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Survey: Terrestrial Radio Fears Competition from Satellite Merger

According to a new study from Public Opinion Strategies, commissioned by XM and Sirius Satellite Radio, more than half of respondents believe that AM and FM radio stations are opposing the proposed merger of the satellite companies because they fear stronger competition.

The survey told 800 randomly selected registered voters that the trade association representing the traditional AM and FM radio stations is strongly opposing the Sirius and XM merger, writes Radio Ink. It asked, “Do you AGREE or DISAGREE with the view that AM and FM radio stations are opposing the merger because a combined satellite company will be a stronger competitor to traditional radio by offering consumers more choices of music, talk, entertainment and sports programming, and lower prices?”

Fifty-eight percent agreed with the statement; 31 percent disagreed.

The survey also asked whether they believe the various a la carte programming options the companies will offer after the merger are generally good or bad for consumers. More than three quarters (77 percent) considered “a savings of 46 percent” for a $6.99 50-channel package” as generally good, 70 percent said a “savings of 34 percent or nearly 9 dollars for a $16.99 “best of both package” was good, and 62 percent liked a savings of 23 percent for a $9.99-a-month format-focused package.
The National Association of Broadcasters vp of media relations pointed out that what XM and Sirius did not ask poll participants was, “Do you like monopolies? Does competition restrain a monopolist’s price gouging? Did you know you will have to buy a new radio that costs $200 or more to get the alleged benefits of a la carte programming? Did you know that under a la carte, the per-channel price of a merged XM-Sirius will rise by 40 percent to 188 percent?” among other questions.

He added that the poll shows “the lengths to which XM and Sirius will game the system in order to achieve monopoly status.”