Sirius Radio to merge with XM. As reported everywhere, this link is the Reuters.

WOW! I’m shocked actually. I thought they just said a month or two ago that they would NOT be allowed to merge. This could be very interesting with Opie, Anothony, and Howard working at the same company. Howard probably is the single person with the most to gain, as far as money goes since he has so many shares of Sirius. O&A RULES!!!! Down with Stern!!!!

From the Wiki, so you know it’s true.

Currently, the main SR providers are WorldSpace in Europe, Asia and Africa, and XM Radio and Sirius in North America. All are proprietary and non-compatible signals, requiring proprietary hardware for decoding and playback

XM uses fixed-location geostationary satellites in two positions, and Sirius uses three geosynchronous satellites passing over North and South America, to transmit the digital streams. The net difference is that the Sirius signal comes from a higher elevation angle in the northern part of the U.S., and even more so in Canada. (This higher angle makes Sirius’ signal less likely to drop out on cities, but more likely to drop out in parking garages, gas stations, tunnels, and other covered spaces.)

So I wonder which set of equipment becomes obsolete? Or do they simulcast from both for a set period of time? Or is this a non-issue? I do not know.