Martin Questioning Radio Deal

FCC CHIEF QUESTIONING RADIO DEAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephen Labaton]
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has privately questioned recent Congressional testimony by Mel Karmazin, the architect of a proposed merger of the nation’s two satellite radio companies XM and Sirius, that subscribers would both pay the same monthly rate and receive significantly more programming. Chairman Martin said that subscribers may be surprised to learn they may actually have to pay more than the current monthly rate of $12.95 if, for example, they want to receive all the games of Major League Baseball (now available only on XM) as well as all the professional football games (now only on Sirius). Karmazin said his testimony was not misleading and that he meant to say two things: subscribers wanting to keep their existing service would not face a price increase, and listeners who wanted the best of both services would pay less than the combined rate of $25.90. Chairman Martin suggested that the details had not been clear from the testimony. He emphasized that he was not questioning the motives or candor of Karmazin but that there was “a need for greater clarity” over what was being proposed for fees and programming. The two people who talked to Chairman Martin -- one working to get the deal done and the other a critic -- said they understood his comments to reflect his skepticism about both the deal and the way it was being sold in Washington as more beneficial to consumers than it might actually be.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/business/media/07radio.html
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See also --
* A merged satellite radio still isn't free
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 3/6, AUTHOR: William J. Drummond, National Public Radio]
[Commentary] For the last five years, XM and Sirius have been competing for leadership in an industry that has barely pulled together a total audience of 13.6 million listeners. Compared to the audience for conventional radio (estimated at 282 million listeners a week, or 77 percent of the U.S. population), satellite radio is anemic. Meanwhile, Apple's iPod and other MP3 players are being sold at a rate of more than 30 million per year. Today's college generation are impatient; they want it right now, and they want it for cheap.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/0...