On the heels of a payout from the owners of P2P filesharing site Limewire, another claim finally settled for Merlin, the group that represents independent music labels in licensing negotiations and legal actions: the group says that Sirius Satellite Radio has settled for $1.6 million in a copyright infringement suit brought against Sirius by the agency.
The claim concerned Sirius’ Stiletto recording device, and was years in coming: Sirius had settled similar claims brought by the major record labels in 2007 and 2008. → Read More
Satellite TV and video-on-demand company DISH Network this morning announced today that Joseph P. Clayton has been named the company’s president and chief executive officer and has been appointed to its board of directors, effective June 20, 2011. The company’s iconic co-founder, Charles Ergen, will step down from his operational role at the helm of the company but remain as chairman of DISH Network.
Clayton previously served as chairman of Sirius Satellite Radio, from November 2004 through July 2008, and served as CEO of Sirius from November 2001 through November 2004. → Read More
Who says nobody will consider paying for streaming music? Thumbplay Music, which offers unlimited music streaming apps for a monthly subscription across iPhone (iTunes link), Android, and Blackberry, reports that its smartphone apps have been downloaded 500,000 times since June. Thumbplay won’t say how many of those downloads turn into paying customers (you get a free trial before having to start paying $9.99 a month), but even if it’s only 10 percent, that’s $500,000 a month in revenues. → Read More
Grace Digital Audio announced their latest creation today, the Allegro Portable Wireless Radio & Streamer. The Allegro is portable unit, designed to allow you to take your internet radio choice with you when you step away from the computer. → Read More
So I was all prepared to give Niveus Media’s new Sirius XM Windows Media Center plugin a try. (As I found out during a meeting with Microsoft while at CES, Windows 7 comes with Windows Media Center built in. I 100 percent didn’t know that till the Microsoft guys told me. Amazing. What else does Windows 7 do that I didn’t know?) Right, so I was all prepared, installed it, then tried to run the configuration. Oh, sorry! It’s Sirius-only! I’m an XM man, grandfathered into this whole Sirius XM debacle, so I can’t use the plugin. Great. → Read More
Sirius XM have finally showed off its first interoperable radio, the MiRGE. It’ll be available this spring for $250, and you’ll be able to subscribe to a new $20 per month plan that gets you “Sirius plus XM Everything” (cool how it’s marketing it as “Sirius plus THAT OTHER COMPANY”). Yes, both services, completely, for $20 per month. → Read More
As the only satellite radio fan here at CrunchGear, I feel it’s my duty to review the year that was and point out some of the events that made the medium such a joy. This isn’t a typical “Top 10 Movies” snoozefest, but rather an illustration of what makes satellite radio inherently superior to regular, terrestrial radio (provided you don’t mind a nominal monthly fee). Please note that this list isn’t to be ranked, but seen as a sum total “these were the best moments of the year, in my [worthless] opinion.” With that… 1. The Back to the Future Secret Show on XM. If any broadcast showed the power of satellite radio it was this one. Hosted by the Opie and Anthony staff (minus Opie), they narrated the classic movie Back to the Future live on the air, riffing on the abject corruption of Mayor Goldie Wilson, the awkwardness of having your high school-age mother hit on you in the past (even though you’re from the future and know she’s your mother) and just how big a creep the Doc is. I could have done without Sam’s last 100 examples of “foreshadowing,” however. → Read More
Flickr’d Sirius’ Howard Stern made a strange comment yesterday that’s causing people to freak out, speculating wildly till they pass out. Discussing his possible plans vis-à-vis [satellite] radio, Stern said, “This is my sawn song.” Now, what he was actually referring to was his aversion to returning to terrestrial (“regular”) radio, but it does raise a broader issue. That is, what’s to happen to satellite radio when he quits? It’s not like he needs the money at this point, so his continued presence (such as it is, what with his frequent days off) is more to do with him keeping busy than it is earning a paycheck. → Read More
