A gaggle of state Attorneys General today urged the FCC to impose restrictions on the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.
The AGs - coming from 11 states that include Connecticut, Ohio, Missouri, and Iowa - told the Commission that they were "disappointed" by DOJ's decision to let the deal proceed without conditions.
"The combination of these companies will result in a single corporation controlling access to all nationally available satellite radio," the attorneys general said.
And what do they want?
The states are saying that the FCC should consider requiring Sirius and XM to make interoperable radios available to customers (uhm, ok), offer different packages of channels on an a la carte basis (uh huh), and divest some radio spectrum that would allow another competitor into the business (it depends, how much?).
"Our offices stand ready to share with you our thoughts on the potential value of various remedial conditions available, such as mandatory publicly available interoperable receivers, a la carte pricing, and divestiture of spectrum."
I don't think there was ever a question of concessions. Mel Karmazin, during the many hearings on Capitol Hill, clearly stated the companies' willingness to provide concessions so that regulators would deem the merger in the public interest. I'm not exactly sure where these Attorneys General have been, but much of what they're asking for has already been baked into the merger. But that's politics for you...
Maybe i am slow, but what does giving bandwith away have to do with helping consumer interest? or preventing monopoly? I mean last I checked there is a raggea based pot station, catholic radio, black shows, chanaka music, left, right, and i think sirius even has korean stuff..whose left out? do we need a channel for gay black midgets who smoke pot and listen to peter paul and mary? I think giving away any spctrum is appeasement, and nothing more. If its not anti competitive, let them merge without taking their assets..Did they ask exxon or mobile for one of their oil rigs? did whole foods have to give up their produce section? whirpool only can sell washers but not dryers? this is sill, FCC pass this thing alread..whats bad for the consumer is dragging out this process and bleeding two companies to death..so if you were worried about the consumer or public, you would have made this decision 5 months ago...
oh please..... this merger is a no-brainier... cant we all just get this deal over
All of these state attorneys making special requests of the government sort of reminds me of when those same folks went after Microsoft about ten years ago. Here was a company that was making good money not only for itself, but for investors and users of the software as well. A whole new industry was created for developers and marketers of software and hardware. Special interest groups (the competition) could not beat Microsoft in the markeplace so they did it with legislation. The end result was that the stock tanked, investors lost a fortune and the PC market has yet to recover fully. Bill Gates was a sort of winner as he is retiring with his $50 billion, but everybody else lost Moral to this story is that you cannot let the governement stifle progress as it does not understand the marketplace. It knows how to spend, but it does not know how to create and thus the economy decays. Caving in to the various state attorneys will result in satrad not blossoming into its full potential.
FCC should do the right thing and REJECT this MONOPOLY which will be BAD for sat radio and BAD for consumers. If xm and sirius can't make money with the current laws then too BAD the sat radio experiment has failed. Using satellites to provide music is a expensive way to do things too expensive it now seems.
FCC should do the right thing and REJECT this MONOPOLY, consumers with common sense and a backbone will not support a sat radio MONOPOLY. Time to UPGRADE to HD Radio. http://www.hdradio.com/
>> reminds me of when those same folks went after Microsoft about ten years ago.
Not to start a war, but Microsoft was a far more egregious violator than XM and Sirius ever could be -- and they should have been broken up.
Anonymous Coward you are an obvious agenda driven douche. I don't understand why something that didn't exist 10 years ago, and honestly is a luxury to most people can be considered a monopoly. The alternatives to SatRad are endless.... Where is the XM Pope channel? XM is anti-catholic!!!!!!!!
Sorry NorCalMurph sat radio fanboy fantasy's are NOT close to reality. There is no agenda but anti-MONOPOLY. "The alternatives to SatRad are endless"? Really? NOPE but nice try.
@AC: Oh, really? No competition? Let me rattle off the competition:
1. Terrestrial (duh)
2. iPod/MP3 players in general
3. Slacker (that portable is damn tempting, even as a happy XMer)
4. Internet Radio (Chrysler's making it mainstream starting next year, internet access via WiFi and 3G starting with 2009 = huge)
5. Mobile Phones
6. Whatever comes about in the next 5 - 10 years
XM-Sirius are fighting a massive uphill war, with plenty of competition to keep them honest. What concessions they have already built-in to the merger deal (a la carte support, tiered pricing, etc.) are more than enough to allow competition to continue. XM-Sirius will most certainly NOT be a monopoly.
