E-Mail Comments To FCC
Over the past week or so a smattering e-mail comments (a bit over 100) have been arriving at the FCC. For the most part, every one of these comments is against the proposed merger of Sirius and XM.
The interesting thing to note about these types of comments is not so much the opinion they have relative to the merger, but rather the e-mail addresses that many of these comments come from.
The comments at first glimpse appear to be from Joe Q. Public, but when you see where they are arriving from, companies such as Clear Channel, Greater Media, and other radio stations appear in the sending e-mail address. Example
It would appear that a small campaign has been implemented to get people at these companies to participate in the comment period, and that they have tried to facilitate that by suggesting that their workers can e-mail their comments. What was likely unknown was that the e-mail address of the person sending the comment would be included.
The impact on the pro-anti merger stats has not been substantially impacted. At this point, on a relative basis, nearly 75% of the comments have been favorable with regards to the merger.
While the comment period is officially out of date, the FCC continues to accept and post comments as they arrive. If you want to express your opinion, you can do so by visiting Siriusmerger or XMmerger.
Position – Long Sirius, Long XM
I’m not sure why this would be surprising. Undoubtedly, the largest number of people writing in favor of the merger have been shareholders of Sirius. Is that any different?
Who has better standing to comment, Sirius shareholders or NAB members? The reality is that all these emails are totally meaningless. Hopefully, the FCC isn’t so fickle as to attribute any weight to these comments.
Why would they ask for comments and then not attribute any weight to them? If the comments dont matter then no one should have been able to comment. They must appreciate the comments to some extent.
For The First anonymous poster:
I was not insinuating surprise. FCC comments have many types, and the e-mail comment has not been widely used up until this point. No one group has better standing in a comment. It is what is being said in the comments that would carry weight. For the FCC to simply ignore comments is a bit foolish. Comments and opinions are part of the process, and an understanding of the opinions of consumers as well as competitors is an important part of the process.
You seem to feel that the largest number of comments come from Sirius shareholders. Having looked at all of the comments, I can tell you that there is a wide cross section. Sirius shareholders, XM shareholders, every day consumers, etc.