Modified On March 25, 2007
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) tried to outdumb each other in senate hearings on the matter of the XM-Sirius merger. Brooks Boliek, writing in The Hollywood Reporter, detailed Brownback’s demand that the new entity subject itself to FCC regs if they hope to get approval for the marriage. Herb Kohl says he’s disturbed that the joining of the two satellite companies would create an “unrivalled and unchallenged monopoly.”
Both of you go to the stupid corner!
Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) threw in his two cents, expressing concern that Christian programming would be bounced when XM and Sirius meld.
Mel Karmazin (Sirius’ CEO) handled them with typical aplomb:
Karmazin told the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel that in its recent license renewal request to the Federal Communications Commission, the company promised to block programming that parents found offensive. In addition, subscribers could request a rebate for the channels they blocked.
(We’re pretty sure he meant to say that he promises to provide the means to block programming, and not merely block it!)
Brownback, who is running for president, is apparently hallucinating if he thinks he even has a chance in hell of actually getting satellite radio to come under the FCC’s purview.
(We suspect that Brownback and the others are ganging up on the satellite boys for no other reason than to force them to offer some form of a la carte programs, in much the same way that the’re leaning on cable TV companies to do the same, and that he doesn’t seriously think that anyone can force them to adhere to the FCC’s standards. More often than not, with regard to the public airwaves, we side with the FCC– and we also say that they should back away slowly from cable and leave it alone, as it is subscribers only! The same holds true for satellite radio– birds up in the sky, paid subscribers down here on earth, no public airwaves equals no FCC rules or regulations. Simple! And, if they can all work out a model whereby we can pick and choose our programming and pay for only that programming we desire, well who can argue with that?)
Karmazin calmed Hatch by telling him that Christian programming is among the more popular offerings of Sirius (and, we assume, of XM as well), so market forces would assure their continued presence. (Why ever would Hatch think they’d dump the gospel music in the first place?)
Kohl is equally nutty if he thinks that the current situation– where the two satrad companies are “competing” with each other, and slowly beating each other’s brains out– is preferable to one healthy company.
And, as Karmazin so calmly points out (probably with a roll of the eyes and a heavy sigh), there is no such thing as a monopoly any more in this day and age. Satellite, he says, already competes with iPods and terrestrial radio.
The man’s got a point. The content/tech genie is out of the bottle. Cavedudes like Brownback and Kohl (and to a lesser extent Hatch) got to get with the program.