NAB Chairman/CEO David Rehr recently sent a letter to the FCC urging the commission to investigate satellite radio's offering of free trial subscriptions XM and Sirius have included in cars. The concern? According to the NAB, these free satellite radio subscriptions are allowing listeners to hear potentially offensive and indecent material without having paid for it. The NAB is also concerned with recent reports of radios being able to pick up satellite radio broadcasts that are "bleeding through" onto FM radios.
Rehr says that the NAB is "concerned about the unequal regulatory treatment between free over-the-air and satellite radio."
Rehr also discusses free trials of satellite radio in new cars and in rental cars, and says that "To the extent that satellite radio service is now received free by nonsubscribers, this undermines the frequently-made argument that satellite radio should be regulated very differently than traditional broadcast radio simply because satellite is a subscription service."
You can read the full letter to the FCC here (PDF)
[via FMQB]
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