Here’s the Sirius lineup for you, to go with the XM lineup we wrote about earlier today. I’m not as familiar with Sirius as am I with XM (being an Opie and Anthony fan and all), but I do like how Sirius is all, “Don’t like X? Try Y instead!” Um, no. We like X, meaning we’re likely to hate Y. The comments over at Orbitcast are worth reading. Holy smokes are people upset about this. Like that old saying goes, you can’t get people to protest [important issue of the day], but take away their [trivial piece of entertainment] and all Hell breaks loose. The full PDF is here. → Read More
If we’re to believe the latest XM Signal Guide (a weekly newsletter it uses to promote all sorts of XM-related fun), XM listeners may well be able to hear Howard Stern as early as tomorrow. The recently merged company, actually known now as XM Sirius Radio, has The Howard Stern Shows listed on its Channel 100 Web site, as this pic shows. Now, whether or not that’s merely the work of some rogue Web developer, or actual company policy, I guess we’ll see in a few hours’ time. Never was a fan of Mr. Stern (y’all know I’m an Opie and Anthony fan), but I guess you have to respect what he’s done for the medium. via Orbitcast → Read More
Following the approval [PDF] of the XM-Sirius merger (read: buyout), we can now focus on some of the specifics of the deal, fallout, and all sorts of post-merger hysterics. The first order of business: what happens to Opie and Anthony, of which I’ve been a fan since their WNEW days? Their contract with XM expires on October 1, but, according to what they’ve said on the show, XM has yet to approach them about a renewal. That may well have been the fault of the merger, but now is when people will speculate for fun. Copy-paste, BCC, etc. Mel Karmazin, slated to be the combined company’s CEO, has long said that he doesn’t like the idea of sharing content between satellite radio and terrestrial radio. Opie and Anthony can currently be heard on terrestrial radio in New York, Boston, Cleveland and other cities. To uncertainty! via Orbitcast → Read More
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the XM-Sirius merger has been given the tentative OK by the FCC. Deborah Taylor Tate, the final FCC commissioner to cast a vote, is expected to vote in favor of the merger, thus clearing the way for the merger. There are, of course, a few restrictions to be placed on the newly combined company. • Price freeze. They have agreed not to raise prices for at least the next three years. • Fines. The companies have to pay some $20 million in fines for all sorts of transgressions, including building satellite repeaters in unapproved locations, and creating FM transmitters that were more powerful than the FCC allows. • Minority programming. The companies will have to set aside a percentage of their bandwidth, currently thought to be about 8 percent (24 channels) for educational and minority programming. Be sure to watch the National Association of Broadcasters’ Web site, since the merged companies are not being forced to include regular radio or HD Radio in their new receivers, something the NAB lobbied for. Expect to hear from both XM and Sirius soon. → Read More
Today was a big day vis-à-vis the XM-Sirius merger, as Johnathan Adelstein, the FCC commissioner who wanted to place all those restrictions on the merger in exchange for his support, has officially withdrawn his proposal, voting against the merger in the process. That leaves us all tied up for votes for and against the merger with one single, solitary vote pending. Deborah Taylor Tate (right), a Republican, is now the final deciding vote. If she votes for the merger then it goes through. If she votes against it, all of this merger talk has been a giant waste of time, even more so than it already has been. Tate is thought to be in favor of the merger. Adelstein’s statement reads as if he expects the merger to go through: … it appears they’re going to get a monopoly with window dressing. We really missed a great opportunity to reach a bipartisan agreement that would have benefited the American people. Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure more Americans are concerned with things like high gas prices than whether or not a couple of subscription radio services merge. Bottom line, this merger thing should be wrapping up sooner rather than later. Imagine that! → Read More
