FCC Chair Recommends XM-Sirius Merger – Still Not A Done Deal
After a year in red tape, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin is recommending that the proposed merger between the two satellite radio concerns, Sirius and XM, valued at $3.8 billion, should be approved.
The FCC honcho did make a number of concessions, including turning 24 channels over to noncommercial and minority programming, a three-year price freeze for customers, and most importantly, the companies agreed to an “open radio” standard, meant to create competition among manufacturers of satellite radios. The last hoop-of-fire for XM and Sirius to jump through to make the merger final is a vote by the commissioners.
Washington-based XM has about 9 million subscribers while New York City-based Sirius has about 8.3 million subscribers.
