The FCC has determined that iPods are not considered competitors to satellite radio broadcasters Sirius and XM, an outcome received with open arms by the NAB on March 30. The group immediately used the finding to fuel its rage against the $13.6 billion merger proposed by the satcasters on Feb. 19. "This FCC decision that the current duopoly of XM and Sirius do not compete with radio, iPods or any other audio sources in the satellite radio market further undermines the arguments made by XM and Sirius to obtain a government-sanctioned monopoly," said NAB President and CEO David Rehr.
"While the FCC clearly intends to examine all issues surrounding the XM/Sirius merger, the hurdle the parties must overcome to convince the FCC to change direction is very high. This is a dramatic blow to XM/Sirius' presumption of a broader market, and still more evidence that XM and Sirius compete ferociously against each other in the market for nationwide multichannel mobile audio services, and no one else."
In the 69-page, congressionally mandated "Annual Report and Analysis of Competitive Market Conditions with Respect to Domestic and International Satellite Communications Services," the FCC focused on all aspects of the satellite industry, including satellite-delivered TV programming, but made few determinations about the satellite radio industry. At one point, the report notes, "For retail markets, we assess performance for the Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service ("SDARS") market but have insufficient data to assess performance for satellite providers in the Fixed Wireless Broadband market. As expected for a relatively new service, neither provider is currently profitable, but growth rates for both subscribers and revenues are high and revenues per user have begun to rise."
By Jeffrey Yorke - radioandrecords.com
Jazz from Amazon.com
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