FCC Releases XM-Sirius Details

Although already widely reported, the Federal Communications released official word that it has approved the purchase of XM Satellite radio by now-former-rival Sirius. The FCC decided it was in the public interest to let the two companies merge even when the relevant competitive market was confined to satellite radio. That left at least one commissioner pondering if the decision reopened the possibility for a merger of satellite-TV companies. Commissioner Michael Copps, who voted against the merger, said the FCC majority made its own case for opposing the merger, starting off with the conclusion that it was a merger to monopoly, as the National Association of Broadcasters consistently argued -- a case of allowing the only two companies in the relevant satellite-radio market to combine. "The inescapable logic of the majority's findings is that by 2011, satellite-radio subscribers will face monopoly price hikes by a company with the incentive and ability to impose them," Commissioner Copps said. "No one has been able to explain to me how this could possibly serve the public interest." In a released statement Commissioner Copps wrote, "In essence, the majority asserts that satellite-radio consumers will be better served by a regulated monopoly than by marketplace competition. I thought that debate was settled, as did a unanimous commission in 2002, when it declined to approve the proposed merger between DirecTV and EchoStar."