[www.sirius.com]

Bailed on them today; 3 radios, been a customer since 2001. They didn't even try and keep me. Pfft! Yeah, I know, would only have been $4/mo more for the extra 2 radios but they told the FCC they weren't raising rates; keeping that little loophole about extra radios not being part of base-rates is a lie not matter how you slice it.

Nice job, real nice job there XM.

Sounds good right?

Well then I started getting bills from XM and then from their friends @ CCA (collections company of America) saying I owe for the 3 FREE months.

Google about CCA and XM.

@illtron: People use Safari? I thought that was just a joke from Apple; people using it on a REAL computer and all. Ha Ha Apple, you slay me!

The threat of customers canceling is not as great as switching to their competitor. They know that there is no where else to go, therefor they are going to give customers the finger with support, pricing, and introduce more commercials. You just wait, it is coming.

@2719: sigh

It doesn't work right in Opera, either. You can vote, but the results show up incorrectly.

And they aren't preventing any competition from shooting their own satellites into orbit and using the same tech to start a service.

There's room for competition. It's not SiriusXM's fault that no one else has entered the market.

Don't say that they already have a dominant market share that prevents competition either. They don't.

I don't disagree with you entirely though. It would be best to evaluate this situation after the fiscal year.

I'm a firm believer in putting executive bonuses and stock option revenue in a 5 year escrow account. Let them borrow against it, but they can't touch their bonus until 5 years has passed. If they don't like it, don't do the job. Wall Street doesn't respect long term investment. The stock market is so volatile because there is no trust, there's no respect for long term investments. It's short term, or nothing. So the executives are prodded into performing exactly to that level, and nothing more.

If they want to pump more monetary support out of listeners, then they need to assess and respond to audience feedback more appropriately.

Threaten to cancel, and you'll get the $77 rate again. Works every time.

@nybiker: I think electricity is one area where the free market can't work either. I have only one electric company to get power from, they buy from other sources, but I can only have them as my provider. I pay a third per kWhr that my sister does down near Austin and she has four or five providers to choose from. All deregulated power does is increase prices to the end users to cover the marketing budgets that a monopoly doesn't need. My Electric company NEVER advertises except for PSA's about working near high voltage transmission lines.

@mac-phisto: They didn't just pull Fungus, they pulled the XM Boneyard which IMO was the BEST Rock station on XM. It just came back, but it's just not the same.

@Collie: I agree. Not to mention the fact that some of us live in the middle of nowhere where there is no high speed cellular data around that will support high quality streaming.

I'm also too lazy to move my MP3 player from the car to my PC and back into the car. My XM Radio even though I have the mini-tuner just stays in my vehicle and I'm LUCKY if I bother to move that to my truck when I switch.

@Raiders757: Yep. 2,300 songs on mine, to listen to at my whims, without commercials. I keep up with new music through social networking sites like MySpace, so I can hear the tracks for free from artists I know and new ones I find before I ever plunk down the cash.

Got a receiver added to my buddies plan, he charged me 6 bucks per month.

I did that for a year, I would pay a year in advance.

I didn't renew. It wasn't even worth the six bucks a month to me.

The only time it was worthwhile was a long trip in the car. Other than that, I found most of the music stations to be on a 8 hour loop, playing the same songs at the same time every day. It was funny..

I knew this would happen.

I wonder if Sirius wil be deducting the $2.99 online fee from everyone unless you "opt-out" or somesuch. Seems like a sneaky way to get an across-the-board price hike if you ask me.

while visiting my mom ....she has sirius/xm in her car)..... i heard 3 songs at least 3 different times over 4 days on the '1st wave' channel. it's not like i had it on 24/7 for this to happen... just a typical day in a car!

if i'm going to pay for a service, you'd expect a far expansive playlist from them.

I don't use satellite radio either - I just can't see how it's not a monopoly.

I think the word is "no".

Honestly I was hoping for something like a $5 a month plan so I could just pick 2-3 stations to listen to. The best I got was the 9.99 a month "music only" plan, which still seems to have things besides music, while in fact...cutting out some music stations.

As to my comment earlier, it doesn't matter what a CEO says. Before the merger the sales reps were reported as telling customers that they should buy long plans just in case of a price increase.

They are still paying off debt from development of their quite high tech radios and the launching of many satellites. They bring in a metric ****ton of money every month but until they pay their debts which is expected to take another couple of years at the minimum they wont turn a profit.

Its a fairly new tech and its going to take at least another 10 years for it to be truly mainstream. They have pretty much just now ironed out all the bugs.

