Today Hot Report

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to approve the XM Satellite Radio-Sirius Satellite Radio merger , with commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate casting the swing vote.

The approval brings to a close a protracted debate over that lasted for 16 months.

Tate agreed to approve the merger on the condition that the enforcement actions against the two companies were approved. “The merger is in the public interest and will provide consumers with greater flexibility and choices,’ said FCC chairman Kevin Martin in a statement. Consumers will enjoy a variety of programming at reduced prices and more diversified programming choices. It will also spur innovation and advance the development and use of interoperable radios, bringing more flexible programming options to all subscribers.” The merger was pronounced all but consummated Thursday , but by late Friday afternoon, there was no deal and most FCC staffers had gone home.

The 3-2 vote late Friday came after more than one year of vetting the deal and after some last-minute hold-ups over how to dock the companies for past transgressions — a decision that the swing vote, Tate , indicated had to come before she would agree to the meld.

Tate broke a 2-2 tie in a vote that ultimately broke along party lines, with the two Democrats, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, voting against and Tate joining Martin and commissioner Robert McDowell in supporting the merger.

That vote came after 412 days of FCC consideration and after the companies agreed to pay about $20 million to the government and take other steps to settle an FCC investigation into their unauthorized placement of transmission equipment and the use of some radios with power levels that violated FCC rules.

The terms of the merger were not immediately available, but they almost certainly include various conditions already agreed to by the companies .

According to a source familiar with the negotiations between Tate and Martin, the conditions include a three-year price freeze, but one that would still allow the companies to pass through programming costs; a la carte and family-friendly programming offerings; a commitment to interoperable radios and outside receivers; and an 8% set-aside (24 channels) for noncommercial and commercial independent programmers.

Two proposed changes from the XM-Sirius proposal should please groups like Media Access Project and others concerned about open access.

According to an aide to one of the commissioners, at Tate’s urging, the deadline for making the receiver specifications available for outside suppliers has been moved up to “immediately,” and interoperable radios will be available within nine months rather than one year. XM and Sirius are said to be OK with moving up the dates.

A source said there were some last-minute edits to the proposal, but nothing that changed the basics. But the delay over approval of the enforcement action harkened back to earlier supposedly imminent FCC decisions that were delayed or scuttled amid 11th-hour negotiations.

The National Association of Broadcasters , which strongly opposed the merger, said it was “considering all options,” which included going to court to try to block the deal. One noncommercial radio executive was not happy with the decision. Dennis Haarsager, interim chief executive officer of NPR, said the merger undermines public radio and was not in the public interest. “While NPR, other public radio producers and public radio stations have had long and mutually-beneficial relationships with both companies, this new monopoly - wielding unprecedented control over spectrum and without the mitigating conditions we sought - will limit the public service mission of public radio and dilute the significant investment our community, our audience and Congress have made in HD radio technology.”