The Washington Examiner has a very interesting piece on the NAB is so gung-ho against the XM-Sirius merger. While NAB is crying that the merger would create an unfair competitor, the numbers just don't add up:
- Sirius and XM have a combined annual revenue of $1.49 billion.
- Clear Channel, the largest member of the NAB, raked in a whopping $1.97 billion in revenue... last quarter.
- Sirius and XM have nearly 14 million subscribers combined.
- Clear Channel boasts 110 million listeners.
So a single member of the NAB (an organization with a $20 million building in downtown DC and an $7 million annual lobbying budget) earns more money than the entire satellite radio industry combined, and nearly 10x as many listeners.
And yet, the NAB is saying that a merger would harm the "local" broadcast industry. (The term "local" is used to make them out to be "the little guy" - but we all know that terrestrial radio is far from "local" - *cough* voicetracking *cough*).
While the NAB is calling the merger a “a government bail-out to avoid competing in the marketplace,” The Examiner thinks it might be more accurate to say that the NAB is asking for government protection against competition.
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