FCC Chief To Approve Sirius-XM Merger
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin, said yesterday that he will approve a merger between the nation’s sole satellite radio operators, XM and Sirius, a decision that could remove the last regulatory hurdle in the lengthy and heavily criticized move to make the companies one.
Mr. Martin came to the decision after the companies agreed last week to several commitments intended to prevent the monopoly from raising programming prices and from stifling competition among radio makers, aides to the chairman said in an interview yesterday. Critics have argued that a merger of Washington, D.C.-based XM and Sirius of New York would hurt consumers who would have fewer choices of programming and radio transmitters and who would be charged higher prices because of a lack of rivals.
