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On Monday the NAB filed additional comments with the FCC asking them to strike down the proposed merger between Sirius and XM Satellite Radio.

Referencing the merger as an “unusual case,” the NAB stated that Sirius and XM “filed a merger application that was utterly devoid of such evidence” to support that the merger is in the public interest.

The NAB says that while defending the proposed merger the applicants are asking the FCC to “(1) ignore controlling Commission and antitrust precedent, (2) disregard long-standing Commission policy against spectrum monopolies, and (3) waive, modify or repeal the Commission’s merger prohibition applicable to the Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (“satellite DARS”). The Commission should not abandon relevant legal standards, rules and important public policies merely to allow this one merger to proceed.”

In regard to the licenses, “Satellite DARS is a distinct, “continuous nationwide” service that “local radio inherently cannot provide.” Sirius and XM each hold a license to provide satellite DARS in the United States and, between them, they control all of the spectrum assigned for such service. Given these circumstances, and consistent with the long-standing Commission policy against spectrum monopolies, the Commission prohibited the two licensees from ever merging, in order to ensure that consumers benefit from competition in the satellite DARS service. Specifically, the CD Radio Inc., predecessor-in-interest to Sirius, proposed this anti-merger rule on the grounds that it was necessary to (1) “preserve intra-service competition and overall DARS diversity of programming” and (2) to prevent a “DARS monopoly.”"

Radio-Online (NAB Filing)

Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 2:56 am and is filed under Merger, Satellite Radio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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