Months ago, when Georgetown Partners began their quest for 20% of the SDARS spectrum, I composed a list of questions that I felt should be answered. Among those questions was whether Georgetown was looking to build their own satellite radio company, or merely going to act as an “auctioneer” of channels to terrestrial radio broadcasters.
What I noted then was that Davenport lacked radio experience. I found it odd that someone would seek 20% of the SDARS spectrum (about 60 channels), and not have a plan as to how to fill that spectrum with content. I alleged at that time that perhaps the plan was to grab the channels, and then go to terrestrial radio giants like Clear Channel, CBS, etc. and offer them blocks of channels that would be available in every market.
I also found it odd that the National Association of Broadcasters and terrestrial radio stations were dead silent on this issue, despite the fact that Georgetown was having meetings with the FCC at a break neck pace. Had Sirius or XM proposed 60 channels of free commercial supported radio, the NAB and terrestrial radio giants would have filed complaint after complaint with the FCC. Somehow though, the proposals of Georgetown Partners got no response at all from terrestrial radio.
Now, in the eleventh hour, Georgetown’s Chester Davenport has announced that he is prepared to partner with Entravision to help fill all of the channels he is seeking. Entravision is a Spanish language based media company with 48 terrestrial radio stations, 41 of which are located in the to 50 Spanish markets in the United States.
Perhaps the most interesting item to note is that Entravision is NOT minority owned. It is a publicly traded company just like Sirius and XM. Entravision is traded on the NYSE under symbol EVC. Literally, from an ownership standpoint, the shareholders represent the owners of the company. Entravision simply has a business model that is based on minority programming. The fact of the matter is that “minority ownership” of Entravision may be more or less than Sirius and/or XM. It all boils down to the demographics of the investors. The fact of the matter is that there is nothing stopping Sirius and XM from offering diverse programming… in fact, they already do.
It would appear that what we have here is a minority business man, Chester Davenport, that simply wants to act as a middle man. Being a minority would give him certain competitive edges in obtaining the rights to spectrum, but in reality, the operations of the business may well have nothing at all to do with Georgetown Partners if they are simply a “paper owner”.
For clarity, I have nothing at all against having minority programming.
