From the Associated Press: “Federal regulators warn that combining rivals Sirius Satellite and XM Satellite Radio will be a tough process, since there’s already a provision barring both satellite radio licenses from being owned by the same company.”
As an XM subscriber, I’m not sure how I feel about this yet. Since when did the FCC actually stand up against market monopolization? Telecommunications Act of 1996 anyone?
Worth noting: Kevin Martin, the chairman of the FCC, has quite a history before the FCC, including being a hugely successful telecommunications lobbyist. He is also a BIG opponent of Net Neutrality, he did everything in his power to approve the recent merger of AT&T and BellSouth (which created the world’s largest telecommunications company.) He didn’t see any reason to include net neutrality provisions in the deal. Awful trusting of him!
SO— even though I’m obviously against more corporate media consolidation, my gut instinct is telling me that Martin (AND the gov’t. AND his business buddies) must stand to lose something if XM and Sirius merge. Not the customers. And since what the gov’t. wants is usually what I don’t want (and vice versa) I’m thinking I may actually want the merge. Which would be strange. Time will tell I guess.
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