Competitive Electronics

As chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in 1981, I was visited by a lobbyist for the broadcast industry. Over-the-air broadcasters vehemently opposed the FCC's authorization of Direct Broadcast Satellite television services, and the lobbyist quickly launched into his preamble: "We are all for competition, Mr. Chairman, but … "

Meaning, "forget what I said up to the word ‘but,' and now listen carefully…"

In observing the broadcasters' intense negative reaction to the proposed merger of the two satellite radio companies, XM and Sirius, it struck me that little has changed in 26 years. Each year, the skies over Washington darken as the Lear jets bring industry lobbyists to the latest battlefront against competition and its offshoot — mergers that enhance competition.

In 1981, we were only beginning to envision the possibilities of satellite-delivered entertainment media services. Twenty-six years later, we live in an entertainment media marketplace that features a striking — and exciting — competitive dynamic beyond anything we could have envisioned. Although traditional over-the-air radio remains the most dominant audio entertainment platform, continued technological innovation has forced broadcasters to confront that they must offer better service and more choices to consumers if they are to compete and survive.

Satellite radio offers a perfect example of the phenomenon. Although it is a relatively nascent service, launched a little more than five years ago, satellite radio today offers diverse programming targeted to many audiences and tastes, largely on a commercial-free basis, using very high-quality digital signals.

And, in spite of the fact that satellite radio constitutes only 3.4% of radio listening today, traditional over-the-air radio operators have understood the potential threat and have had no choice but to compete, and have been dragged, albeit kicking and screaming, into the digital age.

Thus, the broadcast industry recently introduced and is pushing its own "HD Radio" initiative to allow radio stations across the country to offer multiple new, high-quality digital channels.

This is all to consumers' benefit. In the mean time, satellite and terrestrial radio also have been besieged by a host of additional competitors: iPods and other MP3 players, Internet radio services, and now mobile phones. All offer exciting new means of providing audio entertainment to consumers.

That is how things should be. Indeed, it is the precise dynamic that American communications and entertainment media policy should continue to foment. If the two satellite radio companies, each only several years old, need to combine to be more effective competitors in an audio entertainment marketplace teeming with technological change and innovation, the government should not stand in the way.

In the end, satellite radio may or may not survive, but let that be decided by the people through their electronic choices in the marketplace.

Mr. Fowler served as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission during the administration of President Reagan.