Sirius started the year by announcing it had met its lowered subscriber projections for 2006 but the possibility of a merger with rival XM continues to loom. Sirius finished 2006 with 82 percent more subscribers than in the previous year, ending the year with about 6.02 million subscribers, up from 3.3 million a year earlier, buit down from the 6.3 million the company said it could attain as recently as October. Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin has said he’d consider a merger with XM at the right price. And while regulators would likely cry monopoly, Karmazin and XM Chairman Gary Parsons have both argued that there is strong competition from terrestrial radio and other sources. Release
Related: Sirius To Launch Live TV Service In 2007; Content Deals in Jan
—Karmazin Wants Merger With XM; Says Regulatory Issues Won’t Happen Now