So HD radio is going to dictate the terms of the merger? I refuse to pay extra for HD-crap when I want to buy a sat radio even if the radio is just included in the car.

I hope that if the merger has clauses about HD radio, XM & Sirius have the good sense to walk away. Let HD radio wallow for a couple more years before fading to oblivion like AM stereo.

It is not about proposals. FCC will set its own rules. What they need is a DOJ guideline which is only availiable if the DOJ says OK.

Agreed, this looks very positive. I have always been convinced that the merger would ultimately be approved, with concessions, and I expected the concessions to take some time to document. I must admit, they sure work slow!!

I'de nornally say that iNiquity couldn't pull-off getting their defective, jamming tehcnology into consumer products that noboby wants, the fact that the FCC turned over our free airways to the iBiquity HD Alliance monopoly, it may happen. At least, the shitballs at iNiquity gave it three years to get into OEM in-dash, so by then, Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep will have cell network, WiFi, WiMax enabled Internet Radio in-dash, then it is over for everyone - BMW has already done it, and all other car manufacturers won't let themselves be left in the dust. So, who would bear the burden of the cost - iNiquity wants around $50 royalties/radio. Seems iNiquity should bear the burden, and satrad manufacturers may balk at the FCC's demands. Since 2000, satrad has been unsuccessful at creating interoperable receivers, and the cost would surely go up dramatically to include HD Radio. Just wait, until consumers find out that HD Radio simply doesn't work, but by then, Strubie will have taken the money and run. Since Strubie doesnlt expect to be profitable this year, either, they may not be around in three years. For their move to Columbia, Md. last year, iNiquity bilked a $300,000 loan out of the State of Md.; the NPR/CPB HD stations bilked Congress out of millions of taxpayers dollars for useless upgrades to HD/IBOC.

Couldn't Satellite Radio simply stop including analog AM/FM in-dash in future receivers?

There is no way the FCC is going to mandate to the OEMS they have to pay Ibiquity to put a chip in their radios. HD radio has a way to go to prove they have the quality product with real consumber demand. The OEMS can not be forced to accept crap. -- and pay for it to boot. Just because Ibiquity wants something; just because the put it down in nice legal language, doesn't mean they get it.

Witll they get a "concession" that the Merged company can not sign an agreement with the OEMs or others to exclude HD radio? Certainly. But its up to Ibiquity to make the case to the OEMs that they have a business model and a quality product that would induce the OEMs to adopt it. They have obviously fallen short ot this.

And thus, no AM/FM receiver will go into a Sirius Radio. This is simple. This rule happens, and then Sirius never combines OEM devices. In fact, I can easily see a scenario where OEM radios are "lifetimed", or something like a 4-year sub that comes with. Like you could get an am-fm radio deck, or get an upgraded Sirius deck with a 4-yr sub.

If that was a possible addition, I couldn't imagine saying, ya, give me am-fm...

All that said, I think this is still a fucking sham, and iSuckuity should go take a flying leap.

I think the FCC could certainly require that HD be included. But cost is a whole other issue. I can't see how the FCC could (or at least would) impose the cost burden onto sat. radio. That is about as absurd as the Georgetown Partners getting 20% of XM/Sirius to program.

To Anonymous- OEM's are not about to sell cars without AM/FM radios...

Why don't terrestrial radio and the NAB launch their own damn satilittes instead of wanting to ride on the coat tails of xm and sirius. I mean really. They spent the last year trying to block the merger, and now that it looks like its going to go thru...they want to steal spectrum from xm and sirius? Gimme a break. Cramer is right. If they spent half their energy on trying to DO something to save their dying format...instead of trying to block the merger, they would have been better off. What a bunch of lame lazy a-holes. :-)

The FCC could kill the deal by approving it with the HD chip requirement. There is no way that XM or Sirius will pay for the chip, and no way that the OEMs will either. This is crap. The fact that they want the chip in there is PROOF that sat radio and terr radio are in competition, despite what the NAB says. Maybe Pepsi should offer Diet Coke!

Hello .....Intelligent Life on Earth,

Lee's resignation marks the imminent merger a hell of a lot more than any filing does.

He's toast because XM ( as you knew it) is toast.

To bad Parson, Panero and a pussy BOD xucked it up so.

Hard to believe Howard Stern changed the complete dynamics of the game.... and he did.

If theysuckiBiquity Digital Corporation wants satellite radio with HD chipsets they can buy their own satellites take on the risk (on their own) and build up their own customer base.

HD Radio sucks so bad nobody would buy a satellite radio if HD Radio was included. Throw it out or walk away and no merger.

