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Technology Stocks : Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HEXonX who wrote (6567)	2/28/2007 3:49:53 PM
From: HEXonX	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8420

News for 'XMSR' - (=DJ Sirius CEO Makes Pledges To Congress On Service, Prices) By Corey Boles Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A merger between Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (XMSR) wouldn't lead to less choice or higher costs for listeners, the chief executive of Sirius told Congress Wednesday. In his written testimony submitted to the Antitrust Task Force, a body comprised of House Judiciary Committee members, Sirius Chief Executive Mel Karmazin pledged that consumers would not lose out as a result of the $13 billion merger. "We operate in an intensely competitive environment that will continue to intensify post-merger - and continue to provide an inherent check on programming as well as pricing," said Karmazin's statement. In his opening remarks, Judiciary Committee Chairman and head of the task force, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., said that while he was approaching the matter with an open mind, the burden of proof lay with the companies to convince Congress of the merits of the deal. He said the "critical threshold" was whether the market that the two satellite companies compete in is "all forms of digital and retail music and radio, or simply satellite radio." Conyers' statement went on to say that from one perspective, the merger "can be said to turn a duopoly into a monopoly." When satellite radio was licensed a decade ago, Sirius and XM were granted the only two licenses. In exchange, Federal Communications Commission rules stated that the two wouldn't be allowed to merge in the future. Sirius and XM have argued that in the ensuing 10 years, the market has changed substantially and they are no longer just competing against each other. The Department of Justice's antitrust task force would have to approve the merger and FCC rules would have to be changed to allow the deal before it could receive final approval. Karmazin was appearing before the inaugural hearing of the task force alongside David Rehr, chief executive of the National Association of Broadcasters, and representatives of consumer groups. The NAB, which represents mainly smaller radio and television broadcasters across the U.S., is a fierce opponent of the deal. "The proposed merger must be rejected," said Rehr in his opening statement. "Public policy should never allow one entity to acquire state-sanctioned, monopoly control over the 25 megahertz of spectrum allocated to satellite radio service." Taking a somewhat less strident view was Gigi B. Sohn, president of public interest group Public Knowledge. In her opening statement, she said that the merger should be given the green light only if it met three conditions. It must make available pricing choices such as channel-by-channel subscriptions or tiered programming; it must hand over 5% of its capacity to noncommercial educational programming; and it should agree to not raise prices for three years after the merger was granted approval. -By Corey Boles, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6637; corey.boles@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires February 28, 2007 15:28 ET (20:28 GMT) Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 03 28 PM EST 02-28-07