Doyle Disses XM/Sirius Deal

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/22/2007 8:22:00 AM

The Sirius/XM merger talk continues to heat up.

A day after the National Black Chamber of Commerce encouraged the FCC to approve the deal, House Energy & Commerce Committee member Mike Doyle (R-Pa.) has written the commission, and the Justice Department, opposing the merger.

Echoing concerns of  broadcasters, Doyle says the merger would unduly consolidate the satellite radio market. He also complained that the two companies had not produced an interoperable reciever, which the FCC had urged them to do when granting the satellite licenses that allowed them to develop the national service.

Doyle said he was worried the merger would reduce the "diversity of artists" on the services or lead to decreased sound quality as the new combined company made room for big-ticket programming, like major league baseball and NFL football, available on both services.

Saying the resulting company would be a monopoly, Doyle urged the FCC to deny the merger.

XM and Sirius have said that they would like to combine so that the money-losing operations can have a better chance to survive, and that there is robust audio competition in the audio market, including from terrestrial radio, cable radio, the Internet.