Also now that they no longer compete (XM and Sirius) they can stop spending insane money on exclusive deals like who gets to broadcast sports or who gets Howard Stern and now they can focus on just quality product.

@verucalise:

I canceled last year because their computer had problems billing me properly. (prepaid a year for two radios, canceled one radio a few months in and got a bill!). Don't give this company any means to auto-deduct what they want from your account.

Now that I read above that Fred, Ethel, Lucy and Comedy 150 are gone... I'm definitely not going back. Does anybody know if they replaced those with other feeds?

The music selection is beyond 100x better then normal radio. There is multiple channels of music for everyone. The music is not edited for content and there are no commercials.

Also lets say you are taking a road trip. Normal radio stations have very limited broadcast range while Sirius will stay on from coast to coast which is nice.

They also have tons of talk radio which is broken down into every category you could think of from comedy to religion.

Its worth the price of admission, even more so if you drive alot. You can also buy radios that work in a car and in your house which is also nice. Oh and if you like sports you cant beat their offerings for sports radio.

Hell their main competitor is 100% free aside from the cost of a radio. They can say they also compete with ipods or other mp3 players as well as television and any other form of entertainment.

wtf!?

Killing stations (like the Punk channel) that represented a GENRE of music to be replaced with another channel that offers only a fraction of a genre of music is lame as well.

You email replies to me said no one was listening to the Punk channel anyway so my comments don't matter is crap too.

The censoring of music is is a big turn off as well. I'm paying for uncensored and commercial free music. If you can not see beyond that then why bother doing anything other than regular terrestrial radio?

Your continued receipt of my monthly payment is in jeopardy... what are you going to do?

I wonder if this new economic reality (unemployment up/credit possibilities down) will make consumers take a second (or third) look at luxuries like satellite radio and decide that it is an expense that they can eliminate and still find happiness and fulfillment in their lives...

I wonder if anybody really wants to pay even more money per month to pay Howard Stern the kind of money that a Major League MVP makes...

I wonder if satellite radio really delivers anything that modern technology doesn't provide right here on earth (MP3/Terrestrial "Free" Radio) without an ongoing $$$ commitment and a contract.

Cancel it. One less bill to pay.

Also what rational do they have raising the rates of normal customers by $2? Is this extra $2 what its going to take for them to turn a profit? How can they raise it when they said to the SEC and everyone else including the subscribers that they would not raise rates?

Something is off here either in the way its being reported or somewhere else cause it just doesnt make sense.

Sirius/XM is & isn't a monopoly at the same time. It's monopoly where they offer content not available anywhere else. They have exclusive rights to stream/deliver proprietary content.

It's not a monopoly where they deliver most music content.

I dropped Dish network that delivered Sirius to my home when prices went up. I substituted Sirius content with Pandora. This works for me. I also have enough music I don't need Sirius/XM to deliver entertainment while I drive.

So, if you listen to Howard Stern or Opie and Anthony or several other proprietary channels, then Sirius/XM is a monopoly from your point of view and you have to decide if having that content is worth the price. For me, NO!

1. We're still free!

2. Next time you would like some free promotion for your fundraiser or community event, call Sirius/XM and ask if they'll announce it for you.

@BuddyGuyMontag: I think it's not just the equipment startup costs, but the costs that each (XM and Sirius, seperately) undertook to acquire new subscribers.

The NFL, Oprah Winfrey, Howard Stern, The MLB...All very expensive products. It's like each company was taking turns wacking the other one in the head with a baseball bat. Finally, they were so weakened they had to join forces, but sum is far less than the parts were in their early days.

It would be interesting to see where XM and Sirius acquired more customers: From install deals with new cars or from big-name, expensive content, or from walk-ups - people who just wanted to try it out (like me).

They have a ton of subscribers - people are willing to pay for a good product. I just think both XM and Sirius have mismanaged themselves into oblivion.

Besides, if the service price with the dual receiver really is only $20 a month, it is so worth it.

up until the merger, most xm radios were still 2-3 lines of diplay, with few of the features that sirius offered & designs weren't continuously refined. my radio - the commander - didn't change for 8 years, the roady had only minor changes from year to year...i forget their other big seller.

all in all, i think sirius put a lot more effort into their independent product line whereas xm focused on integrating their service into factory radios, aftermarket head units & home receivers.

I REFUSE to let a monopoly push me around. I Canceled yesterday and even recorded it to post later on the web for fun.

