The longer the Federal Communications Commission waits to make up its mind on the proposed Sirius/XM merger, the more filings it will have to consider on the controversy. One of the latest comes from Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD). The trio say that key provisions that Sirius and XM voluntarily agreed to in mid-June will not make up for the merged entities' monopoly control over a huge swath of satellite spectrum. "We believe that these proposals fall short of what is necessary to permit the Commission to conclude that the proposed merger meets the public interest test, as required by the Communications Act," they wrote to the FCC on June 27th.

4 + 4 = we want more

Sirius and XM have promised that, when married, they will set aside four percent of their channels for "noncommercial, educational and informational programming" and another four percent for a "Qualified Entity." FCC Chair Kevin Martin has interpreted this rather vague phrase as meaning a firm representing groups "who have not been traditionally represented" in broadcasting. Who will they be? Baha'i Faith? Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Not likely. More likely we're talking about channel opportunities for a minority oriented media company like Georgetown Partners, which regularly files on the proposed merger.

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