The boss of the FCC, Kevin Martin, has said he will recommend his colleagues at the US media regulator give the go ahead for the merger of satellite radio networks Sirius and XM, which is quite a turnaround, given that, if I remember rightly, both the FCC and its chair were initially resistant to the merger proposals.
As previously reported, Sirius and XM have been trying to merge for ages. The merger will give them a monopoly in the US satellite radio space, hence the FCC concerns, but the two firms argue that they compete with terrestrial broadcasters and online music services, so a merged Sirius XM will not be too dominant.
Martin said in a statement yesterday: "As I have indicated before, this is an unusual situation. I am recommending that with the voluntary commitments they've offered, on balance, this transaction would be in the public interest".
Recent reports suggested that the FCC would approve the merger but with conditions, with some saying said conditions would make the merger unpalatable for Sirius and XM. But it seems the two satellite radio firms have come forward with their own concessions - the voluntary commitments referred to by Martin - in order to sweeten the deal for those with monopoly concerns.
According to reports in the US press those voluntary commitments include price rise constraints, the introduction of economy line packages, the introduction of an open standard for radio set manufacture, a new a la carte service to complement current subscription based packages, and a commitment to public interest programming.
Following Martin's comments a spokesman for the FCC said: "We have no indication on how the votes will go and whether this will be approved as proposed. This proposal will start the discussion on what the transaction will look like if approved".