For the fourth time around, the National Association of Broadcasters has enlisted some politicians to sponsor a bill to limit the satellite radio industry.
The bill called "Local Emergency Radio Service Preservation Act of 2007," H.R. 983 was cosponsored by Rep. Gene Green (D-TX) and Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS).
What the bill is aimed at is barring XM Satellite (XMSR) and Sirius (SIRI) from broadcasting any local related content like emergency, traffic or weather.
The reasoning behind the bill is that the Federal Communications Commissions' (FCC) original intent was that satellite radio only provide national programming.
One writer said "That purported restriction would enable the FCC to continue supporting 'a vibrant and vital terrestrial radio service for the public.'"
While I'm not a fan of satellite radio in any way, shape or form, I am a fan of the free market system, and I don't like this type of stuff no matter who it comes from.
With the satellite radio industry on life-support, what is it that the radio broadcasters fear so much? There greatest competition by far is the Internet, which they should have migrated strongly to years ago.
I would think that they believe that with the Internet and then local satellite broadcasting, their days may be limited. Advertisers have already been abandoning the medium in droves. It shows the desparate situation they face.
At this time there is local related news like weather reports and traffic updates, along with emergencey information when needed.
What's really going on here is that it is much easier to scale down when you're on a national level, than it is to scale up from a local level. The pressure is increasingly on local radio to find answers, that from their response here, shows they aren't coming up with.
Satellite or no satellite radio, they're in big trouble.
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