Sirius-XM merger still faces loose ends at FCC

The union of Sirius XM satellite radio was the talk of the media regulation town last summer—that is until Federal Communications Commission gave it the green light in late July. But while the headlines went away, several "voluntary commitments" that the new company agreed to in exchange for the FCC's blessing remain to be worked out. And questions about interoperable receivers and service interference also need to be resolved. When they married, Sirius XM pledged to reserve four percent of each platform's full-time audio channels to "Qualified Entities" that apply for them through some later-to-be-agreed-upon process. The FCC defined this term as follows: "an entity that is majority-owned by persons who are African American, not of Hispanic origin; Asian or Pacific Islanders; American Indians or Alaskan Natives; or Hispanics." The channels would come without leasing charges. Sirius and XM were supposed to make these lines (a minimum of six on each platform) available four months after they formally merged on July 29, 2008. But critics say the FCC dug itself into a bit of a hole on this issue by effectively giving itself responsibility for deciding who would get the channels, or the process by which they would be granted.