sounds like a sweeeet deal t me .... for georgetown.

If I were them, I'd be trying this too.

But it totally sucks for siriu and xm since they built the technology and financed it etc....

I will be really bummed if they are successful at this bid. but it really would not surprise me at all.

sounds like a sweeeet deal to me .... for georgetown.

If I were them, I'd be trying this too.

But it totally sucks for siriu and xm since they built the technology and financed it etc....

I will be really bummed if they are successful at this bid. but it really would not surprise me at all.

wow, this hardly seems fair--They want a handout, dont want to pay for any of the up front costs that Xm/Sirius have paid for---sounds like welcare to me

Wow... why don't we hand them some gub'ment cheese while we're at it.

This is so far off from common sense, it's disgusting.

Way back they had the chance and now they want to rob sat radio stockholders.
Yes it takes time to build something like sat radio and it is not just satellites it is all that goes with it. Even the millions of millions to develop the radios.
Ok they want in come up with a billion dollars to pay the stockholders that invested in this new thing called sat radio.
No way should they get all the technology for free that so many people have risked money on. When sat radio started many thought it would not work for many reasons and now they want in to a proven thing no way.

So let me see if I understand this correctly... They want to be given 20% of the programming on xm sirius which would be just for arguments sake 20 channels, for free. They then get to broadcast whatever they want to on it and make money from advertisements. On top of this, the listenership comes partially from inactive radios which are being placed in more and more cars daily.

so its basically saying XM/sirius pay for everything except operating costs, we get 20% of that and can make money off it.

I would almost like to see this happen just so that the new company starts failing and the FCC has to admit they screwed up and bail them out so they can get back in business. I just dont want it to end with me losing my XM

As usual, the minority owned buisness wants something for nothing... If they wanted fair market, they would pay the MARKET VALUE for that allotted bandwidth/frequency space... and go through the normal channels, other than letting the FCC bully the sat companies to basically give them what amounts to a FREE RIDE .... only to in a few months go and resell that bandwith, probably saying its no longer profitable for them....

Neither sat provider should be giving handouts.... im sorry, the lease deal undervalues the true cost of those frequencies/channels...

I know this is not going to be popular, but by Georgetown asking for this handout, it is taking care of the monopoly issue. Also, If Sirius/Xm "leased" the satellites to these idiots, they could charge them more money and also they could only lease them certain satellitea.

thats fine i am sure we can caculate the total cost of the last 5 years and build a lease plan that will accomidate siri/xm needs.

lets see they leaked 2b a year for 3 years....2 more years cost of 8b to get up and running and the inital outlay of a few billion....and the cost of tallent a few billion.

so lets see how about a 5 year lease deal at 2.5b a year...that should give them time to fund their own sat company. at the end of 5 years they get back the spectrum.

sounds about right....lets sign that contract now...

http://georgetownep.com/home

This is beyond the point of absurdity. It's a friggin circus. You have to laugh at the insane ways the NAB is able to if not deny the merger...drag it out indefinitely. In fact, I am convinced they KNOW they will lose their battle in DENYING the merger based on logic....so their NEW strategy is two fold. TRY to put INSANE demands on the merger by STEALING bandwidth for FREE. If they convince congress(who they've bribed so why not) in meeting these demands...then they've won. But if these demands are considered unreasonable by congress....they serve only to delay the merger until both XM and Sirius walk away in disgust. Sirius & XM have already had to EXTEND the merger agreement another TWO months. Mark my words, the NAB is going to keep throwing more and MORE absolutely INSANE demands on the merger for the next two months to try and FORCE XM an Sirius's hand. They are laughing at us. They are laughing at the easily confused government. They KNOW they can drag this on forever and they are toying with us. It's sickening.

The thing that REALLY depresses me is that this has dragged on for so long and cost so much money to both the companies and the shareholders, that if a miracle DOES happen and the merger goes thru...Sirius will probably do a reverse split....and ALL those loyal shareholders who have been so patient for soooo long and put up with sooo much....won't even get the benifit of a POP post merger so that they can FINALLY sell some shares. They will be denied even that.

Bastards. :-)

Its Official: Georgetown Partners JUST jumped the shark... Broadcasting to ALL radios,even unactivated ones???

GP has always seemed to be a last ditch effort to make a power grab for Sat Radio, but, this is beyond desperation!

