Memo to Sirius: CNN, Fox are not Suitable Substitutes for C-SPAN Posted by Bob at 03/19/07 01:24 PM

There was a very interesting article in the Washington Post this morning about the controversial proposed merger between the country's two satellite radio companies, Sirius and XM.

Reporter Charles Babington spends the bulk of the article debunking most of the promises made by Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin during congressional hearings earlier this month. Quoting outside technical experts and sources from the companies themselves, Babington makes a strong case that Mr. Karmazin was either ill-informed or being less than candid in his testimony when he promised a merged Sirius/XM would offer subscribers gobs more programming on their current Sirius or XM satellite receivers.

But it was another part of the article that got us seriously worried about the judgment of the folks at Sirius.

It involves C-SPAN Radio, one of the first programmers to be signed up by both Sirius and XM. To the displeasure of some subscribers, Sirius has dropped C-SPAN Radio from its service. The problem is that Sirius wants to preempt C-SPAN Radio in favor of sports programming whenever it wants. C-SPAN said no and Sirius pulled the plug.

Sirius Executive Vice President David Frear told Babington that C-SPAN was "not a highly listened-to channel.... We have others that speak to public affairs, including BBC, CNN and Fox News."

Clearly, C-SPAN is rarely as titillating as the steady diet of celebrity crap, car chases and Anna Nichole Smith coverage that fills up much of the air time on CNN and Fox. But we would argue that neither CNN nor Fox comes close to the zealously unbiased political and policy coverage offered by C-SPAN, day-in and day-out. The BBC is a little closer, but still light years away.

As an aside, we don't think it is a very smart tactical move for Sirius to drop the only channel that provides air time to government officials and politicians all day, every day. Is Sirius saying that Congress is boring and uninteresting?

We suggest that Sirius find some other channel to drop in order to broadcast its sports programming. Otherwise, it should change its name from Sirius to Frivolous.

comments (4)

1 Posted by Kevin at 04/11/07 05:52 AM

When can huge companies like Sirius ever be trusted? Answer, NEVER! They should drop one of their religion channels or Cosmo radio, to make room for sports programming. Afterall, more people want to listen to sports than religion, or some crap on Cosmo radio. Come on, Cosmo radio, what a poor use of space on Sirius' line up!

2 Posted by Sharon O'Hara at 04/11/07 01:35 PM

FOX TV is not bad!

Fox TV (CH 13) was the FIRST major television station in Seattle to acknowledge COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) during COPD month last year, November 2006...I was one of those interviewed for a terrific program on COPD.

NONE of the other Seattle channels were interested in COPD when COPD is the 4th leading cause of death in the US, 5th in the world.
That was last year.

THIS year, 2007, COPD has been mentioned on the other Seattle stations... BUT...they weren't the leader... FOX was.

3 Posted by Joyce S. in Ohio at 04/26/07 01:01 PM

I'm a Sirius subscriber and I also found it ridiculous when I pressed my preset button for C-SPAN and heard Sirius' message about getting my public affairs programming on CNN, FOX and the BBC. I will SO MISS being able to tune in to hearings that happen on Capitol Hill. It was wonderful to have access to C-SPAN on the road. I thought the point of satellite radio was to have a wide variety of programming to choose from, and to me that seems like some of the very popular stations would take up the slack for stations that might not get as many listeners, but are still a very important offering, like C-SPAN. Argh!

4 Posted by Dan Liddy at 04/28/07 11:52 AM

Anyone that thinks BBC is fair or balanced is loony- - -it's about as far left, AND anti American as it could possibly be. Fox News Network at least TRIES to be balalnced. But I do agree, I'm real tired of the Anna Nicole crap and celebrity BS and if Alec Baldwin wants to scream at his poor daughter , so what, though I hope she never speaks to him again. Serve the miserable bastard right !