XM/Sirius: Did we just hear the other shoe drop on the XM Satellite Radio/Sirius Satellite Radio merger? On July 25, XM founder and CEO Hugh Panero announced he would leave the company in August. The company named COO Nate Davis president and interim CEO.
At the time, many industry observers opined that the move signaled that the long-simmering merger between the satellite radio rivals might be approaching reality—especially since the merger included active roles for Davis and Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin, but not Panero. Other experts speculated that XM's lackluster second quarter subscription growth signaled a need for new blood.
On August 6, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Kevin Martin stated in a monthly press conference that he was "pleased" with reports that XM and Sirius had come up with an "a la carte" pricing structure that would allow subscribers to pay for only those channels they wished to subscribe to rather than insisting on a prix fixe, one-price-for-everything plan.
What Martin said was that he "was pleased any time companies come forward with proposals that would give consumers more control over what they pay for." What he did not say was whether the FCC would approve the merger—or when. Analysts, however, interpret this as a sign that the merger probably now stands a chance of going forward. Nay-sayers still point out that the Department of Justice will also have to determine whether or not the merger would run afoul of antitrust statutes. The head of the DOJ has not been commenting on this—or any other subject—recently.
It would seem the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is worried about the merger's potential. The NAB released a price analysis of the proposed a la carte programming packages that, it claimed, showed that the new plan would cost consumers more per channel, even though it would drop minimums to $6.99/month from XM's current $12.95. The math, as NAB interprets it, is that $12.95 gets you 170 channels on XM and 130 channels on Sirius, which works out to 8¢ per channel (XM) or 10¢ (Sirius), while the I>a la carte plan works out to 14¢ to 25¢ per channel.
Do we even need to mention that the NAB is not a fan of the proposed merger? In his keynote address at NAB2007 in April, NAB president and CEO Jack Rehr said a merger "certainly would not be in the consumer's benefit," adding, "This is not about the consumer. It is not about advancing technology. It is about lining the pockets of financiers and corporate executives."
Of course it is, unlike the activities of the terrestrial broadcasters the NAB represents, who are only in it to serve mankind.
Tweeter closes Nevada concept stores: Tweeter Newco, the company formerly known as Tweeter Home Entertainment Group, has close its Summerlin and Henderson outlets, including its pioneering Summerlin 10,000-square-foot "retail lab and prototype," the Tweeter Entertainment Architects store that was billed as "the future of consumer electronics retailing" when it opened in January 2005.
The company says it closed the stores on July 31 after the chain closed its California stores. Without a west-coast distribution system, the Nevada outlets became "remote outposts," a Tweeter spokesperson told TWICE's Alan Wolf. No further closings are planned, the company says, and new funding from Shulze Asset Management's acquisition of the brand should help the chain remodel 20 stores by Thanksgiving.
Dynaudio Sapphire: Noting that 2007 will be Dynaudio's 30th anniversary, the company announced that it was going to debut a celebratory speaker—the Sapphire ($16,500/pair)—on August 10 at the Hong Kong Audio Show. Production of the floorstanding loudspeaker will be limited to 1000 pairs worldwide.
Details will be announced on September 1, so we don't know much besides the price and what it looks like, but the last time Dynaudio celebrated its birthday, it came up with the Special Twenty-Five, a loudspeaker that John Atkinson and Wes Phillips have proclaimed to be a beloved classic.
Wisdom's new driver: Wisdom Audio has announced the "next generation of magnetic, thin-film drivers." The new driver uses neodymium magnets and pleated thin-film diaphragms. The rare-earth magnets enable the driver to achieve higher sensitivity and deliver higher SPLs at lower frequencies, according to executive vice-president David Graebner. The thin-film pleated diaphragm helps eliminate standing waves on its surface, he added.
"Wisdom Audio has developed a number of planar magnetic technologies that fully capitalize on the strengths of planar magnetic drivers while mitigating or even eliminating the few weaknesses," said Mark Glazier, Wisdom Audio president. "Designed for a high level of performance as an in-wall, on-wall, or in-room option, our proprietary next generation planar magnetic thin-film drivers allow Wisdom to deliver a high performance planar magnetic/hybrid series of products that are designed in a narrow and shallow cabinet which has a small physical and visual footprint. . . . While it is impossible to claim that any speaker is perfect, some do get significantly closer than others…and Wisdom Audio’s innovative transducer technology now leads the way."
The new drivers will be available in the company's five Sage speaker configurations, which will debut at CEDIA on September 6, 2007. We'll tell you what we hear then.
Thiel ships CS3.7: Thiel Audio announced August 9 that its much ballyhooed CS3.7 floorstanding loudspeaker ($9900/pair), first announced at CES2006, is now shipping to dealers. The complexity of the loudspeaker, which incorporates formed aluminum cabinet elements, pleated and ribbed aluminum driver elements, and Thiel's habitual time and phase coherent networks, kept the CS3.7 from meeting Jim Thiel's overly optimistic spring 2006 ship date. They're available now and we'll be hearing production samples at CEDIA on September 6 and (presumably) receiving review samples shortly thereafter.
