RSSTop Democrats ask for restrictions on XM + Sirius
By Ed Oswald | Published May 2, 2008, 1:47 PM
Two leading Democrats in the US House, who both chair committees overseeing the FCC, are asking for the Commission to place conditions upon its final approval of any merger between the nation's only two satellite radio providers.
Rep. John Dingell (D - Mich.) chairs the Committee on Energy and Commerce, while Rep. Edward Markey (D - Mass.) chairs the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, part of the Commerce Committee.
While the Dept. of Justice approved the merger last March, it's not the final regulatory body that needs to sign off on the deal.
"The Commission's review of a proposed merger is not confined to simple economic analysis of the transaction," Reps. Dingell and Markey wrote. "The Commission has a unique role in reviewing proposed mergers because it is expressly directed to consider the broad public interest, in addition to other factors, when weighing any proposed license transfer."
While neither congressman is taking a public position on the matter, they urge that steps be taken to protect consumers.
Other Democrats in Congress have been more outspoken. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D - N.D.) urged the FCC to block the deal, saying the DOJ's reasoning was illogical, and the merger would not be in the public interest.
The minimum conditions that Dingell and Markey are looking for the FCC to impose include the pricing constraints that the two companies have already submitted. This would prevent the merged entity from raising prices once the merger is complete.
Another requirement is the enablement of open radios. While XM and Sirius have both said they would produce radios capable of receiving each other's signals, this proposal goes much further.
An open radio would be able to support technologies outside of radio, including the nascent HD Radio technology, as well as non-satellite radio related features. Additionally, any company would be permitted to produce radios, rather than the small group that currently does so now.
Exclusivity contacts would be made illegal under what Dingell and Markey suggest, which would essentially bar XM + Sirius from preventing competing technologies from finding their way onto their radios.
XM and Sirius had no comment.
Listen to these posters that have no f ing idea of the merger and how it will affect people. Why don't you talk about the awesome number of OTR stations that are controlled by a few corporations. Those are the ones that sailed by your elected officials when they let them have more and more stations in cities across the country. Nobody is twisting your arm to subscribe to a PAY SERVICE. All this is about is the OTR companies bribing our elected officials to stop competition that THREATENS them, period. Look at the officials that are blocking this and see how many of them are getting money from the broadcasting industry and you can clearly see a conflict of interest.
You didn't see these losers blocking Conoco/Phillips or any other oil merger did you. They make money. XM and Sirius are bleeding cash and they know the longer they string them out, the better chance they will fold.
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|Quite frankly, I would rather see the radio manufacturers be required to put in receiving capabilities of the NOAA Weather Radio stations (162.400-162.550). These are non-commercial stations that have a continuous weather loop, and also carry the emergency activations.
Oh wait, this is radio. The radio bosses want you to listen to the weather forecaster that is tied in to the local television station.
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|You know that if the merger is finalized that they have a monopoly on the satellite radio for now. They would probably push anyone else out the ties to get into it. If they don't allow these concessions to there plan there merger is off. They want to raise the price on the use of radio and the price of unit cost and still make us pay for separate xm and sirius radio when they want to be one entity. The government is trying to stop this kind of stuff in the manner. I agree with the government at least with this. Satellite radio is not all advertisement free so why do have to pay more and is it going to like cable pay more for more advertisement. The cost of radios should drop with more companies making them and we might just get more out it. Satellite radio does not need to be expensive. They are already advertising so that means it is just the same a land radio.
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|sorry did a double
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|i have a sirius stiletto 100 and a sangen hd1 hd radio. i listen to the satellite radio more than i do the hd radio. why? two reasons:
1. i listen to talk and news radio more than music radio. my market plays NOTHING of what i want to listen to. while my hd radio is strong enough for dxing at night, it's not worth it in my market because my options in my market sucks. and related to that...
2. the hd stations in my market suck. 5 have side channels (only one side station) of i believe 9 total. those side stations used to be unique, actually programmed by local people who could step outside the building and hear what they programmed in the market. now, it's all homogenized crap that is centrally programmed from a cingular satellite feed. why should i listen to preprogrammed centralized non-commercial crap when i'm trying to escape the preprogrammed centralized crap airing on radio now?
the merger should go through withOUT hd radio capabilities. terrestrial radio is being beaten about the head because a few companies own the vast majority of stations and now that there is a legit threat to that providor of radio wants to block this move through the NAB. the fallacy of hd radio is that is is still programmed by the big companies. if the signals were opened up to more broadcasters, hd radio would be much better and universally accepted. hd radio needs to earn that respect instead of trying to piggyback on a burgeoning environment.
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|John Dingell is that same IDIOT who wants to increase your federal gasoline taxes faster than Barack Obama! He also oppopses any attempt to improve MPG standards on his locally made American cars. So you're f--ked either way!
This senile old fogey made the original "Jack Booted Amerikan Fascist" speech on television. He belongs to the NRA; so they got blamed for a politician's big mouth. Dingell talks like the late Moses Heston; but he votes for the kind of fascists, who will confiscate every gun you own if they get the chance.
Not many AMERIKAN politicians are more CORRUPT or so full of CRAP...
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|I'm sure we could find a few more without any trouble at all. Murtha, Spitzer, o there's plenty of 'em.
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|I like the open Radio option
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|Why should Satrad have to include junk like HD in their receivers? It would be less useful than including an Edison cylinder player in them. HD jams adjacent channels and cuts receive range to almost nothing. It's a dead technology, no one buys it now and no one sells it. It is a ploy by iBiquity to pawn their junk off on the consumer by force, hopefully this bought and paid for FCC including Bush's boy Friday Kevy Martin will reject this latest blatant attempt by the iBlock Alliance to force consumers to have to adopt useless junk that NO ONE wants.
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|HD Radio is a farce:
http://hdradiofarce.blogspot.com
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|The dems need to go.
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|But they have such a good approval rating.
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|Another Example of this AWARD winning Congress.. The DNC taking it to new levels these years..
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|I still say that both Ibiquity and Georgetown partners, as well is Primosphere are just a bunch of greedy buisness owners looking for a handout of spectrum and technology that none of them developed, and in the case of ibiquity, forcing the sale of a product that has not been sucessful due to its exorbitant per unit licensing costs and basically force XM-Sirius to make them a profitable venture.. In the case of Georgetown partners, they are playing the minority card to get something that is NOT entitled to them and should be purchased on the open market, to later turn around and sell it saying they "werent successful as a wholesome venue" to say Clearchannel or some other member of NAB at a tremendous profit.. and Primosphere is just sour grapes from losing the spectrum auction and the sat radio buisness and wants it handed back to them gratis.
Using the FCC to strongarm companies into giving them the keys for compaines to make an unearned profit on.. bad buisness...
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