Clear Channel, continuing to oppose the satellite merger, has told commission staff the deal would aggregate 25 MHz of spectrum to one licensee, “more than that allocated to the entire AM and FM terrestrial radio bands combined.”
It made that point during discussions with advisors for Chairman Martin and Commissioner Tate.
According to filings, the broadcaster also laid out conditions that should be met if the deal is approved:
There would have to be “intramodel” competition within the satellite radio service which could be accomplished through a third party that leases satellite capacity from the merged entity.
A public interest set-aside of no less than 5% of satellite capacity should be required.
The merged entity should be subject to the commission’s broadcast indecency rules.
A combined XM-Sirius should be prohibited from transmitting local programming and from receiving local ad revenues.
And HD Radio receive capability should be built into all future satellite radio tuners.
