Pioneer Reiterates Position Against HD Chip Requirement
Pioneer met with the democrat commissioners (Copps and Adelstein) on Monday, July 21, 2008. This happens to be the same day that commissioner Copps rendered his decision to vote against the merger without taking the opportunity to offer a counter proposal for consideration.
It is Pioneers position that manufacturers should not be required to include HD Radio chipsets into SDARS receivers, and that in fact, a free market should determine whether or not these chipsets are installed.
One item to note is that Pioneer did not meet with commissioner Tate. Tate is widely seen as being the third vote needed for the merger to gain approval, and the fact that Pioneer did not meet with her may be indicative that she sides with the Pioneer position with regard to this issue.
[ FCC Filing ]
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Position: Long Sirius, XM.
Previous Pioneer meetings:
On June 5, 2008, the undersigned met with Catherine Bohigian, Chief, Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis regarding certain proposed conditions to the proposed merger of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (“Sirius”) and XM Radio Inc. (“XM”).
On June 5, 2008, the undersigned met with Debra Sabourin, Andrew Stern, Nathan Mitchell, Jie Zhou, William D. Freedman, Rebekah Goodheart, Marcia Glauberman, Rosaless Chiara, Jamila-Bess Johnson and Kristi Thompson, all of the Media Bureau, Virginia Metallo and Jim Bird, both of the Office of the General Counsel, and Robert Nelson and Stephen Duall, both of the International Bureau regarding certain proposed conditions to the proposed merger of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (“Sirius”) and XM Radio Inc. (“XM”).
On June 27, 2008, the undersigned met with Amy Blankenship, Legal Advisor to Commissioner Tate regarding certain proposed conditions to the proposed merger of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (“Sirius”) and XM Radio Inc. (“XM”).