Opie and Anthony joked about rough sex with Condoleezza Rice and now there is talk that the FCC will use this as an excuse to reject the XM-Sirius merger.
I want the FCC to reject the merger because it's clearly anti-competitive and harmful to the consumer.
It would be a terrible misuse of power, and a violation of the First Amendment for the FCC to consider the content of XM and Sirius when considering this merger.
And it's funny but I think most subscribers are hoping that the two sides merge. Either they are too short sighted to anticipate the price increase and the decreased need to pursue quality programming or they just don't care.
Friday, May 11, 2007
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7 comments:
Without a merger, the companies will need to raise prices. Since new subscribers are signing on at slower rates than anticipated, the prices will increase regardless.
Under the rule of reason analysis for determining whether a business transaction has anticompetitive effects, I believe one of the factors is the benefit to the public. I am not sure what facts are more or less pertinent to this factor, but I wonder whether an increase in "offensive" radio broadcasts can be considered. I believe it is ridiculous-it is a pay subscription- all bets are off. thus, if anything they should merely set a clear guideline for rating a show, the rating can be delivered embedded in the broadcast and displayed like the display of the artist and song name on many car radios today. If you want to know the rating to protect your kids or to protect your own ignorance, you can purchase a radio that has a display that enables you to receive rating.
People can complain all they want... it's a pay service just like HBO. When they start cracking down on Real Sex and Skinemax, they can go after Opie and Anthony on satellite. This is just conservatives looking to get revenge for their buddy Imus.
As for the merger, without it, one will eventually collapse, and it will probably be Sirius. The arms race to sign as much talent as possible, along with a subscriber base that isn't exactly growing rapidly, means neither company is making much of a profit, if at all. Sirius, in particular, has to give almost everything to Howard. Letting them merge at least ensures that current customers will not lose service and might entice more new ones if they know they can get baseball and Howard from the new company.
its all moot since satellite companies whether with radio or TV will be dead in the next 10 years and replaced with mobile communications network providers (such as Verizon)...
I will have no tv before I have tv with Verizon. Bastards put the new FIOS cabling in front of my house and damaged my sprinkler system. Now I am getting the run around from them about fixing it.
Subscribers want a merger, because every single one of them also owns stock in one or both of the companies. Have you noticed the number of outstanding shares in these companies!
S-Q raises a good point, these stocks became en vogue around the Howard Stern deal and since many large institutions don't hold stocks under $5, I believe the majority of Sirius shares are held by subscribers.
However, I was strictly trying to deal with how the FCC should act. Their only charge in the matter is to protect the consumer. Not the shareholders, not the companies, not the talent on their airwaves, and they are not even supposed to predict the future of the merging entities. And of course they shouldn't allow their own personal feelings of the products to enter into the equation. Will the consumer be harmed by this deal? That's all.
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