Washington, DC, Jun 18, 2007 -  

Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., (R-Menomonee Falls) organized over 70 Members of Congress to send a letter today to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras, challenging the merger between XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. The letter calls on the FCC to block the merger, which would create monopoly control of satellite radio.

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing in March, Congressman Sensenbrenner grilled Sirius Satellite Radio CEO Mel Karmazin about the failure of the merger to fulfill the FCC’s previous standard, which requires competition between more than one licensee for satellite radio. If the FCC allows the XM-Sirius merger to move forward, the Commission would break substantially with this precedent, potentially jeopardizing the competitive marketplace of satellite radio.

“I don’t see where the consumer ends up benefiting in a merger like this because if you recall, the regulated utilities of old ended up being guaranteed a rate of return on their investment,” said Sensenbrenner. “I don’t think that is the kind of model policy makers should sign off on because we have already rejected that in other instances of regulated utilities.”

XM and Sirius are the only satellite radio companies in existence. They have no competitors, and allowing this merger to proceed would create a monopoly.

“The FCC has never before allowed the only two competitors in a given market to combine,” Sensenbrenner added. “This is neither the time, nor the venue in which to start.”

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