National Public Radio has filed a 25-page Petition to Deny the proposed Sirius-XM merger with the FCC. At the same time, Senator Sam Brownback (R-DS) voiced his opposition in a letter to the FCC and DOJ.
NPR said in the petition (PDF) that the merger "would substantially harm the diversity of voices" on satellite radio. It also noted that a merged entity "might reduce the amount and quality of public radio programming" available on satellite, adding that the company would "be able to demand less favorable licensing terms, thereby forcing NPR and others to decide between program quality and carriage."
NPR has two channels on Sirius, though this isn't the only time that NPR has held an opposing position to the satellite radio industry.
Separately, Senator Brownback (R-KS) sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett, suggesting that the proposed merger be rejected.
In his letter, Brownback writes, "The proposed merger may result in higher subscription prices and fewer programming choices, and yield monopoly power to purveyors of highly offensive, sexually explicit programming (emphasis added) that is inappropriate and harmful to our nation's families, thereby encouraging the airing of increased amounts of such programming."
Wow. That's quite the leap there Senator.
[FMQB]
It does NOT surprise me that Senator Brownback is against the proposed SIRI/XM merger.
LIke decanting wine, let this post/blog "breathe"...Overtones of "NAB"?
After doing a Lil' "Sherlock Holmes", WOW, look who the Senator is married to:
Mary Stauffer Brownback, a granddaughter of Oscar Stauffer,
Now who is Mrs. Brownback?
Ahh....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stauffer_Communications
Interesting...
Has Senator Brownback lost his mind?
1) "The proposed merger may result in higher subscription prices and fewer programming choices"
- Crap, per XM/Sirius press release today, this reasoning is DOA.
2) "yield monopoly power to purveyors of highly offensive, sexually explicit programming (emphasis added) that is inappropriate and harmful to our nation's families, thereby encouraging the airing of increased amounts of such programming, thereby encouraging the airing of increased amounts of such programming."
- Correct me if im wrong, but doesnt cable operators, satellite TV operators and other subscriber based video products (like internet) "purvey sexually explicit programming (emphasis added) that is inappropriate and harmful to our nation's families?". Why should Siri/XM be singled out? what about TimeWarner, Dish Network, etc...cmon, they all got XXX channels.
3) 3% of a market does not maketh a monopoly. LOL.
Sorry Senator, but your arguement is as weak as a Kid in Kindergaton's vocabulary.
Is "DS" some new abbreviation for Kansas that I don't get?
i think these letters were sent out/written BEFORE the announcement this morning regarding ala carte pricing----the claim of higher prices and inappropriate content are really a non-issue after the announcement
I'm embarrassed to be from the same state as Mr. Brownback.
AAAAAAAnd que Jeff the Drunk, "Ahhhh shut up you bitch."
BTW, I believer DS is dip shit.
Hasn't Brownback been on the negative side of a lot of bad things in the recent past?
And if he is so passionate about monopoly power for satellite radio how come he has not done a damn thing for Cable companies. Verizon should have been in the TV business over 20 years ago and have problems today getting to market is some areas. Double Standard
Where's Bob Edwards when you need him?
Traitor.
"R-DS" is "Republican - Dumb Shit", I think.
I was waiting for a conservative nutjob to link sat radio with "purveyors of highly offensive, sexually explicit programming". Amazing....
That is his political classification. Republican-Dip Shit.
Brownback is an embarassment to the US, not just DS, or ah, KS.
"The proposed merger may result in higher subscription prices and fewer programming choices"
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He is 100% correct on this part... look at the filing carefully... I pre payed for my XM 5 full years at $9.99 and I get all of XM's programing totaling 135-170 channels (depending on how you count them). Under the New plan a new subscriber would get 68 channels for the same price. .... this is nearly a 50% increase to the consumer.
No Merger.. bad fore me bad for you... (unless your a sirius share holder)
I love reading the merger love fest that orbitcast has become. "Of course they will never raise prices overall!; didn't you read the press release where they said they wouldn't?" They also have been saying that you can continue to use the same radio, but have recently backed away from that for mixed plans. "But they didn't say you could keep the same radio for mixed plans!" Oh, I know they didn't SAY that. They just pulled a Mikey Moore and let you fill in the blanks with a misleading line of reasoning, but they never said anything you could pin them down on. "Thats okay because SatRad is soooo good that the two companies cannot survive without a merger!" The trouble with satrad is that they have spent so much money on "stars" competing with each other that they opted to end the competition instead of dropping the "stars". So, enjoy your consolidated and bloated satrad company where you are only given the bs choice of poo or crap.
>>>and yield monopoly power to purveyors of highly offensive, sexually explicit programming (emphasis added) that is inappropriate and harmful to our nation's families, thereby encouraging the airing of increased amounts of such programming, thereby encouraging the airing of increased amounts of such programming."
Wow. That's quite the leap there Senator.
I think you have a typo in the quote, Ryan.
Howard Stern is a major stockholder of Sirius, as well as a being a major influence there (and he has been known to be explicit from time to time). A merger would extend that influence over two satellite networks, so it's really not such a leap the Senator is making.
You might not agree with his thoughts, but there's logic in his line of reasoning.
A quick check of OpenSecrets.org shows the good Senator received $12,000 in campaign contributions from Clear Channel in the 2006 election cycle. Wanna bet he didn't use that money to buy XM radios for voters in his home state?
Here is the exact page for Brownback/2006:
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00005244&cycle=2006
>>>highly offensive, sexually explicit programming (emphasis added) that is inappropriate and harmful to our nation's families
There has been a new patent at the US patent office, for two new wonderful buttons that some people, including people who would make a comment like this are not aware of.
the first button is a power button, it powers a radio on and OFF
the second is a channel button that allows a person to CHANGE THE CHANNEL!
Holy crap batman what a concept.
I am not a huge Stern Fan. I have listened to him in the past, and I personally am not crazy about his show on Sirius now. But I do take offense to the comment that this type of radio is harmful to our familys. I have a two year old daughter, who ofcourse I do not let listen to Stern, or any type of radio such as he has, but how is radio like this HARMFUL. Will anyone who listens to this type of radio get cancer? No.... Will it cause a brain tumor... No... will it cause wide spread Aids ?? No... Will it make people sick to listen to this radio ... No..
Just because you dont like it, and are offensed by it, doesnt mean EVERYONE has to be.. The only thing offensive are the comments that this type of radio is harmful to America.
Ugh, fixed the typos. Sorry about that.
When I used to listen to Howard on terrestrial, I remember him having several rants about this clown around the time all those Clear Channel stations took Howard's show off. Like one of the previous posters, I'm not necessarily a Howard fan...But the things Howard said about Brownback, which, after some research, I believe to be true, show that Sam Brownback is a dangerous individual who is more harmful to the country than any explicit material on SatRad. Almost makes me ashamed to be a registered Republican...I know which presidential candidate I WON'T be supporting for the nomination in 08.
I could be mistaken, but wasn't Brownback also in support of a lot of these supposed "family-oriented" groups who wanted to push for cable TV to have similar restrictions to what terrestrial radio and TV have? I can't remember if he was involved, but around that time, it seems several of these groups who wanted to get rid of Howard also wanted cable providers to be forced to offer family-friendly plans, more censored content, and stuff like that. Disgusting.
Brownback is an self righteous asshole,a smug prick who needs to take a long walk off a short pier...go back to rathole from which you came out of,jerkoff