FCC Chairman Recommends Sirius-XM Approval

The first, lower-priced program allows users to pick 50 channels for $6.99 a month from either Sirius or XM. The second, higher-priced program at $14.99 per month allows customers to choose a mix of up to 100 channels from both companies' offerings.

The six remaining subscriptions are tiered offerings of a mix of XM and Sirius' content. These can be accessed through equipment that customers already have.

In contrast, $12.95 a month already buys current customers access to 170 channels at XM and 130 channels at Sirius.

Consumers Union, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group and the publisher of Consumer Reports, was among the angered groups.

"We think that approval of the deal is plainly absurd. I would defy anyone to find a situation where consumers have benefited from monopolies in the past," Consumers Union spokesman Bob Williams told ABCNEWS.com. "That sort of talk needs to be taken with a huge dose of skepticism by consumers."

Without competition, Williams argued, consumers can only be negatively affected.

"There's no competitive pressure to keep prices down," he said. "Prices are likely to go up."

With or without the a la carte programming, however, Williams remains skeptical.

"The tiers would no doubt be a way to get folks to buy something they might not buy anyways, which is what happens now," he said. "Even in the best-case scenario, having tier [subscriptions], you're talking about having a few take-it-or-leave-it packages created by companies, not consumers."

Other groups were similarly disgruntled.

"Overall this merger is a reward to the companies for managing to squelch competition between them," said Bert Foer, at the American Antitrust Institute. "We hope the FCC will stick by its original guns when they wanted competition in this industry."

Satellite Radio Alternatives: For Now and Beyond

Existing and future technologies played centrally into the Justice Department's decision. It cited competition created by alternatives to satellite radio, such as MP3 players, as well as the development of future technologies as part of the reasoning behind its decision.