MAP Says XM-Sirius Merger Raises Consolidation Concerns
The Media Access Project (MAP) objected at the FCC to the XM-Sirius merger, predicting more media consolidation if the merger is approved. Comments were due at the FCC Monday and were just starting to trickle in. MAP, which previously had not staked out a position, was joined by Prometheus Radio Project and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
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“As a monopoly, XM Radio, as the surviving entity, will be the sole provider of satellite radio service,” the MAP-led group said. “Allowing XM Radio to operate as a monopoly will inevitably reduce competition in all aspects, including price, service, choice, and innovation.” The networks use “an overly broad definition of the relevant market” to assure the FCC the merged company won’t engage in anticompetitive conduct, MAP said. If the FCC and Justice Department accept the claim that XM and Sirius compete not only with one another but also with iPods, broadcast radio, etc., the result would be more media consolidation, MAP said.
Accepting the XM/Sirius logic “would open the floodgates for mergers among other media entities, on a theory that a competitive market exists and therefore the public would suffer no harm,” MAP said. “Moreover, a broad view of the relevant market will also undermine the Commission’s basis for sustaining media ownership regulation.”
Among other early comments, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) endorsed the merger. The government already plays too big a role in determining media ownership, CEI said. “Bureaucrats cause untold damage when they undermine network industries’ efforts to orient themselves, to attain the scale appropriate to fostering customization, and to achieve such feats as moving global information to the exosphere as satellite operations do,” CEI said. “Liberalizing spectrum for future satellite and communications operations -- not restraining the private operations of those that now exist -- should be FCC’s focus.”
Randolph May, president of free market-oriented Free State Foundation, urged the FCC to keep an open mind about the satellite radio market. “In today’s dynamic, fast- changing digital communications environment, it is especially important that the Commission not take an unduly narrow view of what constitutes a relevant market for purposes of assessing competitive impacts,” May said.