Well the FCC is the last chance to kill this idiotic idea. XM as we know it will be gone if the FCC fails to kill this. I as an XM lover and a SIRIUS hater will just have to go out and get that I touch and throw in the towel on this train wreck, but don't worry I predict with in4 years of this merger they will be totally bankrupt and out of business. I am so pissed that the powers that be have taken a great concept and ran it right into the ground by paying way too much for talent, way to go you financial geniuses.
Spectrum is still availiable for anyone that wants to build a sat-service. Making Sirius and XM to give up some of it for free is a crime and a deal braker.
Funny, in the same breathe Anonymous Coward talks about Sirius-XM being a monopoly and then encourages everyone to upgrade to HD Radio. Kind of a self-defeating argument there.
Plus he's clearly from the NAB. Ryan can you get this guy's IP address?
can someone tell me why hoo hoo is bleeding through on O&A?happened yesterday too
banff21, Sorry sat radio fanboy, the Funny thing though is HD Radio is NOT a MONOPOLY.
HD Radio is digital terrestrial based radio which is NOT controlled nor provided by just a single company. Which is very much UNLIKE the Sirius buying xm to "merge" sat radio under control of one company which is very much a MONOPOLY which will raise prices, remove choice, and remove competition from sat radio. You'd think sat radio fanboys would understand competition is very important in any industry heck competition has PROVEN it's needed in sat radio as we've all seen xm seemed to have the golden ring, that was until Mel and Howard came along and showed that xm's radio content was low grade talentless crap it was competition which brought Sirius passed xm in the market, it was competition which made xm pay from programming it's customers wanted. Competition sat radio fanboy NOT a MONOPOLY. Wake up ladies this "merger" is not being done for consumers.
FCC should do the right thing and REJECT this MONOPOLY, consumers with common sense and a backbone will not support a sat radio MONOPOLY. Time to UPGRADE to HD Radio. http://www.hdradio.com/
Also banff21,
Know your role! Worry about yourself, not what others are posting or asking for ip address's of those which you don't agree with or those which are not sheep blindly towing the pro-"merger", pro-MONOPOLY line.
Quote : can someone tell me why hoo hoo is bleeding through on O&A?happened yesterday too
It's a bit....they're effing with the listeners. Brilliantly executed.
Whether sat radio is a luxury is immaterial to the question of monopoly.
If there are so many good alternatives why does anyone here pay to listen?
>>> Well the FCC is the last chance to kill this idiotic idea. XM as we know it will be gone if the FCC fails to kill this.
Hate to say it, but I think you might as well get used to the idea.
"HD Radio is digital terrestrial based radio which is NOT controlled nor provided by just a single company."
“HD Radio on the Offense”
“But after an investigation of HD Radio units, the stations playing HD, and the company that owns the technology; and some interviews with the wonks in DC, it looks like HD Radio is a high-level corporate scam, a huge carny shill.”
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-03-07/music/hd-radio-on-the-offense
HD Radiio is a farce, IBOC-shill:
http://hdradiofarce.blogspot.com
Well integrating HD radio into an xm/sirius radio would be like xbox being forced to put Playstation capabilities on its consoles. Why would you force Sirius/XM to carry HD IF THEY WERE NOT COMPETING! That restriction would blaintenly prove the stupidity and hypocrisy of the FCC.
Secondly...What diverse programming does TERRESTRIAL RADIO HAVE! With control over the East to West coast shouldn't they have to be more responsible when it comes to being fair. Atleast Sirius Sat listeners PAY for there service and they KNOW what they are listening too. They don't even cover every genre of music. In fact they dedicate 60 percent of their stations to the same repeat mainstream music. As a result real talented musicians are never heard, only what they brainwash people into wanting to hear. (The generic BS that brings in money) They have no gay, medical, or minority stations (besides spanish pop)
Radio spectrum analyst JH Snider is research director for the Wireless Future Program of the New America Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan DC think tank.
"says the whole way the United States doles out the spectrum favors broadcasters over common sense. "Just look at free satellite radio," he says. "North America is the only continent on Earth besides Antarctica that doesn't have free satellite radio stations. That's the power of the provincial US broadcaster."
Lets hope the FCC favor's consumers over broadcasters this time and STOP's the "merger" MONOPOLY of Sirius/xm