If Sirius and XM can merge, what’s ahead for online video? Not much for now.

It’s unfortunate that there would be a merger in a space where consumers would benefit from competition. And yet there remains a proliferation of consumer-generated video sites — most of whom don’t attract enough eyeballs to exist alone.

Still, the barriers to entry and huge cost of running satellite radio (think about the Howard Stern contract alone) make it impossible to exist without rapid market growth or mergers. Online video sites are relatively inexpensive to launch and manage.

When will video sites merge, then? When one or more cut strong distribution deals that take them beyond the Internet.

If Yahoo Video and, say, Verizon are tight… if YouTube and Cingular joined forces… then smaller sites will have to “toss in the towel.” Can’t beat ’em? Join them.

Go secure upstream deals, video sites! That (coupled with good content and traffic) is your only hope.