XM, Siruis Merger Buzz

from Rertuers

Pull up the six-month performance of companies making up the Hollywood Reporter/Bloomberg 50 Entertainment Stock Index and a tiny pattern emerges: Dead last is XM Satellite Radio, and third from last is Sirius Satellite Radio. Their rapidly declining share prices have some investors calling for a quick fix -- namely, that the two companies merge.

Lineups: Sirius ponied up $500 million for Stern and $220 million for the NFL. XM has paid $650 million for Major League Baseball and $55 million for Oprah Winfrey. NASCAR, which XM paid about $15 million for in a five-year deal that is up at year's end, just switched to Sirius for $107.5 million. The two also have lined up Eminem, 50 Cent, Martha Stewart, the NBA and the NHL, to name a few.

Such expenses have led to massive losses -- $667 million at XM last year and $863 million at Sirius -- even as subscriber growth has kept on trucking. Sirius has gone from 30,000 subs in 2002 to 4.7 million as of July, while XM has grown from 360,000 to 7 million in the same frame.