Less than a year ago, after 18 years of regulatory examination, the Sirius and XM satellite radio services completed a merger. Now it appears that the combined company may be taken over by satellite television giant Echostar.
Over the past several months the company’s value has plummeted. Meanwhile Echostar has been busy buying up much of Sirius XM’s $3.25 billion in debt. Now the New York Times is reporting they’re planning to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy any time.
Under Chapter 11 they would try to work out deals with creditors to restructure their debt load while they reorganize. Getting Echostar to forgive much of it in return for control of the company would be a big step in that direction.
Result for: sirius
The combination of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, Sirius-XM, will begin merging channels next week. The new company has 19 million paying subscribers currently, and despite an economic downturn, it is expecting growth. A drop off in car sales is somewhat threatening to its future business prospects however. While the company is being quiet about the exact details of programming change, many stations from the previous companies are expected to be merged if they provide similar content.
There will also be new subscription offerings for each system, with XM subscribers getting Sirius content like Howard Stern and the NFL for an extra $4 per month. All existing XM radios will get the Best of Sirius package, whereas only the recently-released Sirius Starmate 5 will be able to get the Best of XM package.
The Starmate 5 will get a la carte options as well, with users able to pick their 50 - 100 favorite stations for a lower monthly fee.
Result for: sirius
Although we wont have the official numbers until Tuesday, Iron Man director Jon Favreau has confirmed that the blockbuster film is already the highest selling Blu-ray title of all-time, despite the fact that it was only released on September 30th.
Favreau made the announcement during an interview with ’shock jock’ Howard Stern on Stern’s radio show on Sirius XM.
The new fact is not very surprising considering how well the film did in theaters and the fact that the film’s BD-Live servers could not handle the demand put on them in the first days after the BD’s release.
