Primosphere isn't looking to "lease" spectrum, they want a license

Like I said before, this primosphere deal might be worth checking into. Say, the combined Sirius/XM needs to sell ~30 channels of its spectrum to the FCC and then the FCC can charge Primosphere for the license. Sirius and Xm gets to mute everyones concerm about a satellite monopoly and merge, The FCC gets to re-sell spectrum and also keep the initial rules for satellite radio in tack.

What a crock.

Which would of course be an unacceptable condition, as mentioned by both Sirius and XM, and would thus null the merger, still leaving Primosphere with no license.

Guys, don't forget that Sirius and Xm are not just asking to merge but are asking the FCC to go back an amend its own origionally rules to the two satelitte licenses. By allowing Primosphere to buy a third license Sirius and Xm will be getting money for the spectrum sold and a revision to the origional deal which barred the 2 origional licenses to be owned by 1 company.

I am confused

Primoshpere in theroy has a point... however... after building out their system to simply give up a portion of spectrum and the receivers who are set to receive this portion of the spectrum. well,, Why the hell would a combined XM/Sirius even think of doing this?

However... IMO Primosphere will be granted this spectrum if the two merge... Mel already gave the FCC an out by saying they will walk away if its too restrictive... Well, here it is... FCC gives spectrum to Primosphere after merger and portion of the spectrum... FCC can approve the deal but it does not go through cause its estrictive... nothing changes.. FCC is Happy... NAB is happy... No merger.. I am happy.

Please FCC pass this merger without conditions, so all the vermin can go back to the sewers.

This is ridiculous - wasn't there a deadline for these people to make these requests? Or does this go on indefinitely? I'm sicked by this process.

Big T , I may be wrong on some of the facts, but back when the FCC licensed Spectrum to satellite radio to Xm and Sirius, they stated that the 2 license were never to be owned by the same company because they did not want a monapoly. With the proposed merger Sirius and Xm will be doing exactly that. In essance, by Primosphere asking for a third license, they will be helping keep competition in satellite radio and blanket any worries of Sirius holding all the licenses in satellite radio.

"FREE" yeah right..."FREE" will consist of MORE minutes an hour for commercials than on regular radio now..40 minutes of commercials 20 minutes of music...unreal...GET THIS OVER WITH!!!!!!

Does this mean a third receiver in addition to XM and Sirius? Who's going to pay for that third receiver? Would XM and SIrius have to underwrite part of the cost of a third receiver? This is going from a simple merger to an all out cluster f*ck.

Amen, brother, Amen -

Your solution is ideal. I still think Mel and Gary and the phucks who flew these fully loaded airplanes into the ground with their piss poor management will agre to any sort of conditions in order to get their huge paydays and walk off laughing when they cash out.

I've heard that certain execs at each company are going to walk away with full vesting of options, and up to 3 years of full pay and bonuses, "as if earned", if they lose their jobs after the merger. With that kind of financial incentive, I'd line up to get fired, too.

Hmmm, "an alternative to the combined XM / Sirius "? Yes, I believe that would be called an ipod, a cd player, or boring radio. What self-serving dipshits.

No way is Mel going to give up bandwith that is what the merger is all about.
Sirius can get lots of XM subs just by doing what the FCC mandated and that is the dual Sirius XM radio. Everything points to those radios having been made and sold for years.

Allow the XM subs to have a choice and XM will loose so many subs to Sirius that it will be game over Sirius wins. I do not think anyone wants to see that happen and that is why those radios have not been activated and have been kept secret.
It looks like the FCC does not know how to deal with the mandate they put in place now that implementing the mandate would cause the loss of so many XM subs.

It looked like a good idea at the time and Sirius spent money seeing to it that they had much better content so that they could take advantage of the mandate. XM on ther hand did not try to be about even thinking all that was needed was to get radios in Cars.

Guys, the merger is a no-go if they have to give up spectrum. Plain and simple. Half the current subscribers would be left with no radio. Who owns primosphere? It sure seems like they know this would kill the merger and that they won't get what they want in the end (either way). So I wonder why they appear to just want to kill the merger.

Primospehere's application has already been dismissed by the FCC, so I am not sure what they are talking about.

http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-01-2779A1.pdf

I am tired of several misinformed people commenting on Primosphere with no basis of fact. I worked for the company that owns Primosphere for over thirteen years. They were one of the original DARS applicants and are very sharp businessmen, having invested millions in and then making millions from its terrestrial radio station companies. Primosphere will operate a satellite radio service much better than Sirius and XM. And why is there so much protest when the FCC rules state as a condition for the Sirius and XM licenses that those are not to be owned by the same company? Another question to ask is why should the FCC bail out Sirius and XM due to each company’s poor business decisions and dreadful financial practices?

The picture is of someone who does not have a couple of billion dollars.