There are reasons to own satellite radio yes, but there are pod casts and terabytes of mp3s to download and listen to, so why settle for being pushed around to listen to your favorite show?

@Brain.wav: I agree as far as satellite radio goes it's a monopoly .There are alternatives but there are not for satellite radio companies .Since the airwaves are regulated and that's what were talking about here a particular use of the airwaves it should be treated/regulated as a monopoly .

Many argue that this is not a monopoly since you can listen to music on an I-pod but what if you bought it for talk radio or news,politics,finance etc-that material is time sensitive and a best of collection will not sufice .

The 'not a monopoly argument' is like saying you can buy a gas generator to get your power or use walkie talkies instead of a phone but yet both phone and power are treated/regulated as a monopoly when there is no competition for their services .

But I really don't expect much in the way of a monopoly argument since many probably fell the Cramer diatribe of how terrestial free radio was afraid of satillite pay radio-isn't that apples and oranges ?

Which is why when I do listen to terrestrial radio, I generally stay pretty glued to the college stations. If I'm going to tune to the hours DJ SpicyPantsu is on it's nice to know I'll be listening to the set they put together. Preferably on a napkin.

@Spinfusor: Interesting that a company with 20 Million subscribers can't turn a profit at their current rates though, isn't it?

@coren: Wi-Fi, Wi-Max. It's coming. That's what XM is truly afraid of.

Err, compact discs aren't old school.

Your forgetting LP's, 45's and 78's!

@coren: But that's just it - you have an alternative. It may not be exactly the same, but it's an alternative. No monopoly.

I just called XM to ask if there was a way to block internet radio so I wouldn't be charged the 2.99. They didn't know anything about it. So I guess not ALL of the customer service reps are confirming this information.

@coren: Ahh, but I say Keebler has a monopoly because there is no comparison to the chocolatey goodness of Chips Ahoy, whereas you tell me they're just like any other chocolate chip cookie (and therefore not a monopoly).

On the other hand, others say that Sirius is not a monopoly because there are other forms of music entertainment to be had, whereas you say Sirius is a monopoly because...well whatever you said above.

So it depends on one's reference point. I think Sirius is a monopoly, but I really don't care. For me, the alternative is to drop it and just listen to my Ipod, regular radio, or nothing at all.

Lemme know how that works out for ya, SiriusXM...

@coren: But you can bake your own chocolate chip cookies... and you can program your own MP3 player. Or listen to internet radio to find breaking bands.

Chips Ahoy vs. your own cookies vs. Wal-Mart Brand vs. Mrs. Fields

is to...

FM radio vs. MP3 player vs. Internet radio vs. SiriusXM

Everyone is saying that FM Radio is an alternative. And it might be a substitute good, but I'm pointing out it doesn't have the same features, not suggesting that I should get them for free. And that's even assuming you're in range of strong signal.

@Collie:

I feel lucky that I have the NHL Network being provided by my cable company. I am also able tolisten to any game I want on the internet, but that doesn't do one much good when not at home. The NHL has been getting the shaft in the U.S.

ESPN? That station is crap anymore, and has been for a long time. I can't even watch it. They are guilty of irresponsible reporting, as well as making crap up out of thin air. Worthless is all ESPN is.

i did like one of their country stations though (& i really don't like country). i forget if it was roadhouse or outlaw, but it had all the classic "walk into a saloon, drink the bar dry & shoot the barkeep" type tunes. always wondered why new country shelved the guns in favor of tear-flavored beer... *shrugs*

@BrandonOBrien:

I with you on that. I have a huge music library, and having a 30GB MP3 player allows me to have my own custom radio station of 3,700 songs on rotation, commerical free. If I get tired of a song, I can swap it out for another.

Better yet, I don't have to pay a monthly fee, sign any contracts, and the music is ten times better.

When XM dropped the XM Music Lab and a few other decent stations, for more "mainstream" fair, they went way down hill. The entire point of satellite radio, was to get away from the mainstream garbage on corporate FM stations. Now they're no different.

@mac-phisto: Agreed. Poor management to start. Mel Karmazin was brought in and he started going to work.

BTW, I thought it was the other way around - XM had the good radio tech (MyFi, etc.) where Sirius had the outdated, bulky designs.

Even if they came through, it's all variety and top 40 and "college" (whatever that means), so it's not as if there's any sort of selection.

@rpm773: Earl, I'm starving. We got any Chips Ahoy back there?

XM radio really did help make my life as a pizza delivery guy much more tolerable though.

