David wrote:
On 2 Feb 2006 07:04:20 -0800, "John S." wrote:


It's anyones guess as to where standard AM and FM broadcasting are
headed. If satellite radio takes off and one standard emerges then I
suspect that more quality programming will shift to that medium, but
how much is a guess. I think it will take a merger of the two
satellite radio providers before that will happen.

That will probably never happen. The Duopoly is mandated by the FCC.

More likely is a single receiver that seamlessly receives both
providers. Also mandated by the dreaded FCC.

I suspect that in the battle for listeners coming up that one of them
will dominate and ultimately overpower the other. There isn't a
difference in technical quality between XM and Sirius that there was
between AM and FM to force a transition. The winner if there is one
will be decided by the audience share gotten by having the right mix of
programming. And some of that programming is proving to be quite
expensive, so the investors are going to want to see a profit sometime
soon. I think it will be a bruising fight, but I may be way off base
too.

But it could also end up that XM and Sirius are just two more buttons
on a signal processor right along side AM, FM, Ipod, CD and maybe
digital FM.

It will be interesting.