[Satellite Today 07-14-08] After multiple delays, the approval and merger of the Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio should be approved by the end of July, Tom Watts, an analyst with Cowen and Co., said in a July 14 research report.
    The combination was approved in March by the U.S. Department of Justice, but the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has not yet made a decision. FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin signaled his support of the deal in June, and the two  additional necessary votes needed “should be in place in the next two weeks,” Cowen said.
    Groups continue to lobby to either halt the combination or place further restrictions on the combined company. Georgetown Partners has asked the FCC Enforcement Bureau to halt Sirius’s TV offering, calling Sirius Backseat TV an unauthorized satellite live television broadcasting service using spectrum licensed exclusively for satellite radio.
    Georgetown has proposed paying Sirius for a lease of 20 percent of the merged entities’ capacity that Georgetown will use to establish a competitor. “By Sirius’ own admission, its television service is planned to occupy up to 20 percent of its spectrum, so obviously 20 percent  of the spectrum is available for something other than digital radio services and could be made available to provide competition,” the firm said. “Doing so would go a long way to satisfying the competition requirements of the Commission’s public interest standard that must be met for the merger to be approved.”