This is Georgetown Partners Hail Mary, and I dont think it will happen.

Its Over!

I cannot imagine that the FCC would make Sirius/XM do any of this . If they do, I believe both would walk away from the deal.

The friggin' nerve of them. That is completely outrageous.

They entahsed him

Linger longah

These people suck. Their programming will suck. It will be a waste of money. And nobody cares. Thank you.

What why how is the FCC even talking to them? Is it just a excuse for the FCC to delay and drag this out forever? I hope Congress is looking into everything at the FCC including how the FCC let IB / HD destroy AM radio.

SIRI/XM already gave the government a-la-carte programming. They won't give them anything else.

This has probably been the NAB's strategy all along. Just keep dragging this out. I can't tell you the number of people I've talked to that would like to have satellite radio, but they keep telling me they don't want to invest money into hardware on either service because they don't know what's going to happen in regards to the merger. These people keep telling me they're holding out until a decision is made, one way or the other. Stuff like this is what's hurting both companies at the present time. There's so many potential subscribers hanging in the balance, but everyday that goes by, it's costing XM & Sirius money to operate. To the NAB, that's more beneficial than what any decision on the merger is, approved or denied. I think both of these companies will be fine, either way, if they could just get some sort of decision!

OK, give them 20 channels. The only thing they can do with the channels is the programming. That is it. They play what they want and that is all. You have to be a playing sub to listen to the channels. Sirius will make a deal with them to help fund it but not all. What the heck are they going to be playing on these 20 channels that isn't already out there? More rap, killing/rapping songs.

They need to go buy their own radio station!!

I think if MSFT ends up buyinhg yhoo I am going to ask for 20% of Microsoft. What the hell, its worth a shot right?

Regan & Coward - what makes you think this has anything to do with the NAB? Seems like this would be the exact opposite of what terrestrial radio wants since it means the merger could go thru and no competitor to satelite radio would exist, just like Mel wants it. Are you paranoid or something that every obstacle to the merger must be NAB's fault? Don't forget, the consumer federation of america, consumers union, american antitrust institute, and lots of other expert consumer interest groups all think the merger sucks those folks definitely wouldn't lift a finger for NAB's benefit.

The FCC and the DOJ should be investigated. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is so thoroughly corrupt that any investigation would be a sham. This proposed merger poses absolutely NO threat to anybody, and it is a disgrace that this much time and money has been wasted on such a non issue. Then again, when a government is spending 12 billion dollars a month on a contrived "war", wasting millions of tax payers hard earned dollars to prevent this" dangerous" merger is, in their twisted minds, money well spent.

The FCC and the DOJ should be investigated. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is so thoroughly corrupt that any investigation would be a sham. This proposed merger poses absolutely NO threat to anybody, and it is a disgrace that this much time and money has been wasted on such a non issue. Then again, when a government is spending 12 billion dollars a month on a contrived "war", wasting millions of tax payers hard earned dollars to prevent this" dangerous" merger is, in their twisted minds, money well spent.

The FCC and the DOJ should be investigated. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is so thoroughly corrupt that any investigation would be a sham. This proposed merger poses absolutely NO threat to anybody, and it is a disgrace that this much time and money has been wasted on such a non issue. Then again, when a government is spending 12 billion dollars a month on a contrived "war", wasting millions of tax payers hard earned dollars to prevent this" dangerous" merger is, in their twisted minds, money well spent.

The FCC and the DOJ should be investigated. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is so thoroughly corrupt that any investigation would be a sham. This proposed merger poses absolutely NO threat to anybody, and it is a disgrace that this much time and money has been wasted on such a non issue. Then again, when a government is spending 12 billion dollars a month on a contrived "war", wasting millions of tax payers hard earned dollars to prevent this" dangerous" merger is, in their twisted minds, money well spent.

In fact, now that I think about it. XM and Sirius may be so desperate to get the merger approved, and scared that the gov't would make them give spectrum back so that a true satellite radio competitor could compete with them, maybe Mel put this Georgetown Partners up to the whole thing. Leasing 30 channels to some company that's not going to offer anything similar to XM and Sirius' most popular programming (Howard Stern, sports, etc) might be a brilliant idea for forcing the merger thru. Mel could just tell all the minority and other groups he promised show slots to, in exchange for their support for the merger, to talk to Georgetown Partners if they want to be on sat rad.

