By Todd Shields
July 2 (Bloomberg) — Entravision Communications Corp., the Spanish-language broadcaster, wants to supply programs to Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. if regulators make them set aside enough channels for minority use.
Chief Executive Officer Walter Ulloa made the proposal in meetings last week with members of the Federal Communications Commission, who are weighing merger of Sirius and XM, according to filings posted on the agency Web site yesterday and June 30.
The agency is considering whether XM and Sirius should provide channels to minority and educational programmers if the companies’ $2.81 billion merger is approved. The deal needs a majority vote from the FCC, which is under no deadline to act.
Ulloa, in meetings with Democratic commissioners Jonathan Adelstein on June 26 and Michael Copps on June 27, said Chairman Kevin Martin’s proposal for a set aside of 4 percent of the companies’ combined channels for minority broadcasters was too small to be of interest, according to the filing.
Chester Davenport, managing director of Georgetown Partners LLC, which has proposed that 20 percent of the combined companies’ spectrum be devoted to minority broadcasters, joined Ulloa in the meetings, according to the filings.
An advertiser-supported service with that much capacity could attract listeners from among 18 million current satellite radio subscribers and an additional 18 million people who let service lapse, the executives said, according to the filing.
Entravision, based in Santa Monica, California, declined to comment on the filings, referring an inquiry to New York-based Brainerd Communicators, its public relations firm. Brainerd also declined to comment.
Entravision fell 57 cents, or 15 percent, to a 52-week low of $3.34 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. It has dropped 57 percent this year.
New York-based Sirius is offering 4.6 of its shares for each of Washington-based XM. Sirius fell 4 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $1.91 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. XM gained 23 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $7.73.
To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=a_BRxRLXtA.A&refer=technology
I wonder if Entravision or Georgetown Partners sat down with Clear Channel or any other member of the NAB to proclaim their interest in broadcasting a show on the airwaves that terrestrial radio has set aside for minority use? Actually, I wonder what the actual percentage of the airwaves terrestrial radio is required to provide to minorities. I wonder if the percentage is fairly comparable to the percentage they are asking the FCC to force Sirius to give out. Why is everyone asking Sirius for these things and not looking into the mirror to be sure they are already doing the same thing?!
I refer you to the very next post in the blog…because this got me thinking the exact same thing! So I dug up some info. I haven’t seen any mandate whatsoever to apply to terrestrial radio.
http://siriusnewsrumors.blogspot.com/2008/07/commissioner-tate-says.html