Clear Channel to Program Regional News Channels for Satellite Radio Foe, XM
Clear Channel will program 7 regional news and talk channels for XM -- despite ardently opposing local content on satellite radio and backing NAB-pushed bills to strip XM and Sirius of just such channels. XM unveiled plans Mon. for the 7 regional news channels plus 10 new commercial-free music channels. The regional news and talk channels will, for the first time, bring XM subscribers regional news on every area of the continental U.S., XM said. A Clear Channel official said the company is “trying to protect its own interests” by stocking enemy airwaves with the more-localized programming.
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Word of Clear Channel’s satellite content deal comes 10 days after Sens. Snowe (R-Me.), Baucus (D-Mont.) and Lott (R- Miss.) introduced a bill backed by the NAB and Clear Channel that would put the kibosh on such content on satellite radio (CD March 17 p2). With a companion bill in the House, the Senate bill aims to “hold XM and Sirius accountable” to their FCC licenses’ national nature, according to the NAB. Among other things, the bill would have XM and Sirius yank traffic, weather, and any other non-nationwide programming.
Clear Channel is “staunchly supportive of both the House and Senate bills,” said Clear Channel Exec. Vp. & Chief Legal Officer, Andy Levin. The broadcaster, among the largest radio members in NAB, has “been fighting for years to ensure XM and Sirius live up to the obligations of their original FCC licenses,” Levin said: “XM hasn’t lived up to the national obligations of its license, and so far neither the FCC or Congress has forced them to.”
But Clear Channel will furnish regional content to its competitor anyway. The move is a way of “protecting our own interests,” Levin said: “We have a choice. We can sit back and let this competitive disparity get worse and put free radio more at risk than it ever has been, or we can do something to protect the future of free radio and the programming that we provide and find as many outlets as we possibly can for it.” But the channels won’t come with a guarantee, Levin said. If Congress acts on the NAB bill, Clear Channel “will pull those channels off of XM with much celebration,” he said: “But until then, we have to… protect the value of the programming that we provide by finding as many distribution channels for it as we can.”
The regional news content is up in the air, particularly in regard to ads, Clear Channel and XM officials said. “The first ad hasn’t been sold,” said Levin. The channels will cover multistate regions, for which Clear Channel will provide germane stories. “We won’t be competing directly with local stations that focus on true local news for their particular markets,” Levin said. Advertising is likely to be national, he said, with regional emergency warnings included.
An NAB spokesman declined to comment on the XM/Clear Channel deal, saying the NAB hadn’t seen details. “NAB continues to support passage of the legislation pending in both the House and Senate,” the NAB spokesman said. Clear Channel both invests in and competes with XM. The terrestrial radio firm invested in XM before it launched in exchange for XM running Clear Channel programming and commercials. An XM official put the broadcaster’s XM stake at around 2.5%.
XM didn’t comment on the Clear Channel conundrum either, but an internal XM e-mail sent to employees and obtained by Communications Daily highlighted the disconnect. Sent Mon. in conjunction with the news release on the regional news lineup, the corporate e-mail updates XM employees on XM’s “continuing effort to provide more information” to subscribers with the Clear Channel programming. But it warns workers the channels may not be delivered “if Congress enacts legislation (H.R. 998/S. 2418) that the National Association of Broadcasters has made a legislative priority this year.”
XM made its case again Tues., this time to lawmakers, not employees. In a letter to Congress, XM CEO Hugh Panero asked lawmakers to oppose the NAB-backed bills, claiming they could keep emergency information from listeners. Panero noted last week’s tornadoes in northwestern Ark. that imperiled lives and destroyed property. XM warned listeners on Emergency Alert Channel 247, but “most local radio stations did not provide any warnings,” Panero said. Citing Ark. media reports, Panero said area radio stations were understaffed at off-peak hours. Broadcasters didn’t provide emergency information, but don’t want XM to provide it either, Panero told lawmakers.
Said Clear Channel’s Levin: “The best way to get emergency notification is still to listen to free radio.”