@coren: So do you expect to get commercial-free radio... for free?

That's the thing people are missing. Sirius and XM provided essentially the same service at the same price point. The only difference was the exclusive content.

It's the same concept as getting HBO or Showtime. Commercial free uncensored entertainment that you pay a premium for with exclusive content on each brand.

i'm also having a hard time understanding how this wasn't a viable revenue source, but i think both companies were just managed poorly. if you have 1 in 10 americans subscribing, that should be plenty to run a profitable business.

it just seems to me that they made some very poor choices in how to increase their market share.

@FLConsumer: Yeah, about the electric companies and their ads. I used to wonder about Con Ed's "On It" ads. Like if maybe they would stop the ads our electric prices might not go up so fast (they'd still go up of course, just the rate would be smaller). But then I remembered that Con Ed is no longer my only electric generator, and that other electricity providers are out there and I allowed to choose one of them; so their ads are designed to influence me to keep them as not only the delivery mechanism but also my supplier. Not because of the ads, but they are still my supplier. The other guys' prices for a fixed price contract have always been way too high for me to jump at.
Of course, if your user id reflects your location, them maybe Florida doesn't allow you to choose an electricity provider. Con Ed here in NYC is one of a bunch of them.
Back on topic of satellite radio: Not gonna use 'em. I burn copies of my CD and fill up the CD player in the car and I am good to go for about 6 hours or so before they repeat (or I have to change 'em).

Keebler has a monopoly on the production and sale of Chips Ahoy. Perhaps Congress and the FDA should look into it.

@MagicJewball: Fair enough. I listen to the decades channels and the classic rock channels.

Programming a station isn't perfect right off the bat. You have to tweak it a bit to get the right audience.

@coren: Assuming you're in the US, the frequencies between 88.1 and 91.9 are generally reserved for non-commercial stations. Whether or not those are stations you would choose to listen to is another thing completely.

@coren: No it's not. It's portable personal music content. The only difference is that you're programming it vs. someone else.

The stations are NOT the same. There was some overlap but it wasn't total. In some cases, having a station like Fred, which played deep New Wave cuts, replaced by First Wave, which is essentially 80's Alternative hits, is worse than just yanking the station completely.

Give people a little credit. If you listen to a station every day, you know what has changed. If you go to XM forums, people are up in arms and can specifically name the differences between the XM stations and the Sirius stations they "merged" with.

@FLConsumer: You're telling me I can't turn on a radio and get something for free? I can't get music into my Ipod?

Cable isn't a monopoly because you can go with DirecTV, Dish, FIOS if available, etc.

I'm a soon-to-be former subscriber of Sirius/XM (XM previously). Luckily, we're not talking about gasoline, heating oil, or electricity here - I don't need it to survive and I plan to voice my dislike of their product by cancelling my subscription.

If the merger didn't happen, aside from being a pointless exercise, doesn't make them more or less a monopoly.

Tell me, where in my car can I hear commercial free radio? Radio isn't the same as an MP3 player or any other form of music storage, and the commercial free aspect is a factor as well.

@Saboth: No, one guy couldn't program 200 stations. They are doing badly because all the operational startup costs were so expensive. Plus Sirius has a very expensive lease on a building they don't need, but are stuck in the lease.

They have to build their own tech. That could be one part of it.

@Rectilinear Propagation: They couldn't get under one roof and start consolidating until the merger was approved. So all that operational overhead hurt.

People got pissed when they cut stations because they didn't understand that Sirius and XM had the same station and they consolidated it. Some stations took the XM branded name, some stations took the Sirius branded name. Fred and Ethel became Octane and something else... but because people were undereducated, they lost their minds.

I already paid for lifetime service so these changes don't affect me. Roughly one more year of use and it's paid for itself, so Sirius will effectively be free for me from that point on.

What did you expect them to do? Seriously? Just fail?
I'm not a SiriusXM customer myself but it seems like people got pissed off when they cut stations. Maybe they should have kept those stations and just raised prices. Maybe they should have let listeners vote on which stations to keep.

Whatever they do it's got to convince customers that the higher price is worth it.

Is the $2.99 online fee per radio? Cause that means 2 radios would be more expensive than 2 full-priced subsriptions are today.

I think it's time to say goodbuy to XM. They kept saying how good it would be for the consumer to merge and they've managed to do the 2 things subscribers didn't want: changed their channels and jacked up the rates.

Loophole or not, I don't see how this doesn't raise the rate of the base package. I'll be paying more to get the same service. Complete BS.

