Merger advocates say the recent CES convention just proves how much competition XM and Sirius now face.
PR firm Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher issued a list to document the “fast-growing and unprecedented range of choices (that) consumers have in the audio entertainment market,” saying the trend would be apparent to even a casual observer at the CES show.
“Competition is heading satellite radio’s way from all directions — from the powerful terrestrial radio broadcasters, to the mobile phone and cellular companies, to Internet radio upstarts. What’s more surprising is how much the competition has intensified in just the 11 months since Sirius and XM announced their merger,” the PR company stated.
CES news it cited include the availability of factory-installed HD Radio in Ford models; according to the PR firm, HD Radio “is rapidly growing in popularity and is now available to over 80 percent of the population.”
It also pointed to media coverage of “trendy new radios” that benefit from low-cost home wireless standards; the availability of Internet radios using new modules from Reciva; development of “integrated” automobiles such as those that use Ford’s Sync operating system; the ICO mim hybrid communications technology that delivers services to vehicles through video displays and on portable electronics devices; and a “seemingly endless stream of new MP3 technology.”
