NAB Fights Sirius-XM Deal Harder Than Anything
Broadcasters are fighting harder against the Sirius-XM merger than they have any other item, NAB Pres. David Rehr told an investor conference last week, according to an analyst who organized it. “NAB has entered a much more proactive stage,” Wachovia’s Jeff Wlodarczak wrote Fri.: “NAB thinks their efforts are starting to gain traction and believes the view of policy makers are turning more in favor to block the merger.” Rehr spoke Thurs. in N.Y. at an invitation-only face off with NCTA Pres. Kyle McSlarrow. There was no transcript of their remarks; the event was closed to media, a Wachovia official said.
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DoJ likely won’t issue a ruling on the satellite radio deal until late this year or early 2008, Rehr told listeners. NAB hasn’t discussed curbs to the deal with the companies; it doesn’t believe it needs to, given dim chances of approval, Rehr said. But should regulators approve the deal, NAB thinks Sirius-XM should be limited to airing national programming and must include an HD chip in every satellite radio, Rehr said, according to Wlodarczak.
On another hot-button issue, Rehr said industry did a bad job in making the case that stations should be paid cash in exchange for letting cable operators carry broadcasts because many over-the-air TV shows rate higher than pay-TV networks. “NAB believes broadcasters and cable companies should work together to ‘increase the pie’ rather than changing the way the pie is divided,” Rehr was paraphrased as saying, according to Wlodarczak. McSlarrow agreed the 2 industries must collaborate, but termed retransmission consent bad for cable operators.
NCTA believes retransmission consent isn’t working because the govt. essentially is forcing cable operators to carry every station or “reach an economic agreement while at the same time giving each individual broadcaster a regulated monopoly,” said McSlarrow: “There should be a two-way exchange in value. Cable and broadcasters are talking to each other to work it out on their own.” The govt. shouldn’t intervene, said McSlarrow, according to Wlodarczak.
McSlarrow said NCTA isn’t expending much effort to lobby against a cable ownership cap that FCC Chmn. Martin wants put on industry. Martin has circulated an order on the 8th floor to restore a 30% limit on the number of pay-TV subscribers a single operator can serve. “NCTA does not feel the need to use political capital on this particular issue” and believes an appeals court would throw out the cap, McSlarrow said. NCTA vehemently disagrees with FCC rules on the set-top box navigation and security integration ban, but is resigned to complying with it, said McSlarrow. He said cable operators are trying to cut set-tops’ additional $60-$80 cost “as quickly as possible,” wrote Wlodarczak: “Within a few years, the NCTA believes a much more cost effective solution, possibly downloadable security software in lieu of CableCARD hardware, will emerge.” - Jonathan Make