Justice for Satellite

Wall Street Journal--Because XM and Sirius are the nation's only two satellite radio providers, the major concern is that a merger would create a monopoly able to raise prices willy-nilly. But Justice concluded, correctly, that "the evidence did not support defining a market limited to the two satellite radio firms that would exclude various alternative sources for audio entertainment."

In other words, XM and Sirius don't compete merely with each other but as part of a huge media marketplace that includes free radio, iPods, MP3 players, Internet radio stations, cable radio services and even cell phones. Mr. Barnett added that "the likely evolution of technology in the future, including the expected introduction in the next several years of mobile broadband Internet devices, made it even more unlikely that the transaction would harm consumers in the longer term."