What can XM and Sirius do?

They'll likely have to increase their online presence in an effort to more widely distribute their content - which is actually the big upside for each of them in this deal (after reducing some of their unsustainable expenses). They will have lots of content under contract - and they will begin to morph into more of a movie or TV studio than a satellite provider like DirecTV or Dish Network.

Terrestrial radio has to start thinking in these terms as well. The sooner radio starts worrying more about creating great and unique content instead of reducing costs, the smoother the transition will be.

Satellite is not what will make these companies (or company if the merger gets approved) money. Unique content will. Terrestrial radio, simply because there are a ton more stations nationwide than there are stations on both satellite services combined, has the ability to create more unique content - and by streaming it over the internet, allow it to compete on relatively equal footing with all the other sources out there.

So, we as an industry have to focus on creating content and building an internet presence - and that's what this column is about.

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Postscript: I write and submit "The Net Untangled" about a week before it gets published every Website Wednesday. As a result, sometimes something happens between submission and publication that should end up in the column. This week that happened.

After I wrote and sent in this week's edition, I ran across this article in Business Week "XM & Sirius: What A Merger Won't Fix ". In the column, the fine people at Business Week cover the same points in this article and come to the same conclusion as I did: that Sirius and XM should be content providers, not satellite radio providers.

The important point for the radio industry to draw is that the same exact conclusion applies to terrestrial radio. As wireless high-speed internet access grows in popularity, anyone on the planet will have access to the delivery and broadcast system that terrestrial radio now enjoys a stranglehold on. All that will matter is the quality of content, not the license for a frequency granted by the FCC.

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As always, AllAccess has my “The Net Untangled Tip of the Day” each weekday and a column on Website Wednesdays. So check back and together we’ll get our internet presence focused on keeping radio strong in this world of increasing competition.

Do you agree with me? Or am I full of hot air? If you have comments or any questions about radio websites – either general questions relating to the industry or the web or even specific (HTML, PHP, .NET, Javascript, etc.) questions, send me an email through http://Preppermint.net/contact . I’ll answer your question quickly and maybe even use it for a future column.