What's the fun in a multimillion-dollar lobbying victory if you can't gloat?
This week, Sirius and XM Satellite Radio received the go-ahead from the Federal Communications Commission to merge. The green light followed a protracted, bitter feud with the National Association of Broadcasters over whether the combined satellite radio company would constitute a monopoly. Sirius and XM spent more than $2 million lobbying in 2007 alone.
In response to the FCC's approval, Mel Karmazin, the CEO of Sirius XM Radio, has taken to the airwaves in an apparent victory lap. Inside Radio, an industry trade publication, caught his comments on two of the satellite broadcaster's morning shows:
"If we are a duopoly on our way to a monopoly, by definition [NAB members] are not in that pie. Thank goodness for it and hats off to the head of the NAB. We all owe him. When we all get to toast this merger, I will be celebrating him first."
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