Representatives for Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. were engaged in separate meetings with various officials from the Federal Communications Commission, according to a recent FCC filing.
On Tuesday, Sirius-XM met separately with:
- FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate and Amy Blankenship, legal advisor to Commissioner Tate
- Daniel Gonzalez, Chief of Staff to Chairman Kevin Martin, and Elizabeth Andrion, legal advisor to Chairman Martin
Let's just hope that the discussions with Commissioner Tate included merger requirements that are slightly more reasonable than Adelstein's.
[Read Filing (PDF)]
Just make the decision, and get it done.
IT IS LONG OVERDUE ! ! !
The best part of this is that Tate is seeing the writing on the walls. If she is the glory hound that she appears to be, she damn well may step up and be vote number three with the 8 percent concession. That would steal the thunder from Adelstein. She can look like the broker when this thing finishes at 10% and 3-4 years cap. Besides, the cap doesn't matter. Sirius will NEVER be more expensive than it is right now.
Show me the yes button on her computer,I'll push it...
"The best part of this is that Tate is seeing the writing on the walls. If she is the glory hound that she appears to be, she damn well may step up and be vote number three with the 8 percent concession. That would steal the thunder from Adelstein. She can look like the broker when this thing finishes at 10% and 3-4 years cap. Besides, the cap doesn't matter. Sirius will NEVER be more expensive than it is right now."
Hehe yeah, sure. Never going to raise prices. Nope. And my cable rates go down every year, not up.
Weakening the merged company with these excessive concessions simply means less competition for terrestrial radio. Not only is it a disservice to satellite radio consumers, it deprives terrestrial radio consumers the benefit of increased competition from SR. What's so bizarre about Adelstein's proposal is that Public Knowledge and Media Access Project only asked for 5% and seemed perfectly satisfied with 4% - yet he wants to to set aside 10% for non-commercial programming. Call Commissioner Tate @ 202.418.2500 before she signs off on his proposal.
It's the free "for profit" minority channels that scare me. Those guys could play anythig that they wanted on those channels and accept all sorts of advertising which would make them rich as kings. Best of all would be that they would get it all for free, now and going forward. They would be saying that it is the best thing since welfare was instituted. Where's my welfare check?
Screw this hag. She has no credibility left and is only in this for herself.
The irony is that the minority handouts are going to be the only ones that make any profits from this thing. They had nothing to do with product development, or launching satellites, or financing, or beginning a business model, or years of losing money trying to create a viable business.... but they'll jump in and make money with their "free" radio stations. Unconscionable!!!
who can i make a gay joke about? come on guys give me something.
GAY.. HA!
Paul,
Welfare handouts were 16.5 trillion last year.
Corporate handouts topped 100 trillion. So this is much more along the line of corporate welfare. Hand me the check indeed.
"Welfare handouts were 16.5 trillion last year."
ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!
Sirius should walk away from the deal Aldestein has offered. They have already made huge concessions on their own right. NO DEAL.
I think she should be able to stall until at least 1/09 when she gets her appointment from Congress. I'm sure after that occurs she'll have a position.
Besides a woman, Can we have a token black and Mexican too? .... More minorities should allow the FCC to do even less, taking longer.
Incrediable in what way Paul. That w/ all the focus on welfare handouts they are basically nothing in contrast with the total USA budget.
Sorce of my number
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/opa/fact_sheets/tanf_factsheet.html
Rumor has it Commissioner Tate has approved Adelstein's proposal !!
whooaaa should of proofread before posting.
Incredible in what way Paul. That w/ all the focus on welfare handouts they are basically nothing in contrast with the total USA budget.
Source of my number
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/opa/fact_sheets/tanf_factsheet.html
"Welfare handouts were 16.5 trillion last year."
GDP for 2007 was about $14 trillion. How can welfare be more then GDP ??
I think Sirius should agree to 20% spectrum set aside for minority owners, but it should demand that they are being paid either percentage of revenue or yearly royalty for using the channels.
Further, if they do agree to the 20% concession, no one has said who is to receive that spectrum. Sirius could auction it off with one of the requirements being that the bidder is minority owned.
Obviously giving away 20% of your core business is never good, however, taking the negotiations in the direction I described might turn out beneficial for Sirius
Why didnt they tell Exxon/Mobil when they merged that they would also have to freeze prices for 6 years and give all minorities free gas?
