FCC Denies MMTC XM Sirius Petition

Remember when the Sirius-XM merger was approved back in 2008? Part of the deal was that Sirius XM would lease 8% of its channels to “diverse” content programmers.  The FCC thought this was a great idea, but required Sirius XM to ignore race as a factor in determining who should get to program the channels. 

The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) petitioned the FCC to reconsider its approval of the merger, saying that the FCC didn’t give enough consideration to new entrants without “extensive partnerships” with Sirius XM; didn’t exhaust its consideration of every non-racial category available (such as language and tribal relationships); and that the effect of the order would have too much of an adverse impact on diversity in subsequent mergers.

The FCC rejected MMTC’s petition today and pointed to the specific language in the original order approving the merger that had already addressed all of MMTC’s issues.  Even though MMTC’s petition was denied, this is still a victory for MMTC and media diversity in general because there can never seem to be enough clarity on the record. The FCC’s explicit statement that it covered all the bases establishes a clearer precedent for diversity conditions in future media mergers.