Oh for the love of God, now what? Surely by now you’ve heard about the long-delayed (to put it mildly) XM-Sirius merger, which is really more of a Sirius buyout of XM, but let’s not nuance ourselves to death. So yeah, now it looks like the merger won’t be allowed to take place unless the combined company agrees to set aside 25 percent of its bandwidth for minority and non-commercial broadcasts. If you’re a satellite radio fan like me, it’s easy to get annoyed at that, but life’s too short to freak out over the demands of our Precious Regulators. The 25 percent threshold was put forward by Jonathan Adelstein, a commissioner at the FCC, the same FCC whose boss already gave the merger the go-ahead some time ago. While that request sounds a little silly&mdsh;why should the companies be told what to broadcast?—as a consumer I do like his idea of preventing price increases for the next six years. (I said as a consumer: I know that price restrictions hurt the company’s ability to do business, but if I can save a few dollars, why not?) You do know that this merger will never happen, right? → Read More
Believe it or not, the XM-Sirius merger could be finalized “any day now.” Cowen & Company, a high-profile investment bank, says the merger “is finally at hand and should occur by the end of this month.” Finally, right? In other possibly corroborating news, XM staffers have been asked to cancel any vacation plans for the week of July 21 (Opie said as much last week), when The Final Vote is expected to be cast. We can see the light, people! → Read More
Ron and Fez, noon to 3pm This is pretty cool, and I hate damn near everything. It’s an application for jailbroken iPhones (and iPod touches) called uXM that lets you listen to XM Satellite Radio. Yes, XM is reportedly working on a proper application to launch with the App Store, but that’ll cost you money. This uXM is free, provided you already subscribe to XM. You can find it in the iSpazio repository, or add this line to your Installer.app: http://www.millardsoftware.com/iphone.xml I have no idea what the previous two sentences mean, having used the iPhone for, maybe, two minutes in total, but I sure as hell like the idea. There’s also a Sirius version, uSirius, if you swing that way. via Orbitcast → Read More
We’ll all be dead before XM and Sirius merge, but the two companies would like the whole wide world (or whoever reads PR Newswire) to know how they think they’ll end up financially once they’re one company. (What an awfully constructed sentence.) The headline here is the combined company will have positive cash flow in 2009. They did re-state that, technically, Sirius will be taking over the assets of XM. So, pretty boring financials that might please Wall Street, but we couldn’t really give a toss about. I’d like to know what sort of “clerical error” led to XM not paying Opie & Anthony for the past two months. → Read More
It looks like Kevin Martin of the FCC is now supporting the XM-Sirius merger. I think my brain just exploded a little bit. Yes, 16 months after initially proposing the merger (and three months after the Justice Department gave the green light), the FCC’s chairman has given it a thumbs-up. Said the chairman: I am recommending that, with the voluntary commitments they’ve offered, on balance, this transaction would be in the public interest What soaring prose from Mr. Martin! As you might expect, there are some conditions that both XM and Sirius will have to meet for the merger, which will now need to be endorsed by at least two of the remaining four FCC commissioners, to go through. → Read More
Flickr’d “But if the FCC will no longer approve mergers without Congressional blessing, why does it even need to exist?” So asks the Wall Street Journal, and so ask the good boys and girls—shareholders—who are tired of this charade. The Wall Street Journal wondered aloud yesterday just why it has taken 450 days since the merger was first proposed for it to given the thumbs up or down. The Iran hostage crisis, where lives were at stake, was wrapped up in less time. Like, if the Justice Department has already decided that there’s nothing wrong with the merger, just what is taking the FCC so long? → Read More
We’re all waiting on this guy The FCC “will hopefully be able to do something on it soon.” “It” is the proposed XM-Sirius merger, while “soon” means whatever you want it to mean. Yup, the FCC chair, Kevin Martin, said today that the deal has taken as long as it has because of all the different regulatory matters involved. Or, maybe, because the likes of the NAB have been hounding everyone since Day One, claiming that the merger will ruin radio blah blah get an iPod. The news comes nearly three months after the Justice Department said “sure, why not?” to the merger. And, for the zillionth time, I’m pro-merger in as much as I don’t see anything particularly wrong with it; I think those running around saying “but it’ll be a monopoly in the satellite radio industry” are being disingenuous. It’s not like satrad is a necessity and you’re forced to buy it. That, and for $10 you can buy a tape deck to connect your portable media player (iPod) to your car stereo. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
