NAB takes on XM/Sirius


Is satellite radio serious competition for other broadcasters?
Radley Balko's column at Reason this time covers the National Association of Broadcaster's attempt to derail satellite radio. It's a doozy too.

So when XM and Sirius announced a highly-publicized merger this year, everything changed for the NAB. Clearly, the two startups it so feared for so long were floundering. And with no other licensed satellite providers around, the NAB's position on the merger became clear: What's bad for satellite is good for the NAB. So the NAB would oppose an XM-Sirius alliance.

Problem is, the only colorable argument against the merger is that it would create a monopoly for satellite radio. XM and Sirius cleverly (and probably accurately) headed that objection off by noting that satellite radio competes with a variety of technologies for the listener's ear. This put the NAB in an awkward position. The lobby would have to argue that despite its 15-year effort to derail satellite radio, satellite radio was not a competitor. Of course, the harder the NAB fights and the more money the NAB spends to promote this message, the clearer it becomes that the NAB fears the competition posed by an XM-Sirius alliance. In effect, the more the NAB fights the merger, the more it undermines its own argument against it.

This whole situation is a near-perfect illustration of how government regulation leads to government protection from new competition. The column is worth it just for that look inside Washington politics.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - April 20, 2007 at 05:00 AM  Tag


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