The FCC needs more time to hash out a plan for the newly merged satellite giant Sirius XM to slice off two dozen of its radio channels for leasing to a separate entity for public service programming and targeting the underserved segments of the national audience. The commission today pushed the new deadline for the satcaster to implement its voluntary commitment to enter long-term leases to June 29. It is the third extension announced by the commission. The first deadline for splitting off the channels was last fall, then extended to Feb. 27, and again extended to May 29. The FCC reports that during the period, commenters "raised a number of additional concerns and proposed a range of models to implement the leasing condition." The commission’s Media Bureau "anticipates commission action on the implementation guidelines in the very near future, and thus this brief extension is appropriate," the agency said in making the extension announcement. For months, the FCC has been receiving comments from a slew of high profile broadcasters and from media upstarts hoping to get a slice of the satellite spectrum for their very own, or just offering an opinion about what tact the FCC ought to take with the opportunity. Among the commenters have been Radio One, Entravision, Metro Radio Korea, FluteRadio, Hispanic Information and Telecommunications, and RSS Network Corp.
Among the hardest lobbying efforts this year has been led by Malik Shakur, president of Los Angeles-based iClick2Media who has been involved in several top-level meetings with FCC brass over the way he’d like to use the two dozen channels. The former Hollywood filmmaker’s most recent meeting with Washington was a May 18 teleconference. He was joined by Manjari Prakash, advisor to iClick2Media and Michael Wahba, president of AlphaStar International Inc., and they spoke with counsel to acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps, Jamila-Bess Johnson and Copps’ chief of staff, Rick Chessen. The following day, Shakur and his attorney, Jeneba Jalloh Ghatt, of the Ghatt Group based in Chevy Chase, Md., spoke with counsel for media issues to Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, Rudy Brioche. According to documents filed with the FCC following the meetings, the group urged the FCC to implement the set-aside "in a manner that is mindful of small independent content producers, many of whom may have been unable to, or have tried and failed to engage Sirius XM in carriage negotiations because of their lack of influence, counsel or other reasons. Given the fact that the merger created a monopoly situation, eliminating choice of programmers, iClick2Media and AlphaStar urged the Commission staffers to adopt an approach that would enable the most amounts of content suppliers to gain carriage as possible. The venture iClick2Media and AlphaStar propose to engage, American Independent Radio, is proposing to eliminate roadblocks to carriage for small content producers, many of whom who have been unsuccessful in reaching mass markets of radio listeners, via satellite or terrestrial radio." For months, the FCC and representatives from Sirius XM have met in Washington on various occasions to discuss how the 4% set-aside of satellite channels will be implemented. The most recent meeting was May 20 when a platoon of lawyers -- Robert Pettit, Gregg Elias, Jennifer Hindin and Joshua Turner – all from Wiley Rein LLP and Sirius XM executives Patrick Donnelly and James Blitz, all representing the satellite company, met with Robert Ratcliffe, Sarah Whitesell, Royce Sherlock, Marcia Glauberman, Rosalee Chiara, Belinda Nixon, Mania Baghdadi, Rebekah Goodheart and Elvis Stumbergs of the FCC Media Bureau, Joel Rabinowitz of the FCC Office of General Counsel, and Gardner Foster of the FCC International Bureau.
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