FCC Commissioner Michael Copps expressed skepticism today about whether he would endorse the proposed merger of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.

Copps, one of two Democrats on the FCC, said it would be a "steep climb" for him to cast a favorable vote because he has serious concerns about media consolidation. Copps had previously referred to the proposed Sirius-XM merger as a "steep climb" as well back in mid-April.

"Somebody's going to have to make a pretty powerful and potent demonstration that it serves the public interest," Copps said of the XM-Sirius deal.

"The parts of the (public) record that I've looked at so far have not shown me that (the deal) serves the public interest," Copps told reporters at a briefing.

Copps declined to comment on how he will vote, but said he had "very serious worries" about media consolidation in general. "I think localism, competition, diversity (in the media) have been seriously threatened." The Commissioner has historically had problems with the overall state of consolidation in U.S. media, and has expressed this vocally in the past.

[Reuters]

While speaking to reporters today, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said that the Commission plans to vote on the pending Sirius-XM merger in the fourth quarter of this year. Martin said the FCC is trying to meet its goal of deciding on pending mergers within 180 days.

"That's our target," said Martin.

The FCC began the XM-Sirius merger proceeding on June 8th, which would put the agency on schedule to make a ruling by December 6th. Last week, we reached the half-way point of the FCC's informal timeline.

In mid-July, Bank of America analyst Jonathan Jacoby wrote in a client note that procedural hurdles to regulatory approval needed to be overcome by the September 10th date. Jacoby added that "the chance of approval increases to above 50% if the clock doesn’t stop by that date, according to our contacts."

With the Sept. 10th date having been overcome, and Martin essentially confirming publicly that the FCC does not foresee any clock-stopping events, this serves as good news for merger hopefuls.

[via Bloomberg]

Today, both Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) certified with the DOJ that they are substantially compliant with its Second Request, it was revealed in a recent SEC filing.

The certification was made to the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice that they are in substantial compliance with its Request for Additional Information. Last we heard, both XM and Sirius were in the midst of the document productions for the DOJ in response to the second request.

"I think we paid a little bit over $1 million just for photocopying the material that we had to send them, and that doesn't include any of the electronic [filiings]," said CEO Mel Karmazin during Sirius' 2Q07 earnings call.

"Generally in a relatively short period after [certifying], you then get some indications from the DOJ how that is going," said XM Chairman Gary Parsons during XM's 2Q07 earnings call.

[SEC Filing]