By Jeffrey Yorke
from Radio and Records

Six dozen members of Congress signed a letter to FCC chairman Kevin Martin, U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales and Federal Trade Commission chairman Deborah Platt Majoras today (June 18) asking that they reject the proposed $13.6 billion merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio because the marriage “would create a monopoly which would be devastating to consumers.”

The two-page letter, accompanied by another five pages of congressional signatures from such luminaries as former speaker of the house Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), former broadcaster Greg Walden (R-Wash.), House minority whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) and Albert Wynn (D-Md.), reminded regulators that when the FCC awarded the two satellite licenses more than a decade ago, the agency stressed that “licensing at least two providers will help ensure that subscription rates are competitive as well as provide for a diversity of voices.”

The letter reminds the regulators that when the licenses were granted, the FCC stated, “Even after [digital audio radio service] licenses are granted, one licensee will not be permitted to acquire control of the other remaining satellite DARS licenses.”

The letter contends that “there is scant evidence that a merger would produce any cost savings that a combined Sirius/XM potentially might pass on to subscribers” and notes that both companies are “locked into numerous long-term expensive arrangements with their most prized talent and programming.” It also says the satcasters face “protracted obstacles” to combining their platforms “because they use different radio encoding technologies.”

The verbiage in the letter, signed first by James Sensenbrenner (R-Ohio) and Gene Green (D-Texas), in many ways resembles the NAB-contracted reports and advertising that have been placed in Capitol Hill publications since Feb. 19, when the merger was first proposed. Green is a sponsor of an NAB-inspired but yet-to-pass bill that aims to prevent satellite radio broadcasters from providing local programming on their repeater networks. A number of the signers, including Sensenbrenner and Wynn, have appeared on panel sessions at NAB’sponsored events in Las Vegas and other cities.

The letter calls on all three regulators to deny the merger and adds, “The FCC has never before allowed the only two competitors in a given market to combine, and we would seriously question an FCC decision to start now.”