So the FCC turned down an application for an already established radio company in favor for giving to licenses to un establish new companies, ,,,,,,,,, what a bunch of idiots.

Unless Primosphere can offer no-advertisement AND uncensored sat radio (which I'm sure either or both they won't do), then I'd say no deal. Let the merger go through and then lets see how Sat Radio vs iPod vs HD Radio vs Wi-Fi Radio works.

That's all fine and dandy "Mondo", but the media landscape has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. If Primosphere had landed the original license, we would have terrestrial radio in space. Sounds great. Thanks to Sirius and XM, they have pushed terrestrial radio to try to improve their product (HD radio). Without this push, terrestrial radio would be EXACTLY where it was 10 years ago.

The method of delivery is of no consequence. The end product is the same. Satellite radio has different stations, that's all. It's not the fault of these two companies that terrestrial radio offers an inferior product for "free".

"I am tired of several misinformed people commenting on Primosphere with no basis of fact. I worked for the company that owns Primosphere for over thirteen years."

Are they a bunch of "let's take advantage of our minority status" negros, too?

To Mike Walker: "No."

To Joe: Sorry, but HD Radio is dead. Go here: http://gormanmediablog.blogspot.com/2008/04/radio-hypocritical-deceiver.html

I guess you can call it competition but satellite radio doesn’t stand a chance in hell of competing with CD players, or mp3 players. Satellite radio is not in demand like an iPod or Zune is. You think Apple and Microsoft are afraid of satellite radio as far as taking away passable buyers? Not a chance in hell. Satellite radio will never match an iPod in sales. HD Radio is more of their brand of competition. You can include Slacker as well. But iPod is way ahead and out of satellite radios league. So it's not much competition at all. Terrestrial radio will always have more listeners despite how bad it is.

Primosphere is such a non-factor. I don’t care either way approved or not just want a decision on this damn merger already.

I didn't say HD radio is a good product. It is still a competing product. Let me make this clear to you. Terrestrial programming is stale and old. It doesn't matter how you send it to people. Terrestrial radio over satellites given the same content is going to work just as well as HD radio. Nobody is going to want it.

Besides, the FCC has already dismissed Primosphere's application. They have no basis to enter into merger discussions. Another moron group ties to terrestrial radio.

If people would rather pay a subscription to listen to the content on Sirius/XM than listen to free terrestrial radio, what does that tell you? What does that say for "terrestrial programming over satellites?

Any one who is against the merger is afraid of competition. Mel is doing the best he can with the cards he was dealt. Certain people who disagree do not wish the best for satrad even before the merger was announced. I am tired of the idiots who wish more americans loose their shirt instead of hoping they succeed. That is evil. Wishing anything death is bad karma and disguising your true emotions is truely coward. Any one who bashes two struggling companies and hoping for their down fall while so many stand to loose so much deserves the ultimate bitch slap. Sore losers and whimps. Let them merge and let the future be!

If the want a license, both XM and Sirius are for sale. All they have to do is make a bid. In fact if they reallly wanted some of this spectrum so bad for so long, they could have bought either company at discount prices 6 years ago. So, it appears what they really want is a handout.

I guess htat in business it is your philosophy to just say positive things about everyone and everything, regardless of how well the end result is. Is that correct? Forget that the management teams of both companies are making serios amounts of cash and getting other "non-financial" remuneration on top of the large salaries. Forget that these companies have never made so much as 1 penny of profit between the two of them. I guess we should treat them as special olympic athletes and congratulate them for just showing up.

Look - this is the real world. If my kid brings home a bad grade, damn it, he's going to hear about it - and it won't start out with, "Hey, Son, you got a D in History. That's just a shame. Did you do your best? Well then, Mom and I are proud of you." F that. Because I know he's healthy and otherwise capable - no learning disabilities - if he brings home a D he's going to hear that is unacceptable and there will be consequences. It's not too many people in medical school or even college that got there with D's. Except for maybe community college.

OK, I diverged - sorry. Mel, Nate, Gary, etc. are getting paid very very well. F'ing earn it. If their fellings are hurt by the criticism of their really unacceptable performance - F' em.

I am not one to condone loser behavior but we would never have as many subs as we do now. You must take risks in business. I believe that Mel has done the right things in many ways but not in every way. They have found a solution that will help the industry to the next level. Mel has made the satrad market and propelled the subscriber growth. Both companies have agreed to merge and to cut costs. Mel always has the best intentions. I am pleased with the growth, now we just got to find ways to cut cost and the best way is to merge. Their is just too much competition and it has been studied and evaluated by the DOJ. Why is it that they understand? I defend the next step in satrad and i believe it is vicious and cruel to block the merger or put hard restriction on a handicapped business that has competitors that have so much money they can crush them. They started HD radio over night and are constantly trying to find new ways to throw their weight around picking on the little guy. That is not right. I never liked a bully and I am for the under dog.