TheAgitator.com
FCC Approves XM-Sirius Merger
Monday, March 24th, 2008The bad news is that two companies had to grovel before a government panel to get the merger approved in the first place.
My dissection of the National Association of Broadcasters’ asinine opposition to the merger here.
CORRECTION: Per the comments, note that it was DoJ that approved the merger, not the FCC. The FCC will issue its own ruling later.
It was the Department of Justice, not the FCC…
The United States Justice Department has just announced that it doesn’t view the merger between XM and Sirius as anti-competitive.
As a point of clarification, the Justice Department approved the merger. The FCC still has to weigh in on it; that’s expected later this month.
Your reason article describes it nicely, but I can’t understand how anybody could take the NAB’s fierce opposition to the merger – which is built almost entirely on the foundation that satellite radio is its own market and does not compete with the NAB – seriously.
As a side note, there’s a great book called Defining Vision that details how the NAB – in a fiercely self-protective move designed to keep Congress from reallocating spectrum – accidentally kicked off the race for development of our modern HDTV standard.
The inevitable story that will come out is that the DOJ’s career staff argued passionately against the merger only to be thwarted by evil political appointees. Expect Obama and Clinton to reiterate their support for tougher antitrust enforcement–i.e., allowing the career staff to do whatever the fuck they want.
I just want baseball and football for one reasonable price. Is that too much to ask?
It is the only way that the industry will survive. The market can not support two companies.
The only thing I’m worried about is who gets the boot. As long as I can keep Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez, I’ll be satisfied.