Here's a proposal. Let Adelstein take a 6-year salary freeze and then give 25% of that to Jesse Jackson.
Tate and Token and Terrible .... both start with T's ...Coincidence? ... I think not!
Man I am bad at reading today.
16.5 BILLIOn not trillion. My bad.
Welfare handouts were 16.5 trillion last year.
Corporate handouts topped 100 trillion. So this is much more along the line of corporate welfare. Hand me the check indeed.
Sorce of my number
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/opa/fact_sheets/tanf_factsheet.html
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For starters, the source you provided says $16.5 *billion*, not trillion.
Second, that amount is a small block grant for temporary assistance to needy families, not the entire welfare system.
Third, the *entire* annual US budget for all spending is under $3 trillion. $16.5 trillion a year on welfare? Really???
The entire federal deficit (how much money we owe) is a little under $10 trillion.
Ridiculous numbers aside, the original point is actually quite correct. As much as poeple groan about welfare, the US spends *tons* more on corporate welfare. All the banks that made bad business decisions are not getting bailed out simply because they're "too big to fail." That may be true, but it's still welfare.
And this merger is not a federal bailout for bad business practices; it is just approval of a merger of two companies. Corporate mergers happen all the time.
It's way beyond time for this one to happen.
"are not getting bailed out simply because they're "too big to fail.""
===================================================
Typo. That should say "...are *now* getting bailed out..."
Still boring... Zzzzzzzzzz.
why dont satrad sue nab for spectrum in terestrial radio annd force them to give 25% to them for nothing And make it possible that every radio on the planet be forced to recieve from the satrad
RN
That was more of my orginal point in equating the 25% of bandwith to corporate welfare. Not the give me the check welfare Paul is obsessed with.
I was reading about annual federal budget and had trillions on my mind. I realized my mistake. Thanks for the clear up.
I was reading about annual federal budget and had trillions on my mind. I realized my mistake. Thanks for the clear up.
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Chris,
Easy mistake (and it looks like you corrected it right as I was posting), and I thought your main points was still incredibly valid. I just wanted to correct the numbers before someone else read it and started to accept it as fact.
The following was sent to Commisioner Tate:
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The merger for XM/SIRIUS has been going on for 486+ days. The Department of Justice made their decision in March, yet this is still going on.
Terrestrial radio's groups such as NAB, Clearchannel and others say the merger would create a monopoly. That is not true. Sat. radio competes with terrestrial radio, Ipods, internet, and other media.
It is true that there would be only one sat.radio company if the merger is approved. It does compete with terrestrial radio.
The subscription to sat. radio is optional, which means if I do not wish to have it, I do not have to pay for it.
The same goes for Ipods and other internet based music download services such as Napster. Terrestrial radio is free to listen to, but the price an individual has to pay is listening to advertisements. After listening to these ads over a period of time, you yourself would probably like to have alternatives(putting it nicely).
Though there is a subsciption to XM and Sirius, it is a choice the consumer makes. If the consumer does not like the service or the sbscription price,they can cancel service.
What groups like the NAB and others are affraid of is losing their listeners. Most of the Sat. radio customers want the merger approved, and are willing to use the 'ala carte' pricing that was aggreed to as one of the conditions of the merger.
I happen to be a sports fan, and think it is bad idea to have to pay for two subscription to listen to games from Major League Baseball, NFL, NASCAR and other sports programing that require subscription to more than on service. As a subscriber, I am asking you to vote for approval of the merger, with no no additional conditions for the merger.
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Now it is time to write to the link below:
http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/tate/mail.html
AND DO NOT GET NASTY AS SOME THE ENTRIES HAVE BEEN............................
I have the solution if the FCC votes this down...one of the sat providers drops their shows and the other picks them up! :-)
I bet not one of the FCC Fools knows how sat radio TV or anything works.
And they get to vote about what they know nothing about.
A,C. - Good point. They all look so freaking clueless. Sort of how Bush looks during a Press Conference. None of them have the product, never will, and they haven't the faintest notion of what satellite radio advocates are all about. What a pathetic joke these five are. You could go to any kindergarten and get a quicker, more informed decision!