Just a few more conditions
These are heady times for the regulators at the Federal Communications Commission. The five members of the FCC board have before them a proposal that the nation's two satellite radio providers -- XM and Sirius -- merge into one in order to ensure the service survives.
With a simple "aye" or "nay," panel members will determine whether consumers who use this service can continue to get it -- or whether concerns about "media consolidation" are more important than the prospect of both companies going belly up.
It should be a no-brainer. This is satellite radio, for goodness sake. It's a luxury item. Approve the $3.1 billion merger and be done with it.
But, of course, it's never that simple. Especially when the egos of regulators and bureaucrats enter the equation.
In order to get the proposal this far, both companies have already agreed to a number of stipulations involving prices, content and other issues. That led to FCC chairman Kevin Martin's eventual recommendation that the merger be approved.
But Mr. Martin is only one vote. Robert McDowell, a Republican appointee to the panel, has joined Mr. Martin in supporting the deal. That's two votes. One more to go.
So realizing that he could be the king maker, FCC commissioner Johathan Adelstein, a Democrat, announced this week that he'd vote in favor of consolidation -- with a few more conditions.
First, Mr. Adelstein wants the new company to cap prices for six years. Then, he wants satellite radio officials to devote one quarter -- 25 percent! -- of their available capacity to "minority" and "public interest" programming.
What next, demanding that the new company be named after his first-born child?
This is a regulator run amok.
Whether the companies agree to new conditions is up to them. But the fact that regulators choose to exert their power to win favors rather than simply judge this merger on its obvious merits speaks volumes about the real relationship between those who operate in the private sector and their government overseers.
