I would bet a thousand dollars that this "group of law students" who had this study created is in some way associated with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB).
This smells like a put up job.
Their basic argument is flawed - they claim satellite subscribers would be harmed when in fact for the same money they will get all the content from both services.
They are both losing money hand over fist and consolidation would allow economies of scale. They compete with local broadcasters, IPODs and cell phone musics services - there is plenty of competition.
Exactly -- except some channels that are duplicates. In that case, the cvhannels will be merged into one beter station.