/as an aside, why do electric companies run adverts? It's not like we have a choice to avoid their service.

@LuzioFantazmic: they're commercializing the airspace. when metallica released their new album last year, they got a station. when ac/dc released their album last year, they kicked fungus & started ac/dc radio. don't be fooled - record execs are paying big money to satellite to push this new music. it's just one step closer to hearing big bob tell you to come on down for a killer deal on a new car.

XM came with my car like 3-4 years ago. I paid for it and continued to use it and got it for my girlfriends car too when they merged. Most likely just going to cancel them and just blutooth with my ipod music and pod cast.

I have a degree in economics. We covered the topic. You are wrong, at least from an academic perspective.

The music channels are great but I think a lot of subscribers are sports fans.

I'm curious as to why they are doing so badly? High interest loans on their satellites? Lol...I mean...1 guy could pretty much program all the stations right? It's not like they are a huge corporation spread out all over like walmart with huge overhead.

Liscensing fees to RIAA, etc, I suppose?
What are their costs?

Well I do it to be exposed to new music I wouldn't hear normally. If you simply bought music you knew about, you'd never find anything new.

@Trey Mahaffey: Define perfect competition.

XM has competition from regular radio, internet radio, Ipods, etc.

It's not like XM has exclusive music you can't hear anywhere else. The difference is the uncensored content, which the FCC doesn't allow.

Can I ask a really, REALLY dumb question for everyone complaining?

SiriusXM is a failing company. They are deeply in the red. The delay on the merger hurt the company, and both companies were hurting BEFORE the merger.

What did you expect them to do? Seriously? Just fail? They've already cut talent, consolidated buildings, and are doing as much as they can to stay afloat in order to keep 10% of america (30 million people) entertained.

@illtron: Not true. I was able to respond to the poll right after killing that White Rhino.

Oooohhhhh. You said IN safari. My bad.

@Ssscorpion: IT'S NOT A MONOPOLY

@sleze69: 8 and 12? I don't believe that. Stern brought in a lot of listeners, but he didn't bring in 1/3 of the current Sirius audience. Do you have a source on that other than Stern himself?

The deathknell for this was the Oprah and Martha Stewart contracts, NOT Stern.

However, I must say that trying to cancel my service made me certain that I made the right choice. They have the absolute worst IVR system that I have ever had the opportunity to use. Even the CSR's laugh about how bad it is. Once I was able to find the "cancel service" option, I was finally transferred to the cancellation department.

You would think that their cancellation department would be like those at other (successful?) companies. Not at all! On my first four tries, I was dropped from the hold queue after 30-45 minutes of waiting. On my fifth try, I actually reached a live person, who was very pleasant and was able to cancel my service. I just told her to "hold the spiel" about what they will do for me if I stay and just cancel my service.

Total time on the phone spent trying to cancel my service: over four hours!

I called in yesterday and got my 1/2 price rate ($77) for another year. After that is up I will probably just ditch it, or sign up under my parents account ;)

@friendlynerd: The best definition is HBO. You can watch movies on other sources, but if you want to watch the Sopranos, etc. you'd sign up. Same deal.

the reason XM/Sirius will go out of business is the same reason DMX(Digital Music Express, anyone remember this gem?) went out of business. there's very little demand for pay radio considering the options of free radio available. If someone's really into music they're probably throwing in their MP3/CD

I know I will receive some slack about this but why would you pay for radio? With all of the technology out there in regard to downloading and listening to music, why bother? Just keep feeding the machine folks.

@snowburnt: One million people at 36 bucks a year is 36 million dollars. You were saying?

@MrsLopsided:Is this only for Sirius or for XM also. I haven't found that out yet.

from wikipedia...

In economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos , alone or single + polein , to sell) exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it.[1] Monopolies are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition for the good or service that they provide and a lack of viable substitute goods.[2] The verb "monopolize" refers to the process by which a firm gains persistently greater market share than what is expected under perfect competition.

The first subsection is a little shaky only due to the phrase "a lack of viable substitute goods" but the second subsection describes XM/Sirius exactly.

Does anyone know if this affects XM online listening or just sirius online listening?

You may be happy with Pandora, but it only feels part of my needs.

I was an early adopter of XM, Paid $400 to buy the gear to integrate it with my Alpine. In the begining it was great, and affordable after the initial investment.

After several years, it really started to turn to crap, they would add channels and the bandwidth for existing ones would go down to the point where it sounded like garbage on my high end system.

