• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, July 14, 2008

Sirius Satellite Radio's plan to introduce a satellite TV service attracted criticism from Georgetown Partners, which expressed its opposition in an ex parte filing to the Federal Communications Commission last week. The request to halt Sirius' Backseat TV came after a week of complaints and opposition to the proposed merger between Sirius and XM Satellite Radio.

Georgetown Partners noted that Sirius had only been licensed to use the satellite spectrum for radio broadcasts, not TV, and demanded that Sirius "cease its unauthorized television broadcasting through appropriate orders after investigation." In another ex parte filing, the investment group argued that Sirius and XM do not require the full 25 MHz section of spectrum for their radio broadcasts.

Georgetown Partners, which says it invests in minority-controlled media firms, previously asked the FCC to set aside part of the satellite spectrum for minority programming in the event of a merger between Sirius and XM Satellite Radio. Both of last week's filings could serve this goal by clearing part of the spectrum for use by another satellite broadcaster.

Also last week, the Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America wrote to the FCC demanding that Sirius and XM make public confidential documents relating to the design and manufacture -- never completed -- of an interoperable radio receiver that could pick up signals from both satcasters. The design of such a receiver was one of the conditions spelled out by the FCC when the satcasters' licenses were granted in 1997, but was never met.

The consumer advocates assert that the satcasters' failure to produce an interoperable receiver was part of a deliberate plan to limit competition in the satellite radio market, making it more difficult for consumers to switch from one service to the other. They also oppose the merger, calling the receiver issue a deliberate deception of the FCC, which should be wary of further attempts to illegally distort the market.