of XM subscribers seem to care less about the ability to listen to Stern, which might explain why they subscribe to XM and not Sirius.

Read the full report on Bridge Ratings. 

Sirius is now available as standard equipment on the 2007 model year Range Rover and Supercharged Range Rover Sport. Add to that, Sirius will now be a factory installed option on the all-new LR2 that goes on sale here in the States next week.

This makes Sirius as either a factory-installed option, or as standard-equipment, on all Land Rover vehicles (including the LR2, the LR3, Range Rover Sport and the Range Rover).

"Land Rover is delighted to offer Sirius as a standard feature or a factory option on all of our vehicles in the US," said Richard Beattie, Executive Vice President of Marketing & Sales Land Rover North America. "Land Rover can take you anywhere and with Sirius you can listen to your radio wherever your Land Rover may take you."

Land Rover is part of the Ford Motor Company's Premium Auto Group (PAG) which includes Volvo, Jaguar and Aston Martin as well as Land Rover.

Sirius Satellite Radio's application for repeater towers in Hawaii and Alaska has brought on the ire of the NAB, and yet the WCS Coalition (who traditionally opposed anything regarding satellite radio repeater towers) is not opposing it.

Sirius' application for repeaters in Hawaii and Alaska are currently in a comment period where other organizations have the right to oppose or support the FCC special temporary authority application.

Traditionally, we've seen the WCS Coalition oppose these STAs, yet they've delivered a shocker and stated that they would not oppose Sirius' request for the Alaska/Hawaii repeaters - nor would they oppose 15 other repeaters. Even more crazy, the WCS Coalition will in fact no longer oppose any repeaters below 2,000 EIRP.

Yet the NAB has filed a petition opposing the repeaters. Why? Not because of any interference concerns. Nope. Their reasoning is that the original 1997 DARS license intended the repeaters to "re-transmit the information from the satellite to overcome the effects of signal blockage and multipath interference" - and that's bad. See, the NAB doesn't mind if the repeaters are used to improve satellite signal, but they don't like it if it extends the signal.

Sounds reasonable right? I didn't think so.

It's good to see that the NAB is always looking out for the public interest.

[NAB Petition to Deny (PDF)]
[Satellite Radio TechWorld]