Public Knowledge has met with the FCC once again to reiterate their support for the merger. Public Knowledge has testified in congressional hearings and discussed the proposed merger several times with government regulators. In their latest filing, Public Knowledge outlines four conditions that should be placed on the merger:

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 would seem that most of these concessions would be acceptable to Sirius and XM at least on some level. Some of the Public Knowledge requests have already been offered. The FCC may well seek out some of these requirements as a solution to concerns brought up by various parties during the merger process.

Position – Long Sirius, Long XM