Xirius? SM? Former Competitors Merge Channel Offerings

From DailyTech: Yesterday was a chaotic day for fans of satellite radio: Sirius XM took the opportunity to shuffle its channel offerings Wednesday, as part of a larger effort to consolidate redundant programming between two formerly-competitive networks.

While XM and Sirius will remain separate networks, much of the programming unique to one network is now available on both. Customers can expect their channel listings to update – if they haven’t already – the next time they power on their satellite radio, and the update is supposed to take between 2 to 5 minutes to download.

Both XM (PDF) and Sirius (PDF) posted their updated channel lineups, as well as a breakdown of specific changes (XM, Sirius).

Reports indicate a fair amount of confusion among satellite radio customers, and fan forums for both networks are buzzing with lamentations over missing stations and contempt for the new offering. Even XM radio DJs Opie & Anthony, who Washington Post blogger Mike Musgrove called “XM’s answer to Howard Stern,” expressed distaste for the seemingly silent switch.

“It's a very exciting and a very sad day for satellite radio,” said Greg ‘Opie’ Hughes on his program Wednesday. His particular complaint centered around the death of the “Audio Visions” channel, which offered a selection of soothing, New Age music. “I guess [subscribers] got the new channel lineup and people are not happy.”

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