Kevin Martin still isn’t saying which direction FCC thumbs will be pointing when it comes to the long-pending XM/Sirius merger, much less when they’ll be pointing. But a lot of people are speculating, and they can be lumped into three basic groups: Those who are categorically against the merger; those who are unconditionally for the merger; and those who are for it if they can get something out of it.
According to The Deal, Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein is going to bat for opposing attorneys general from at least 11 states, who say they were simply shut out at DoJ, which approved the merger unconditionally.
We reported on an analyst earlier who supported the merger for precisely the reason that many oppose it, saying the merged entity’s new ability to squash supplier pricing since they will be “the only game in town” will soon make it profitable. In other words, they will be able to use one of the tools of monopolies that resulted in antitrust laws in the first place.
Others are looking for minority and public interest capacity set-aside, price controls, family-friendly tiers (that’s a favorite of Martin’s) and the manufacture and distribution of ultra-receivers capable of tuning in both satellite services, tuning in HD radio, docking iPods and accessing the internet, along with anything else some engineer somewhere can weld on.
RBR/TVBR observation: We can see Wile E. Coyote on the commercial for it now: New from ACME, the Uberbox! It plays music, it reports the news, it blogs, it texts, it telecommunicates, it toasts, it manicures! It does everything, in fact, except capture roadrunners! [Manufacturer’s disclaimer: In fact, use of this product in an attempt to capture a roadrunner is likely to wind up in a self-immolating explosion – you’ve been warned.] Get yours today.
