Mel Karmazin, gave some more light on the possible "A La Carte" packages and pricing at today's House Judiciary Committee Antirust Task Force hearing on the proposed satellite radio merger.

First, Karmazin clarified that at this time "per-channel" A La Carte packages is not possible in the current infrastructure. In other words, the ability to pick and choose a completely customized subscription (labeled a "consumer advocate's dream") won't be a reality right now.

But what is possible is the choice of tiers based on different consumer interests.

Karmazin also stated that the $12.95 per month pricing is currently the ceiling that is possible for a subscriber. There's "no scenario where we're raising that price," said Karmazin in his testimony.

"What we're also saying is that we'll provide the consumer with a choice to be able to get satellite radio for less than [the current price]," he added.

For instance, in the scenario of a "music only" a la carte package, the consumer could likely pay less than a current satellite radio subscriber does today. I can imagine a "family package" with children/family-friendly programming, a "sports package" with live play-by-play sports, and a "news/talk package" with only (wait for it) news and talk.

More choice, and lower prices. It's rare that you see a merger scenario with those possibilities becoming a reality. 

Mel Karmazin just told the House Judiciary Committee antitrust task force that if terrestrial radio is not competing with satellite radio, then "they are lying" to the SEC.

Just as a reminder to those who didn't catch it - several terrestrial radio companies have stated in their own SEC filings that satellite radio (as well as Internet radio, and MP3 players) directly competes with terrestrial radio. These statements constitute admissions by law.

I'm really happy that Mel has driven home this point. 

When questioned about the XM/Sirius merger in front of the House Judiciary Committee antitrust task force, Mel Karmazin was asked whether he would agree to pricing restrictions for the newly merged company.

"Yes," Karmazin flat out said.

When asked whether he would be able to agree to this for a four year period of time, Karmazin stated that he would be happy to discuss it with the necessary people. There was some joking back and fourth whether the timeframe would span within 2 weeks to 4 years, but in the end no timeframe was actually specified.

Karmazin was also asked whether he would agree to not transmit local content (local news/weather) and he clearly stated that they have no intentions of entering into the local market.

Gigi B. Sohn, co-founder and President of Public Knowledge, testified in front of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee antitrust task force hearing on the proposed XM/Sirius merger. Interestingly enough, Gigi was actually in favor of the merger.

...but on a few conditions:

1. The new company makes available pricing choices such as a la carte or tiered programming.

2. The new company makes 5% of its capacity available to non-commercial educational and informational programming over which it has no editorial control.

3. The new company agrees not to raise prices for three years after the merger is approved.
   

David Rehr, president of the NAB, testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee antitrust task force. He had five main points as to why this merger should not go through.

1. The national satellite radio industry is a duopoly that is looking to become a monopoly
2. It would violate FCC rules, precident, and anti-trust principles. "Ironically" Sirius was the one who asked for competition in the 1997 FCC SDARS license.
   
3. It would undermine audio content competition. In contract negotiations, the new entity could unfairly leverage their monopoly to maintain exclusivity or to reduce prices unfairly.
   
4. Two entities that have had a pattern of violating FCC rules cannot be trusted with monopoly power. The FCC mandated that an interoperable radio be developed - 10 years later, nothing has been developed. Both companies violated Part 15 rules. Both companies have violated repeater rules.
   
5. XM and Sirius are, by their own admission, not failing companies. And should not receive a government bail out.
   

The House subcommittee on telecommunications will hold a hearing next Wednesday, March 7th that will include a look at the proposed Sirius-XM merger.

Mel Karmazin will appear before the subcommittee to review the merger and the future of radio.

US Representative Edward J. Markey, a 16-term Massachusetts Democrat who heads the subcommittee (and who was chairman of it 12 years ago), said that over the next two years he will focus on fostering competition that will benefit consumers.

"We're going to go back to the beginning, to begin to talk about the whole nature of these" issues, Markey said. "Now, for the first time I have the gavel back again, and I plan to highlight competition."

Markey also said that under a Republican-controlled Congress and FCC, consumers have suffered with the slow spread of broadband and a lack of competition to telephone and cable companies.

Looks like there may be trouble coming next week.

[Reuters and The Boston Globe]

Mel Karmazin will testify today in front of a new House Judiciary Committee antitrust task force today at 3pm ET. The hearing will discuss the proposed XM-Sirius merger.

Also in attendance will be the NAB's President David Rehr, Gigi B. Sohn (co-founder and President of Public Knowledge), and Mark Cooper (Consumer Federation of America).

John Conyers Jr (D-MI) became chairman of the House Judiciary Committee after Democrats took control of Congress in the last election. He said he created the bipartisan antitrust task force within the committee to focus on antitrust and competition policy issues. It will have a limited term and operate only through the end of August.

A live feed of the hearing will be available here, or on CSPAN-3.
Thanks MB!

In Arbitron's Fall 2006 ratings survey, respondents were asked to indicate whether they're listening to satellite radio, Internet radio or AM/FM, for the first time. Arbitron found that the sum of all satellite radio channels listed totaled up to 3.4% of credited quarter hours.

Respondents listed 297 separate satellite radio channels with the highest share of quarter hours for an individual satellite radio channel was 0.2%.

In total, approximately 5.6% of the half-million respondents listed a satellite radio channel in their Arbitron diary. The analysis also showed that satellite listeners are heavy listeners to radio in general (surprise surprise).

Satellite listeners spent an average of 33 hours a week with radio, compared to the typical listener who listened for about 19 hours a week. Also, the findings showed that people who listened to satellite radio spent more time with AM/FM radio (14 hours) than they did with satellite radio (10 hours, 45 minutes) or Internet stations (8 hours, 15 minutes).

[FMQB] 

USA Today has a very nice feature with Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin on the XM/Sirius merger.

From questions about the merged company raising prices, to the sharing of XM-Sirius content, to dual receivers and what exactly the cost-savings are - the Q&A is quick and concise. And hopefully it will answer some of the questions that you all may have.

Obviously there's more questions, and probably not enough answers at this time. That's sort of the way it goes when you have a merger (anyone who's been through one can attest to that). But just remember that we're barely over a week through this... so give it some time.

[USA Today] 

The Orbitcast Smack Show is about to kick off (it starts at 3pm ET) and it looks like the Stiletto will be the first item up for grabs. If you haven't registered yet then you're missing out. (And once again, no, I don't make any money off anything you buy at this Smack event.)

Even if you don't plan on buying anything, come on down and join the chat. I'm there right now answering everyone's questions. Happy smackin'!

UPDATE: Wow, what an incredible turnout. Thanks all for showing up, and congrats to those who saw some incredible savings. Just to give you an idea of how much was actually saved from this event: a Stiletto went for 36.8% off, an Inno for 43.9% off, a Delphi XM repeater went for 48.8% off, a Sirius Conductor for a whopping 64.3% and an XM Mini-Tuner for an amazing 86.4% off!

Thanks again to all who participated!