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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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. → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → Read More
[photopress:xmsir0325.jpg,full,right] The Justice Department gave its blessing to the XM-Sirius merger yesterday. Now we wait for the FCC to weigh in, most likely siding with Justice in giving the merger the OK. Maybe they’ll throw up a few last minute hurdles—please demonstrate how this merger helps the consumer and not just your bottom line, for example—but most analysts… → Read More
The Justice Department has approved the $5 billion merger between Sirius and XM. No news on when the merger will officially happen, but you might want to start your petitions to keep your favorite channels intact right about now. CG’s XM/Sirius coverage → Read More
[photopress:arlenxm.jpg,full,center] A decision, one way or the other, on the proposed XM-Sirus merger should be reached by the end of the month. So says Sen. Arlen Spector, the ranking [Republican] member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Pat Leahy is the chairman of the committee, it should be noted.) He made an appearance on the Howard Stern Show earlier today and tried to explain why no… → Read More
[photopress:client9radio.jpg,full,center] Classy, Sirius. Real classy. Sirius Satellite Radio today will launch Client 9 Radio, channel 126, a talk radio-format channel that will “explore the breaking news, facts, fallout, psychology, and implications of the scandal.” Surely you know to what Client 9 refers? Orbitcast reports that, in addition to covering the Spitzer scandal, the… → Read More
[photopress:melk.jpg,full,center] It’s been more than a year since the proposed XM-Sirius merger was announced and we’re no closer now to a combined company than we were then. But there’s hope… maybe! Actually, XM and Sirius just extended the deadline by two months for the deal to go through (or not). Now the satellite radio companies have given the Feds till May 1 for the… → Read More
[photopress:wowcc.jpg,full,center] Wow ClearChannel has been working behind the scenes in a rather unsavory way to prevent the XM-Sirius merger from happening. I know ClearChannel is “evil” because it killed local radio years ago (I ask, who still listens to local radio, and why?), but its reliance on the government to protect its business is silly. Since when was it the… → Read More
[photopress:xmsiren.gif,full,right] Something’s afoot regarding the XM-Sirius merger tonight. Drudge has a sly little note on the left-hand column that reads: “Approved or Denied? Drama Builds Around Sirius-XM Merger… Developing…” The proposed merger was announced nearly one year ago on February 17, 2007 and has developed into one of the most annoying stories… → Read More
What happened to the XM-Sirius merger? Announced last February, the merger appears to have hit a snag. We sat through all of December with little hints here and there—sources say an announcement will be made later today, sources say the FCC is just crossing T’s and dotting I’s—but now we’re left wondering what’s going on. Some attribute the delay to the… → Read More
If you’ve been thinking about making the satellite radio plunge (and have your heart set on Sirius), today’s the day to whip out your credit card. Today (and today only, according to an e-mail I received a little while ago) you can grab a Stiletto 10 for $50, a full $100 off the regular price, with the purchase of a subscription. The portable Stiletto 10 doesn’t have some of the… → Read More
The XM-Sirius merger, yet another story that refuses to go away. Whoops—it might go away today, actually. A recent Bear Sterns report suggests that the Department of Justice may give the merger its blessing as early as today. Once the DoJ gives the go-ahead, it’s largely expected that the FCC will do the same. So break out the popcorn and keep your eyes and ears open for any merger… → Read More
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