Make satellite radio keep competing

[Howard Glazer]

----- Original Message -----
From: Don A <donald_astelle@yahoo.com>
To: BRI <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 2:37 PM
Subject: Make satellite radio keep competing


>
> Since this is a Boston based list, I though this Globe op-ed peice written
> by Great Media's Peter Smith, may have gone by without notice for a lot of
> folks.
>
> (I read the Globe online up here and notice that I rarely go to the
section
> with the 'opinions'...they usually make me sleepy.)
>
> Make satellite radio keep competing
>
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/06/18
/make_satellite_radio_keep_competing?mode=PF
>
> "THE FEDERAL Communications Commission should enforce its long-standing
and
> well-reasoned prohibition against a satellite radio monopoly that it
> established in 1997 when it granted the spectrum licenses to XM and
Sirius.
> The policy underlying this prohibition - to provide an opportunity for a
> competitive satellite service to benefit consumers - is as valid today as
it
> was in 1997."
>

Although both companies insist that they don't need the merger to survive,
their financials suggest otherwise. Both have overspent wildly on celebrity
talent and sports and the subscriber numbers are nowhere near what they told
investors they'd have by this point (I believe their projections were for 40
million combined by 2010, which has zero chance of happening). Should the
merger be denied and one or both fold, will any of the established
large-media companies (i.e. News Corp., Disney) even consider scavenging the
remains and getting into satellite radio, or will the concept just die?

Howard