XM and Sirius Merge

I received an email last night telling me something that the Thunderstick and I had long suspected would happen: XM and Sirus are merging, assuming the FCC approves. As a huge fan of satellite radio, I naturally worry what this will do to the consumer -- will I have to buy new equipment? Will my subscriber fees go up? At the same time, I cannot help but be pleased with what will inevitably be expanded options -- I will now get all NFL games in addition to the MLB package, wonderful news inasmuch as I will be able to listen to all the Pats games and listen when, say, I am driving back from San Antonio on a Sunday afternoon. The FCC will have some serious anti-trust questions to address, and the technological issues might be more difficult to reconcile than the principals think, but as one of the major players in the deal argued yesterday, the idea of only one satellite station may have been inevitable anyway. At least with this merger, one of them won't collapse.