Satellite radio gets worse


"Sirius XM Merger Reveals True Face: Fewer Channels and 'Sanitized' Programming"
Way back when, I told you that competition was a good thing that led to more and better choices, and usually lower prices.

Well, the Sirius XM merger is proving me right. Emphasis in original.

This week, Sirius XM began consolidating its channels. In reality, this mostly meant jettisoning XM channels wherever there was a tenuous overlap with something Sirius already offered, which is bad news for anyone with a favorite station on XM who woke up Wednesday morning to find it missing. Alex wrote in to tell us that the four Spanish music channels have been condensed to one without regard to genre, and that the uncensored "urban music" station Hot Jamz has been cleaned up, rechristened "The Heat," and now leans toward radio-friendly R&B. The Motley Fool suggests that the new lineup may drive people to downgrade their subscription—it's "an incentive to downgrade to the cheaper plan that costs $6 less a month and lets users cherry-pick 50 stations."

From the sound of things, customers can complain, but it's going to stay that way until another company comes along and shakes things up.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Sun - November 16, 2008 at 03:24 PM  Tag


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