So I canceled about a 2 years back.

It sounds like they are digging their own graves completly..

So the only way to hear new music is: FM Radio, Satellite radio, the internet, or MTV. It's tough to pick up good FM radio where I work and camp, and I don't have cable or internet when I drive, so satellite is the only way to go. Sirius doesn't have a monopoly on playing music, but they sure do have a monopoly on satellite radio.

@tmed: To justify Stern's $500,000,000 contract (most of which was stock that is worth a LOT less), he needed to bring in 3 million listeners over 5 years. He brought between 8 million and 12 million.

I'm shocked! Shocked, I say!

The Stern and other costly jocks experiment hasn't worked. It brought in subscribers, but not enough to pay for the ridiculous salaries.

I bought stock in both of these companies as soon as I bought a radio, then dumped it as soon as they went to a high-priced talent model.

The people I know who love this service have a commute more than 1/2 an hour each way, are sick of DJs and commercials on FM and like listening to news, sports, and talk shows.

I ama single radio subscriber, so the increase doesn't affect me, but the product has such potential to be great, and the people running the show keep screwing it up.

Folks, iPhone + iPod adapter + Pandora is both free and better than satellite radio.

ANd they now have DJ's who offer useless chatter over the beginning of songs now. I see no point in that. I don't care if it is Elton John's birthday. Just play the music like they used to.

1. "free" radio with advertising
2. Pandora/Slacker over mobile devices
3. iPod/Mp3 players
4. old school - compact discs
5. really old school - cassette tapes
6. one foot in the grave - 8 tracks
7. mentally disturbed - the voices and music in your head

@friendlynerd: You can still listen to music via terrestrial radio, etc. Sirius has exclusive products (Howard, O&A, R&F, etc.) that you pay a premium for.

If those are the only 2 things going up, I'm sticking. I don't use either of those and don't plan too.

Plus I am sick of them being called a monopoly, since they are so many options, especially all of you that are canceling, you obviously have an alternative to turn to. I do think it is a BS move to raise the rates as soon as the merger was completed by going through a loop hole, and really makes them look bad in the eyes of the users and general public.

I cancelled our subscription in December. I'd rather load my favorite tunes on an Mp3 player.... cheaper, and exactly what I want. I had ours for a year, I gave them more than enough time to impress me.

I'm not quite sure what this company's intent is anymore, like every other company. Which leads me to conclude that staying away from them is probably the best idea.

If the shoe fits...

OTA radio still cannot touch any of the above reasons, except now I have to put up with DJs talking over my music, but I still have everything else.

They took away my Lucy, Fred and Ethel, and Comedy 150, but at least I don't get commercials every six minutes like FM. I will probably not cancel over a $2 increase, though I am not happy about it. If they would dump the high priced talent (stern, etc.) and all the stupid DJs, and stick to music they could save some coins.

@Brain.wav: So you have no other audio entertainment in your car/home/office? Wow.

They are not arbitrarily raising rates on a whim. They lost 90% of their stock value because of the delay in the approval of the merger. If they DON'T do this, they will die.

I am probably going to lock in my rate (because I drive a lot and it is worth it) but will have to think about my fiance's account.

Their station selection sucks now, their djs talk too much, and there is competition at cheaper price points from Slacker, Zune/Napster.

Loss of channels, new channels that are just bad and the decades channels are filled with ex-MTV jocks that drone on about the irrelevant (how many times can Alan Hunter give the date in one break???).

It's over for me. My wife can keep her subscription, but an extra $2 is the incentive I need to kill my subscription.

BTW, Ben, stop telling Carey to identify this as a monopoly. It's not. if the merger didn't happen, both companies would be out of business. Or, worst case scenario, CBS radio or Clear Channel makes a play for the company.

Can't wait until HD World Band Radio gets ironed out. FM quality from broadcasters anywhere in the USA and Canada. Suppose to be available soon in Great Britain and Europe.

It is not a monopoly and it is simply false to claim so. They have cornered ONE aspect of the streaming audio market. You don't want to pay the charge that Sirius/XM charges for their service then don't. But you are not entitled to their service either.

I'll probably cancel it again in 2 years when the contract is up.

To be honest, I don't see a problem. I love XM/Sirius, I have a portable receiver that I can use in my car or home, and I don't mind paying 36 bucks a year to stream if it means keeping the company in business and I can be entertained at work.

Is it me or does that dog look like it is farting?

Guess I have to call and stop the sub. This was just what was needed to push me off the wagon.