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.
   

Well, that didn't take long. The NAB has issued a statement today in response to the proposed merger between Sirius and XM. NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton had the following to say:

"Given the government's history of opposing monopolies in all forms, NAB would be shocked if federal regulators permitted a merger of XM and Sirius. It bears mentioning that regulators summarily rejected a similar monopoly merger of the nation's only two satellite television companies -- DirecTV and DISH Network -- just a few years back.

"When the FCC authorized satellite radio, it specifically found that the public would be served best by two competitive nationwide systems. Now, with their stock prices at rock bottom and their business model in disarray because of profligate spending practices, they seek a government bail-out to avoid competing in the marketplace.

(...and the kicker:)

"In coming weeks, policymakers will have to weigh whether an industry that makes Howard Stern its poster child should be rewarded with a monopoly platform for offensive programming. We’re hopeful that this anti-consumer proposal will be rejected."

So it looks like the NAB is going to play the indecency card on this one.  

The NAB has renewed their plea to the FCC to issue a complete recall of "unlawful" satellite radio receivers.

Last year the NAB whistled the same tune in a similar letter to the FCC, and later a letter to both Sirius and XM. Apparently causing XM and Sirius a massive disruption in production isn't enough for NAB president David Rehr. No, now we need an all out recall of all satellite radios that are "interfering" with FM.

In his letter, Rehr is particularly concerned with listeners of public and religious programming being subjected to explicit and "unwelcome" programming - particularly "The Howard Stern Show." And as expected, Rehr referred to a recent New York Times article to back up his claims that this is going on.

It's obvious that the NAB is quite pleased with themselves with what they were able to pull off last year, and they're not going to stop pressuring the FCC for more drastic measures. Afterall, who needs to compete in the marketplace when you can just use political pressure to get the job done for you?

[View Letter (PDF) via MediaWeek] 

(For you lazy clickers, you can read full text of Rehr's letter after the jump...)