Veight

My free one year subscription ends later this month , so I called Sirius to find out about renewal. Sirius has a Lifetime plan where you pay $499 once and you can transfer the service to other radios up to 3 times for 75 bucks. They now have reduced the price for lifetime to $399 for the month of June. So they say. Supposedly the original lifetime deal was to expire in 6 months but its been 2 years and they still have it.

Here is the issue. There is a proposed merger between XM and Sirius. The government has not ruled whether this merger can happen due to a potential monopoly and the elimination of competition. If the merger happens, Sirius will honor the lifetime contract and the two companies will bring their programming together and duplicate stations, (60's music for instance) will be eliminated. So the merger would be a win win. But if the merger doesn't happen, I have a feeling that either XM or Sirius will fold. I think satellite will stay but there is not currently enough market share for 2 companies right now. I don't know what happens to the lifetime contract if Sirius were to fail.

But if you figure the monthly rate is 12.95 and a lifetime contract is $399 then for 31 months you are paid for life, I think its a good deal. A risk that Sirius would fold before 31 months? Probably wouldn't happen since the car companies have alot invested in Sirius but who knows?

C's Bimmer

This is good to know. I too, just got a call from Sirius, saying that my first year, free subscription is about to expire and it's time to renew. I think I'm just going to pay the annual fee. Easier, even though it's more costly over time.

kscarrol

I was concerned about the viability of Sirius long-term so I renewed with a 2-yr subscription when mine expired. With the proposed merger now on the horizon, who knows what the combined company will be like, though I'm sure they'll honor any agreements already in place.

tomv

Thanks for tossing this up for discussion. I got the free year as well and mine expires in August. I would probably not go for lifetime renewal, and would be more inclined to look at an amount of time that coincides with my lease termination, two more years to go. The assumption here would be that when I lease another car, probably a 5 series again, I would look at what options I have at that time for another first free year with satellite, etc. Here is my guess, there will probably be a merger between the two companies, in which case you would get payback under your scenario, or a media/communications conglomerate will come in and buy XM or Sirius, somebody like a Cox, Comcast or someone that would want access to the subscriber base, in this case I assume they would honor your lifetime deal as this would be a condition of the sale. Just some thoughts.

BMWSTL

If it were me, I wouldn't go for it. Lifetime in this type of technology may be short. This reminds me of people buying lifetime memberships at a gym and then losing their investment when the gym closes down suddenly in bankruptcy.

Lou

Veight

Well this is a bit different. 10 or so car manufacturers have this hardware in their cars. For a couple of years anyway someone will prop them up I believe.

BMWSTL

True, and I did not intend to compare the satellite companies to a health club, just to draw an analogy.

There is risk to these satellite companies. Bear in mind that Sirius and XM are trying to merge, in part, because they are having a tough time making a go of it as separate companies. If they merge there will be one player in satellite radio, a big burden to overcome under the antitrust laws. XM and Sirius contend that the relevant market is not satellite providers, but content delivery providers; I'm not sure that will get past the FTC which needs to approve any merger like this. Same with the FCC, which has licensing transfer jurisdiction and has already stated that it would frown on a satellite provider merger.

XM and Sirius have a pay for services business model and are facing tremendous pressure from other music and content delivery competitors such as Apple (iPod) as well as other MP3 players (fixed cost equipment and either burned songs from CD's or a fixed cost per song) and HD radio (free after you buy the equipment). If either the FCC or the FTC won't allow a merger, and there's a lot of heat coming from Congress to not approve it, the deal will fall apart. Can these companies survive long term given the competition and technology shifts in the market?

I'm going to get satellite in my car as I believe the service will be around for the time I own the car, but "lifetime" is too long in this space for me to bet on it.

Lou

Veight

Well i am taking the risk with Lifetime on my second radio in the BMW. They let you pay over 4 months. They claim once merged (if it happens) that lifetime won't be available anymore.

I compare this to when American Airline offered Lifetime Admirals Club memberships for $299 the first year to Addvantage members.

Now that its like 600 bucks a year for Admirals Club. I see Sirius Lifetime as a similar type of thing. Just think of the combined availability of NFL and MLB on one radio. Thats amazing. I bought my first sirius just for the NFL package. I think the risk for $400 bucks which is 31 months of 12.95 service an acceptable risk. I spent more than that for one tire last month.

sleepyca31

I can assure you sirius and xm will not exist in the future but a satalite provider that stems from them or them in a different name will exist. Satelite is not going to leave all of a sudden and a new company will not appear out of nowhere as the overhead to completely start up an entirely new satellite company is obviously ridiculous-therefore sirius now and whoever they are after the merger or in the future will always honor previous contracts-and lifetime-you can call it that or call it 5 year contract or wahtever is still cheaper than doing year to year or 2 years or whatever. So even if things go bust for that contract in 5-10 years-400 bucks for satelite radio for 5 years really is a drop in the bucket if you use it