Public-interest groups Public Knowledge and Media Access Project want to make sure the FCC understands their position on the Sirius-XM merger in light of a recent letter from Chester Davenport the Managing Director of Georgetown Partners.
While they confirmed that they did indeed meet with Georgetown Partners, the groups reiterated that they “take no position with respect to [Georgetown Partners’] specific proposal that 20% of the merged XM/Sirius company’s spectrum capacity be leased on an arms-length basis to an independent entity.”
“This approach could be a useful supplement to, but not a substitute for, the 5% non-commercial, educational set aside,” they state in their letter to the FCC.
Should the Federal Communications Commission determine that
Georgetown’s proposal is in the public interest, both Public Knowledge
and Media Access Project support the minority-owned group’s proposal to
assist non-commercial, educational programmers.
Both Public Knowledge and Media Access Project have proposed that roughly 5% of broadcast capacity from a merged Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. be dedicated to non-commercial and educational programming, of which Sirius-XM have no editorial control.
Georgetown stated in its letter to the FCC that they would agree to the proposal to set aside 5% of their own capacity for non-commercial, educational programming. Additionally, they stated that there might be “technical barriers” that would hinder this content from
being delivered to a merged entity and proposed a plan to overcome these so-called barriers.
In the filing, the public-interest groups conclude:
“In the interest of clarity, [Media Access Project and Public Knowledge] wish to state that neither they nor any person or organization associated with them have requested or received consideration of any kind from [Georgetown Partners] or any person or organization associated with them in exchange for their willingness to submit this letter of support.”
[View FCC Filing (PDF)]
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