FCC Nixes Satellite Radio Merger

a_nonamiss writes "Doesn't look like Sirius and XM are going to merge any time soon. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. Logically, I know that competition is a good thing for consumers, and monopolies are generally only good for companies. Still, I don't like having to choose a car based on which satellite radio service comes pre-installed, or considering whether I'd rather have Howard Stern or Oprah, because there is no practical way to get both. Frankly, it's probably all this exclusivity that has caused me not to purchase either system." From the article: "Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters after an FCC meeting that the Commission would not approve a merger between satellite radio rivals Sirius and XM Radio... When the FCC initially licensed the two satellite radio companies in 1997, there was language in the licensing barring one from acquiring control of the other... Even if the FCC were to have a change of heart..., it would still have to pass antitrust scrutiny by the Department of Justice."

Comments

Twofo Pigfuckers

[Anonymous Coward]

Twofo Is Dying
It is official; Netcraft confirms: Twofo is dying

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleagured University of Warwick filesharing community when ITS confirmed that Twofo total share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all file sharing. Coming hot on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Twofo has lost more share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Twofo is collapsing in complete disarry, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Student comprehensive leeching test.

You don't need to be one of the Hub Operators to predict Twofo's future. The hand writing is on the toilet wall: Twofo faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Twofo because Twofo is dying. Things are looking very bad for Twofo. As many of us are already aware, Twofo continues to lose users. Fines and disconnections flow like a river of feces.

N00b Campus users are the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of their total share. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time Twofo sharers fool_on_the_hill and Twinklefeet only serves to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Twofo is dying.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

Sources indicate that there are at most 150 users in the hub. How many filelists have been downloaded? Let's see. 719. But 1621 Ip addresses have been logged, and 1727 nicks have been sighted connecting to one user over the last term. How many searches are there? 600 searches in 3 hours. The highest sharer on campus, known as "firstchoice", or Andrew Maddison Andrew.Maddison@warwick.ac.uk in real life, is sharing over 1 TiB, despite working in ITS and not being on the resnet. He's only there so people off campus who think they're too good for bittorrent can continue to abuse the University's internet connection.

Due to troubles at the University of Warwick, lack of internet bandwidth, enforcements of Acceptable Usage Policies, abysmal sharing, retarded leechers, clueless n00bs, and ITS fining and disconnecting users, Twofo has no future. All major student surveys show that Twofo has steadily declined in file share. Twofo is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If twofo is to survive at all it will be among p2p hardcore fuckwits, desperate to grab stuff for free off the internet. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Twofo is dead.

Fact: Twofo is dying

Re:It's a funny ol' world

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod this up. This is really a sad state of affairs.

YoU insensitive clod!!

[Anonymous Coward]

if you don't politics openly. *BSD has lost more AAshole about.' One variations on the and as BSD sinks and building is BEEN SITTING HERE 4.1BSD product,

For the love of god, leave Sirius alone.

[MrPerfekt]

Small testimonial:

I've been a Sirius subscriber for years. Love the service. I got an Acura TL in 2005 that had XM pre-installed with no option to Sirius. So I gave the XM a shot while it was in it's 90 day trial. Oh my crap, XM is terrible. Their "jocks" sound like they're still running a college radio station complete with "uh", "um" and plenty of dead air. Aside from the fact that their encoding sounds like they're broadcasting from a tin can.

That was back in 2005 anyway.

I had/have Sirius in my other cars and have no such objections.

A merger would certainly kill Sirius just because of subscriber counts and that would, well, be the death of satellite radio for me because I rather hear nails on a chalkboard than XM.

Re:Go with logic

[bergeron76]

The choice is easy:

If you're a liberal, pick Howard Stern.
If you're a conservative, pick Oprah.