Public Knowledge Meets With FCC Again
1. The new company should make available pricing choices such as a-la-carte or tiered programming.
2. The new company should make 5% of its capacity available to non-commercial educational and informational programming over which it has no editorial control
3. The company should agree not to raise prices for its combined programming package (as opposed to each individual company’s current programming package) for three years after the merger is approved.
4. The new company should make the technical specifications of its devices and network open and available to allow device manufacturers to develop, and consumers to use, any device they choose without interference. Pursuant to the commission rules, these devices must be certified by the FCC for receiving signals on the frequencies licensed and subject to a minimum “do-no-harm” requirement.
It is interesting that there has been a shifty away from the 20% that Georgetown wants to the 5% model proposed by Gigi Sohn of Public Knowledge. The Sohn proposal does not involve the forfeiture of assets that the Georgetown proposal has. The Public knowledge proposal simply specifies a number of commercial free channels that will be available on all tiers of programming that the merged company has no editorial control over.
The fact that the Georgetown Proposal was not a subject in the meeting is a positive for merger hopefuls.
Position – Long Sirius, Long XM
The Public Knowledge proposal is the exact same as the Georgetown offer…
Other than the fact that the PK proposal is much more diverse, public service oriented, much more palatable (and realisitic)… oh yeah, and Public Knowledge is not a leech using the government to do its dirty work for them!
I am surprised Georgetown got as much press as it did, but I guess the fact that Jesse Jackson is behind them and he is the biggest loud mouthed self-serving hypocrite out there could make a difference. Dont get me wrong, I am not saying any of this because of the race involved, I am saying it simply based on the merit of what has transpired in their conversations and in the past.
PKs proposal makes perfect sense, and those were some of the exact concessions that I was considering when the merger was announced.
Next question Tyler: How does this proposal mesh with the iBiquity proposal? If they have an open network, Sirius/XM cannot mandate other companies to include HD radio in their recievers… What then?
4. The new company should make the technical specifications of its devices and network open and available to allow device manufacturers to develop, and consumers to use, any device they choose without interference. Pursuant to the commission rules, these devices must be certified by the FCC for receiving signals on the frequencies licensed and subject to a minimum “do-no-harm” requirement.
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Would this make it easier to steal satellite radio? Would hacker radios start appearing all across the U.S.A.?? I don’t like this concession at all…..THROW IT OUT!!
For Newman
This will be a tricky point. I do not see how the Ibiquity proposal can seriously be considered unless it is Ibiquity that subsidizes the chipsets, and even helps with rev share costs, etc.
For NAB_Sucks
Not really. Sirius and XM would still have to activate the radio in order for it to receive a signal. If the radio is not activated in the system, it will not get a SDARS signal.
The danger of stealing would not really be increased from levels that already exist.