The FCC and the DOJ should be investigated. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is so thoroughly corrupt that any investigation would be a sham. This proposed merger poses absolutely NO threat to anybody, and it is a disgrace that this much time and money has been wasted on such a non issue. Then again, when a government is spending 12 billion dollars a month on a contrived "war", wasting millions of tax payers hard earned dollars to prevent this" dangerous" merger is, in their twisted minds, money well spent.

The FCC and the DOJ should be investigated. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is so thoroughly corrupt that any investigation would be a sham. This proposed merger poses absolutely NO threat to anybody, and it is a disgrace that this much time and money has been wasted on such a non issue. Then again, when a government is spending 12 billion dollars a month on a contrived "war", wasting millions of tax payers hard earned dollars to prevent this" dangerous" merger is, in their twisted minds, money well spent.

I say phuck these knuckle dragging shakedown artists. Who the phuck do they think they wanting spectrum for free. We have been supporting these people for a 60 years with handouts. When does it stop?

I say phuck these knuckle dragging shakedown artists. Who the phuck do they think they are wanting spectrum for free. We have been supporting these people for a 60 years with handouts. When does it stop?

If the FCC forces XM/Sirius to divest some of their bandwidth, it should be done at fair market value to the higgest bidder--with the proceeds going to the merged company--They paid for this bandwidth, so this is the only logical decision should they have to divest

Yeah, but will Rev. Jeremiah Wright get a show on there?

I don't understand why they don't focus on fixing problems such as racism.

Instead they focus on creating problems like racism.

In all seriousness, how many spanish channels should there be then?

I can't believe they would even be considered seriously. This is a joke. Buy YOUR OWN. Blacks can take care of themselves without handouts. Until someone gets some big ones and stops paying for these handouts they will continue to beg for them.

Makes me sick.

I can't believe they would even be considered seriously. This is a joke. Buy YOUR OWN. Blacks can take care of themselves without handouts. Until someone gets some big ones and stops paying for these handouts they will continue to beg for them.

Makes me sick.

I can't believe they would even be considered seriously. This is a joke. Buy YOUR OWN. Blacks can take care of themselves without handouts. Until someone gets some big ones and stops paying for these handouts they will continue to beg for them.

Makes me sick.

I can't believe they would even be considered seriously. This is a joke. Buy YOUR OWN. Blacks can take care of themselves without handouts. Until someone gets some big ones and stops paying for these handouts they will continue to beg for them.

Makes me sick.

Why do you have a picture of Buckwheat up there?

SO MESSED UP.

SO.... Stupid.

Is this a dream? Please wake me up and make it all go away. Please!

Please...DoJ. Say something. Anything. ANYTHING....

I think EVERYONE has spoken, and this is going to get VERY VERY ugly, fast.

I started thinking about this and how absurd it is. Should this happen how many others will be trying the same thing. If what they want to program was going to work Sirius and XM would be doing it. As it is now we have TV that nobody wants but must be carried if Dish and Direct want other channels people like.

The whole reason GT is doing this is so they can offer standard programming for free in order to decrease new subs for satrad. If the companies stop growing, they do not have as much income coming in and makes it harder to compete. Who is going to advertise on channels that people pay for when you can advertise on station everyone gets. This is a play at bringing this company down.

I would say agree to 10%, with the stipulation that they cannot advertise or retransmit terrestrial radio. It has to be original programming. Also, the 10% is broken up one station at a time to parties interested in programming for Sirius. A lease would be paid for each channel depending on the bandwidth it occupies. Cannot pay the lease, time to go. THAT would create diversity in programming. Minorities are represented in programming, so that is not the issue. Their issue is in minorities OWNING stations. Want to own a station? Buy one. Why must everything be a handout??

JUST MAKE THEM LEASE IT FOR THE FULL VALUE OF THE LOSS OF CONTENT. WHAT THE HELL? IF SIRIUS XM WOULD BE GETTING 200 MILLION IN COMMERCIALS AND SUBSCRIBERS FROM THE CONTENT ON THIS BANDWIDTH - LEASE IT FOR 200 MILLION.

HELL, LEASE THE WHOLE THING FOR 20 BILLION A YEAR?

WHY NOT?

BUT ANYTHING DISCOUNTED IS JUST AN UNWANTED HANDOUT.

