Sirius and XM on Capitol Hill

As mentioned below, Sirius and XM are starting to ramp up their efforts to get their merger blessed.

Earlier today I happened upon their hearings on C-SPAN and was not surprised by their arguments. They maintain, of course, that there are innumerable ways for competitors to compete with satellite radio. Here's a brief list:

• Large terrestrial radio companies could provide high-quality nation-wide radio
• Cell phone companies could use their networks to distribute content which could then be played over car or home stereos via blue-tooth (yes, seems quite convoluted)
  
• A collection of 802.11 networks could be used to transmit high quality radio

I didn't watch for long, or else my list would be a lot longer.

I'm not sure how I feel about a merger. On the one hand, it seems that satellite radio is a true paradigm shift and that for other companies to provide similar services they'd have to do it through the satellite radio network. On the other hand, satellite radio doesn't seem that great. If it can't be outdone then I'd be amazed. And, I think, if the merger leads to better solutions, then let it go ahead.