Plowboy is dead-on. These are the little signs that would have gone unnoticed had the government been diligent, but since they weren't, these are most definitely end-game signs.

People at one time wanted cassette players in their radios. Then CD players. People just want music. This is the best way to do that, so bring it on! Ditch FM!

If anything, this deal HURTS Terrad. If you choose simply to not include radio, no one will run out and put an am-fm deck in. What'll happen is Sirius decks will have an add-on secondary market. You'll notice it said FM Receiver... but it didn't say you couldn't have a $5 add-on FM/AM.

Iniquity is trying to blackmail the FCC, the deserve nothing and will get nothing. iNiquity is the Satan of radio, sucking the life out of it, everything they touch bombs. If IBOC was even a half way decent idea they would not have to try to force it down everyones throat, that fact alone proves it will go no where, when will this bunch of idiots give up??

Iniquity is trying to blackmail the FCC, the deserve nothing and will get nothing. iNiquity is the Satan of radio, sucking the life out of it, everything they touch bombs. If IBOC was even a half way decent idea they would not have to try to force it down everyones throat, that fact alone proves it will go no where, when will this bunch of idiots give up??

HD Radio needs to be a dealer installed option.

"that any newly introduced satellite radio receiver models that operate with the licensee's satellite DARS system and includes the ability to receive terrestrial analog AM/FM signals..."

Perhaps, satrad receivers could just include some sort of HD Radio input jack, instead of including HD chips in the satrad receviers.

I suspect you are going to see comments on this from GM, Ford, Chrysler, all the other automakers, and the OEM radio suppliers like Pioneer and Alpine. (Yes they make aftermarket radios too, but the same companies supply most of the OEM radios.) There is no way that they are going to sit still for a programming vendor like XM and Sirius getting merger approval to force them to include HD radio in their product without compensation. In fact Ibiquity will want royalties from them for the technology. If Ibiquity wants into the dashboard they are going to have to pay for it like XM and Sirius.

The FCC would have to be clueless to not be able to see the difference between a programming supplier like XM / Sirius and a hardware supplier like the OEMs. But since they have proved to be clueless before, the automakers and radio hardware companies will have to file comments.

Of course if the FCC does make XM and Sirius include HD radio in every radio they MAKE with AM and FM.....they will just quit making radios and let 3rd parties make radios with the XM and Sirius chips....which don't include AM and FM.

And the stupid just keeps on comin......

Where's the pressure coming from? Didn't Agent Dave Kujan ask that question with regard to Keyser Soze in 'The Usual Suspects'? Is iNiquity the Keyser Soze of radio? Why does the FCC allow iNiquity to behave with such audacity? Who is iNquity to dictate the rules for satellite radio? They don't dictate our terms. We turned them and their BigRadio cronies off for good. Who besides Price, Waterhouse - with whose shenanigans I'm well acquainted - is involved in this unseemly business?

Doesn't undue influence always suggest a scheme? No matter what tactics iNiquity and its BigRadio pals tried, didn't citizens reject their rotten jamming ploy? HD receivers stink. Range is short. Digital sound is tiresome. Germany recently junked digital. No one in the UK wants it. So why does iNiquity take loans at the public trough and pressure the FCC to force satellite radio to play by its rules of expedience?

What next? Will iNquity pressure the EPA to mandate HD toilets? Silly? It's no laughing matter. HD's jamming ruined AM and turned off many listeners for good. HD jamming is more subtle on FM yet citizens noticed the difference and departed.

Is HD radio's coffin nail? Why does iNiquity use the FCC to coerce satellite radio to dance to its cloven-hoofed corkscrew-tailed mazurka? What gives here? Why are public officials allowing this blatant perfidy? Where's the pressure coming from?

No matter. Citizens reject twisted designs. BigRadio and its curious cronies might buy public servants, but they can never fool, much less buy, the American citizens.

Paul Vincent Zecchino
Manasota Key, Florida
12 March, 2008

Sounds like HD radio lacks faith in the "Free Market".... just what I need another usless technology that is included in my price by law!

If HD radio was so great I'd pay extra money for it and all the radios would have them, isn't that the case right now??? HA!

This demand for imbedding a chip appears to be the key for opening the backdoor to allow others access to the spectrum and at the same time take profits from the companies who developed the system.

Consumers are the ones who will get screwed on this as this company is demanding $ from Siri/Xm for installing the chips.

Agree with other posters--------these demands are ludicruos.

This demand for imbedding a chip appears to be the key for opening the backdoor to allow others access to the spectrum and at the same time take profits from the companies who developed the system.

Consumers are the ones who will get screwed on this as this company is demanding $ from Siri/Xm for installing the chips.

Agree with other posters--------these demands are ludicrous.

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