NAB Calls For Satellite Radio Probe
Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 11:15 AM
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The NAB President/CEO David Rehr sent two letters to the FCC on Monday calling for probes into XM and SIRIUS Satellite Radio.
In his first letter (PDF), Rehr asked the FCC to "immediately commence a full investigation into both the actual and reported operations of Sirius and XM's terrestrial repeater networks."
XM and Sirius recently asked for a window of time to continue operating terrestrial repeaters that did not meet FCC regulations, allowing them time to correct the issue. "These latest disclosures reveal a persistent corporate (if not industry) circumvention of the FCC's regulations," Rehr wrote.
In his second letter (PDF), Rehr said that XM and Sirius currently have a "privileged regulatory position" because of "the expanding delivery of complimentary satellite radio services to nonsubscribers."
Rehr brought up the recent XM deal with Acura as well as Sirius' free online trial of Howard Stern. He adds that "drawing a regulatory distinction between satellite and traditional broadcast radio simply because satellite radio content is available on a subscription basis may no longer be justified."
[via FMQB]
XM Satellite Radio's response to this is, "NAB's sole interest here is in trying to hamper competing services that offer consumers compelling choices that terrestrial radio can’t provide."
You can say that again. I thought satellite radio wasn't a threat?
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Comments
Saw the headline, clicked the headline, just about spit coffee when the image loaded. Hilarious.
Rehr is an idiot. Breaking news.
Posted by: Brian ? | October 25, 2006 12:28 PM
Ryan... love the pic. nothing more needs to be said.
Posted by: jeff | October 25, 2006 12:37 PM
someone should give him the book peter and the wolf
Posted by: sternfan73 ? | October 25, 2006 12:58 PM
One thing I have to say about this guy....he has a way of uniting the XM and Sirius fanboys. We can fight about O&A/Howard, Martha/Oprah, Inno/Stiletto all we want...but when it comes to this crotch stain, we all agree.
While it's been said many times before, "fight the real enemy -- FM -- not each other"
Posted by: iband | October 25, 2006 1:17 PM
I would like a probe into the transmission of FM which leaks over onto neighboring channels making it difficult to get good reception when using my FM transmitter.
Posted by: pete | October 25, 2006 1:31 PM
As far as XM's statement at the end, they should have said "that terrestrial radio CHOOSES NOT TO provide (like country music in the top two markets)."
Posted by: TVGenius ? | October 25, 2006 1:42 PM
How about when CLEAR CHANNEL IS A MONOPOLY!!!!
STILL GOT GAGGED. I love it! Eat your commercials and your out-dated songs!
Posted by: SiriusBuy | October 25, 2006 2:04 PM
Absolutely right! Bravo, TVGenius! The fact that New York did away with the only country station we had left led to my purchase of XM in the first place.
Posted by: jcrean | October 25, 2006 3:12 PM
The crying baby says it all.
Poor widdle NAB. Boohoohoo.
Posted by: SatelliteRadioFan ? | October 25, 2006 3:42 PM
I'm amazing that Rehr finds time to file all of these complaints since he's done so much to improve traditional broadcast to make it a competitive alternative to satellite radio!!
Oh wait....
Posted by: Frank Z ? | October 25, 2006 8:07 PM
sirius and xm should investigate nab; maybe they can find a few tax invasion cases or give them a nice irs audit company wide.
Posted by: FaFaFluFly ? | October 25, 2006 8:48 PM
Philly has no alternative station either. It amazes me how the NAB can complain competition when they are not providing a product that the people want.
Posted by: Another Thought | October 26, 2006 8:16 AM