Why is the National Association of Broadcasters supporting the Consumer Coalition for Competition in Satellite Radio in opposing the XM-Sirius merger when they seem so confident that “Satellite can’t compete with listeners’ love of local” and that “free” local radio will squash satellite? What about all those ads running on 630AM WMAL in Washington, DC from the industry’s trade association about how great local radio is and how they “won’t send you a bill — there are still some things you just shouldn’t have to pay for”? And what of this?
Others argue that traditional radio simply remains the more appealing choice to the masses.
“I think the impact of satellite radio will be minimal on free radio,” said Dennis Wharton of the National Association of Broadcasters. “Most people listen to radio for local information, whether that be news, traffic, weather reports, high school sports, professional sports from the favorite hometown teams, and generally that is something that satellite can’t offer.”
Wharton also said the recent arrival of high-definition radio — also known as digital radio — is another big reason satellite radio will never ascend to the heights some first anticipated.
Yet they would rather have XM and Sirius continue to duke it out with the inevitable outcome being the bankruptcy of one or both of these companies leaving consumers with fewer choices. Their opposition to the XM-Sirius merger has nothing to do with consumers and everything to do with the fact that there are 14 million people that “free” local radio can’t give away their product to.
The truth is, local radio is afraid to compete with satellite. The truth is, local radio is a subpar product and is consistently getting worse. The truth is, local radio at every turn has opposed the free market whether it be the addition of local traffic and weather on satellite or the baseball and football broadcasts on XM and Sirius respectively that allow anyone to listen to their hometown team no matter where they live in the U.S. The FCC should not let the large corporations who own most local radio stations these days get a free ride by denying this merger, effectively killing one or both satellite radio companies. Let the free market reign!
Filed under: Business, Entertainment, Federal Government
NAB opposition to the merger goes back to the original rules permitting (what became) XM and Sirius. The battle over spectrum allocation, operational parameters, etc. was enormous and hard fought. The sat radio companies *explicitly* agreed to rules requiring competition (as well as restrictions on local broadcasting). And now they’re saying - oh, well, sorry, we don’t want to abide by those rules anymore.
In any event, there’s hardly a “free market reign” solution available to you here. The broadcast industry itself is highly restricted in where and how it can compete, for a broad number of reasons. Further, this isn’t a battle between government and business interests (and we all know that consumer interests have long been locked out of the building, right?). This is a battle between big business on both sides, each of which are simply trying to game the system to their advantage. No one has the free market mantra on their side. No one.