That's the question being posed by SeekingAlpha contributor M&A Researcher, as the FCC still has not started its review "clock" just yet.

They point out that there has been an unusually long delay from application filing to clock start, but given the magnitude and publicity surrounding the Sirius-XM merger, maybe it's not all that surprising.

No new filings have been posted to the FCC's transaction page in the last seven days. It could be an indication that the staff is preparing to launch the review clock shortly, or maybe that the volume of filings coming in is so large that the staff simply is unable to keep up.

Either way, another batch of ex parte filings can be expected to appear shortly, as can the beginning of the 180-day informal review period. Tick-tock.

[SeekingAlpha] 

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on the Sirius-XM merger is set to kick off today at 10am ET. The list of witnesses includes:

• Mel Karmazin
  Chief Executive Officer
  SIRIUS Satelite Radio
• W. Russell Withers Jr.
  President
  Withers Broadcasting Companies
• Gene Kimmelman
  Vice President for Federal and International Affairs
  Consumer Union
• Gigi B. Sohn
  President and Co-Founder
  Public Knowledge
• David Bank
  Managing Director-Equity Research
  RBC Capital Markets
  

A webcast should be available shortly (15 mins prior to the start of the hearing), or just come back later and read all about it here. 

Clear Channel (CCU), by far one of the largest radio broadcasters in the country, has sent FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate several follow up responses from her meeting with the TAB.

According to the ex parte communication, Commissioner Tate questioned how Clear Channel can recognize and cite competition from other audio sources (iPods, Internet Radio, etc) as a reason for relaxing consolidation rules - while at the same time call the Sirius-XM merger a monopoly.

Conveniently, Clear Channel Vice President Thomas English gives three separate answers to this question. Here's a quick summary of his positions:

1. A combined Sirius-XM would "distort" the marketplace because it would concentrate the spectrum, while local radio ownership rules would unfairly restrict terrestrial.
2. How could free radio survive? Sirius-XM would have 100% spectrum, and local broadcasters can't compete against that.
3. Free radio serves the public interest, and he opposes anything that would affect that regardless of how the market is defined.

It's funny to see Clear Channel actually positioning itself as "the little guy" in this endeavor, promoting "local radio" or claiming that free radio would have "trouble" surviving. Truly amusing. Especially on the heals of Clear Channel partnering with Google for ad distribution across 675 of its radio stations, and the industry as a whole pulls in over $20 billion (that's with a "b") a year.

Commissioner Tate has traditionally promoted less regulation in the evolving communications marketplace.

Testifying in February to the Senate Commerce Committee, Tate said, "XM and Sirius have signed up millions of satellite radio subscribers, and iPods and other digital music players are used by millions more, including one in five people under the age of 30; and our mobile phones now provide us with stock quotes and e-mail updates from sources across the globe. We must make sure that we account for these effects of the digital age, because, from a regulatory standpoint, the media marketplace of tomorrow is being shaped by our actions today."

[FCC Filing (PDF) via Public Integrity] 

The Tennessee Association of Broadcasters (also known as... TAB) met with FCC Commissioner
Tate on April 6th. Guess what they wanted to talk about?

If you guessed the Sirius-XM merger, then you win a lollypop. According to an electronically filed letter to the FCC yesterday, executives from TAB, Clear Channel, The Crowmwell Group and South Central Communications discussed their concerns about the XM-Sirius merger and "its adverse impact on free radio and listeners."

In the same meeting, they discussed "the need for local radio ownership deregulation" with Commissioner Tate. (Isn't that ironic? Asking for deregulation and regulation at the same time?)

Read the full letter here. (PDF) 

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation will be holding a hearing on the Sirius-XM merger.

With the intriguing title of "XM Sirius" the hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 10am in room SR - 253. A webcast of the hearing will be announced soon.

No witnesses are available yet, but this is listed as a "Full Committee" hearing. The committee is chaired by Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), with Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) being the Vice Chairman. Committee members includes Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) among others.

This will be the fourth Capitol Hill hearing on the Sirius-XM merger.

[XM Sirius Hearing] 

I could go on and on about how the NAB is doing their best to spin the FCC Report on Satellite Competition, but let's just let the report speak for itself.

"We emphasize that the market descriptions included in this Report are intended to facilitate discussion of satellite markets and services as required by Section 703, and may not reflect the appropriate markets to be considered in other Commission proceedings, including merger reviews, rulemakings involving the Commission's ownership rules, or other reports to Congress." (Paragraph 27)

Oops. Guess this isn't the "evidence" that David Rehr was looking for.

The FCC has recently issued a competitive report and analysis on satellite communications services, and the NAB is using it as an opportunity to spin the report's findings in their favor.

The NAB issued a statement stating that the recent FCC analysis determined that the relevant market for satellite radio consists solely of XM and Sirius - something that is being echoed (almost word for word) in several industry publications. Below is a quote from the all mighty NAB President/CEO David K. Rehr:

"This FCC decision that the current duopoly of XM and Sirius do not compete with radio, iPods or any other audio sources in the satellite radio market further undermines the arguments made by XM and Sirius to obtain a government-sanctioned monopoly. While the FCC clearly intends to examine all issues surrounding the XM/Sirius merger, the hurdle the parties must overcome to convince the FCC to change direction is very high. This is a dramatic blow to XM/Sirius' presumption of a broader market, and still more evidence that XM and Sirius compete ferociously against each other in the market for nationwide multichannel mobile audio services, and no one else."

It really reads like doom-and-gloom (as is the purpose of issuing such a statement), but that's actually not entirely the case.