It’s not a “first amendment issue†(no government body is trying to tell Sirius what they can or can’t do), and it’s not a “bowing down to big business†issue (this is a stipulation for a partnership). And, really, it’s not even a big deal that the music is censored.
But it’s still bothersome. It’s not so much what they’re doing as it is why they’re doing it. In other words, if a large group of Sirius subscribers complained about the naughty language on a particular channel and Sirius decided to censor it, I’d have no problem with it; a company is simply meeting the demands of their customers.
But this is something else; this is Sirius changing the nature of the programming (for the worst, in my opinion) not to meet customer demands but to meet a requirement in a partnership with another company. As a customer, I feel a little betrayed when programming decisions are made based on what an outside third party wants and not what the customer wants.
What made satellite radio attractive in the first place was the lack of radio advertisements. This is great because radio advertisements annoy most people. It’s also great because the parent broadcasting company (Sirius) doesn’t have to deal with the wishes and desires of other companies; their revenue comes exclusively from their listeners, so their listeners are the only people they have to worry about satisfying.
A few months ago, I was showing off my car system to some friends. I was flipping through some of the Satellite radio stations, and came to Alt Nation. They were playing the extended, uncensored version of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name Ofâ€. While I tend to shy away from profanity as a general rule, this is one of those songs where the use of the “f†word works; the censored radio-edit version takes away a lot of the punch and power of the piece, leaving it bland and impotent. My friends were impressed, as they’d never heard the song played as it was intended outside of their own record collections or at the club.
My friend James turned to me after the song was over, and said something to the effect of “That’s really cool that they don’t have to worry about offending anyoneâ€, to which I replied “Yeah… they don’t have to answer to anyone but the listeners†It impressed my friend Mike so much that he got Satellite radio for his own car (he went with XM, since he’s an Alpine nut).
But what their saying in this particular case is that programming decisions *can* be influenced by other companies. This begs the question “If the customer base is not the exclusive force behind programming decisions, why am I paying them money? There’s plenty of traditional FM radio stations out there that will put the wants and desires of the listeners second to the demands of other companies.â€
Again, by itself this really isn’t a big deal. It’s not something that will prompt me to run out and cancel my Sirius subscription. However, as a symbol for Sirius’ priorities, it’s disturbing. They’re treading dangerously close to a slippery slope where deals with other companies are sufficient justifications to alter the Sirius programming. Once that mindset has been reached, it’s not a far stretch to start making more significant changes based on the wishes of “partner†companies instead of the wishes of the subscriber base.
As a side note, does anyone have a link to the specifics of the Sirius/Sprint deal? I’d be curious to know exactly what it entails.
****
HT: Yamaha RX-V800, Paradigm Reference Studio 80, Paradigm Reference Studio 20, Paradigm Reference Studio CC-470, Panasonic DVD-F85, RCA DVR40, BenQ 46-W1
BR: Yamaha RXV-592, Klipsch KSF 10.5, Klipsch KSW 100, Phillips DVD 711, Samsung SIR-TS360, Denon DCD 425, Phillips 30PW850H, Radio Shack 15-2133 Kameleon
Mokemobile: Kenwood Excelon HDC-X679, MB Quart Premium PCE 213, MB Quart Discus DKE 169, (2) JL 10W0, Kenwood Excelon KAC-X541, Kenwood Excelon KAC-X621, Kenwood KTC-SR902
My DVD collection
