FCC Approval of Sirius XM Order Expected As-Is

A draft FCC order that would expand a Sirius XM channel set-aside originally meant for minorities is expected to gain approval largely as-is, commission officials said. But “nothing is set in stone,” said one. The commission is expecting several meetings with interested parties in the next weeks that may produce changes, the officials said. The draft on circulation would allow Sirius XM to choose companies that don’t now have programming relationships with it to fill 4 percent of the satellite company’s channels (CD Sept 7 p2).

Critics said the order’s lack of specificity raises concerns for an ongoing proceeding on finding a constitutional way to promote diversity in media and telecom ownership. The FCC is expected to approve the Media Bureau order before Nov. 21, the latest FCC deadline for XM to comply with the channel set-aside. Once the order is passed, Sirius XM would have 180 days to choose the programming.

The draft is largely seen as a race-neutral and effective way to diversify satellite radio programming while resolving a long-delayed issue, said an FCC official. The original deadline for finding programming was in December 2008. Giving the agency a veto over Sirius XM’s choices provides safeguards, said an official. But concerns remain that the order could allow major corporations without diverse ownership or programming to take advantage of the set-aside, officials said. The Media Bureau declined to comment.

The FCC’s movement on the set-aside preempts the efforts of the commission’s diversity committee, which is involved in a rulemaking on diversity in the communications industry, said Executive Director David Honig of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. The order will make future work on the issue very difficult, said Honig, a diversity committee member. The order will create a precedent for the commission’s handling of ownership diversity, he said. “I thought impossible to construct something more dilute than the small-business definition, but they did it,” Honig said: The agency should have found the record incomplete and delayed the order.