While the rumored merger announcement from XM and Sirius at NAIAS obviously didn't happen yesterday (did we really think it would?), the topic about a potential merger continues to go on. Now again, remember that there's a huge difference between the two companies wanting a merger, and whether or not it would actually ever happen. Personally, I don't think it would - nor do I feel it's the best outcome from a consumer's standpoint either.

At this week's Citigroup investor conference, we got a brief glimpse as to the FCC's stance on the matter. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was at the event and was asked about the concept of a merger between Sirius and XM, and he hinted that it would potentially be held up by the FCC.

While the FCC Chairman didn't take a specific stance on the issue, he's quoted by Inside Radio as saying that the closest situation would be the way the Commission handled "what we did on [satellite] television," referring to the blocked merger between DirecTV and Dish Network (Echostar).

This comes as no surprise either. The DirecTV/Echostar merger was blocked because it would create a monopoly in areas where there is no terrestrial signal. There is absolutely no difference with radio, regardless of whether you think satellite radio competes with iPods and Internet content (both of which have video capabilities by the way). So you have to wonder why management from Sirius, and now apparently XM, are still "open" to the idea.

Perhaps with yet another three quarters of negative cash flow ahead of us - and The Street having unrealistically high expectations for subscriber numbers this year - maybe management is looking to keep speculative fires of a merger going, just a little bit longer?