Stern Dollars...

[Bruzilla]

In addition to new subscribers Sirius was also counting on two other revenue streams to offset Howard's costs: adds from national-level corporations and joint ventures with auto manufacturers. Howard's raunchiness is keeping away the national-level advertisers, which is why Sirius is reigning him in. It's also making the folks at Ford and other automakers rethink selling Sirius-capable radios and switching to the XM option for their cars.

The biggest mistake that Sirius made was in the price points for their radios. XM introduced their Roady radios with a price point of under $50 while the cheapest Sirius units were selling for around $100. Now Sirius has dropped the price point on their low-end units, but a lot of would-be customers (myself included) already have committed to XM.

 

[kom526]

I got a subscription to Sirius for my wife for her bday. She was lamenting the demise of Z 104 (don't ask me why) and can only listen to so much C&W. I decided on Sirius not because of Howard, he was better when @ DC101 (50 ways to rank your mama), but because of the deal with the NFL AND starting in 2007, NASCAR. Since the Redskins will not be broadcast on WJFK or WSMD I needed a substitute because the closest "Red Zebra" (Snyder's radio network) station is a small station in PF.

BTW, the wife does like her radio.

 

[Speedy70]

I could care less about all the money statistics, I'm just glad I have Sirius to listen to him every morning. The show just gets better and better!

And when Howard is not on, I listen to the Sirius 24/7 Elvis station.

P.S. However, speaking of Howard's money, I just read this on howardstern.com:

"Howard began the show saying that yesterday was one of the greatest days of his life. Howard explained that, because of how generous Robin has been to him over the years, he has wanted to do something special for her for weeks, even before the surprise birthday party she threw for him last month. Given all this, Howard mentioned that, after yesterday’s broadcast, he took Robin down to the SIRIUS building’s basement garage, where he had a top-of-the-line, hardtop convertible Mercedes Benz waiting for her – with a big bow on top."

Why can't one of my co-workers give me a gift like that?

 

[FromTexas]

XM only paid $55 million to Oprah ... who I am sure has a much larger audience.

 

[Speedy70]

XM only paid $55 million to Oprah ... who I am sure has a much larger audience.

Yippee - I don't have XM!

 

[willie]

Maybe a little off topic but does Serius have advertising? XM is full of ads, especially hawking their own channels. A lengthly spot with a screeching soprano, advertising the opera program on the C&W channel, is not entertaining. The talk shows are the worst.

 

[FromTexas]

Maybe a little off topic but does Serius have advertising? XM is full of ads, especially hawking their own channels. A lengthly spot with a screeching soprano, advertising the opera program on the C&W channel, is not entertaining. The talk shows are the worst.

The both do that. I wouldn't say either is full of ads though. The ads are be more frequent on sports/talk stations where they fill the white space from talk show/news breaks if that is what you are listening to. On the regular music stations on both they are pretty infrequent...especially compared to regular radio.

 

[FromTexas]

Yippee - I don't have XM!

Its not about running off to listen to Oprah. I don't listen to any of Oprah's stuff. The point is XM runs their business better than forking over half a billion for one tiny segment of business. They fork over $55 million and bring in a huge name across all media. Oprah's reach far exceeds that of Stern. Heck, she tells people to buy a book and it is suddenly the number one bestseller in the nation.