Isn't this extortion, I thought that was illeagle.

Georgetown has screwed the pooch in my opinion.. the don't want this merger and are playing all the cards dealt to them..

If the FCC does say a part has to be divested, say 5%, why does it HAVE to go to Georgetown Partners?? Why should they get it over another group?? Wouldnt it make sense that the FCC mandates that Sirius/XM have to divest a certain percentage, to be sold at market prices to the highest bidder(sirius/XM choice), with the proceeds to go to the new merged company, since they paid for this in the first place?????(called free market competition)
Who is willing to bet if this happens that Georgetown partners doesnt even make a bid...They are just looking for a freebee--(and might even flip it at fair market value after)

This is worse than discussed ! Did you actually read it ? FIRST, the two companies give this leasee the channels / bandwidth. THEN once they are up and running the two companies can merge. It's a fraud to delay the merger for years. Suppose Georgetown gets the lease and then for some strange reason they can't get the funding to build their programming up.....I guess XM and Sirius just wither on the vine until lightning strikes and Georgetown gets going ?

The FCC should STOP allowing ex parte comments in this. The filing windows closed months ago. The FCC can ask questions of the parties, but other than that....it's done...make a decision.

Next time Mel meets with the FCC, here's the quote " Decide within 48 hours, or I'm announcing a $2 per month price increase. I expect XM to follow my lead." Letting them drag it out is just like what happened to XM's purchase of WCS....nothing happened until the deal fell apart. It's time to move on.

Welcome to the post-Barack Obama world.

Just some quick math. XM + Sirius = 300 channels. 20% of 300 = 60. By this proposal there will be 60 channels allocated to GT, not the 20 people keep referring to here. Think about that. 60 channels of fucking nothing and they will set a precedent by allowing FCC regulation in the SDARS industry. Yeah, this merger is a great idea.

So I gather you people are not a racial minority.
So why the f... are voting for them a...holes.
You got what you voted for morons.
Every single aspect of american life is like this now, idiots.
It will be worse.

So I gather you people are not a racial minority.
So why the f... are voting for them a...holes.
You got what you voted for morons.
Every single aspect of american life is like this now, idiots.
It will be worse.

If I read any more of their crying that they want and deserve free spectrim because they are a black blackminority organization that deserves everything for free I will scream. Get over it GP. If you deserve everything for free then so do the jewish people and the Irish and the Italians- Stop using the excuse that your people were slaves--Yes they were but YOU AREN"T so get over it. You do not deserve anything for free because you are black. Work for it like the rest of the world. There are many wonderful hard working black people that work hard for a living and you are a disgrace to them.

If I read any more of their crying that they want and deserve free spectrim because they are a black blackminority organization that deserves everything for free I will scream. Get over it GP. If you deserve everything for free then so do the jewish people and the Irish and the Italians- Stop using the excuse that your people were slaves--Yes they were but YOU AREN"T so get over it. You do not deserve anything for free because you are black. Work for it like the rest of the world. There are many wonderful hard working black people that work hard for a living and you are a disgrace to them.

Well, this is similar to how the whole sub-prime lending mess got started. Groups like this along with appeasing Congressmen put pressure on banks and other lenders to make loans to people who were bad risks. The bad risks were simply dismissed as being "racist". Now that many of the sub-prime borrowers can't pay (what a shock), those same groups and their legislative lackeys complain about the greedy lenders who made the loans (in other words, how dare those greedy banks do what we forced them to do) and want tax money to bail out the private money they forced lenders to waste.

Interestingly, some of the more cautious banks forced to make these sub-prime loans chose to write many of them off as soon as they made the loans. In other words, they really treated them as a tax or public charity expense since the odds of repayment were nearly nil. This is really just a modern day version of a protection racket.

Are these comments going to the FCC???

If not they should have been and should be.

So much time and so many taxpayers dollars wasted as the government churns on demands of a wealty Georgetown Partners in the "public interest".

Whose Public Interest?

Are these comments going to the FCC???

If not they should have been and should be.

So much time and so many taxpayers dollars wasted as the government churns on demands of a wealty Georgetown Partners in the "public interest".

Whose Public Interest?

Are these comments going to the FCC???

If not they should have been and should be.

So much time and so many taxpayers dollars wasted as the government churns on demands of a wealty Georgetown Partners in the "public interest".

Whose Public Interest?