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Digital radio still hard to hear
November 9, 2005 -
Sirius nabs Martha Stewart
April 18, 2005 -
Shock jock Stern jumps to satellite radio
October 6, 2004
When Stern goes live as expected on the Sirius Satellite Radio network on Jan. 9, it will certainly mark one of the biggest shakeups the radio world has seen in years and potentially provide an extraordinary shot in the arm for the nascent satellite radio industry.
News.context
What's new:
Sirius Satellite Radio gambles that shock jock Howard Stern is worth his $500 million paycheck.
Bottom line:
The news has already boosted Sirius subscriptions, but the service has to attract a lot more subscribers and retain advertisers to cover the costs.
From Sirius' perspective, it had better. The young company, which has yet to turn a profit since launching its service in 2002, has agreed to pay Stern $500 million over five years to transform his show into two channels broadcasting around the clock. Some of that will go into production costs and the other salaries associated with his show.
Subscriptions, which typically cost $12.95 per month, will have to jump to justify that monster contract--Sirius executives say they need 1 million new subscribers, above and beyond what they would otherwise have drawn, to pay for the deal. No doubt about it: Sirius has all but bet its future on Stern.
That 1 million figure is rough at best, but it takes into account average subscriber fees per month of about $10.81 (lower than retail price, due to promotions and rebates) and an average monthly churn, or cancellation rate, of 1.8 percent, according to the company's latest earnings release. To get there, the New York-based satellite radio network is counting on a sizable portion of Stern's 8 million to 12 million listeners to follow their radio Pied Piper to the subscription service.
Sirius executives already have some reason for optimism. Subscriptions have tripled since Stern announced his defection from Infinity Broadcasting a year ago, from about 700,000 in October 2003 to more than 2.1 million today. And the network thinks Stern is the right bet to help it close the gap against its rival XM Radio, which currently reaches about twice as many people.
Listen up
Only a few more weeks before Howard Stern moves to the Sirius Satellite Radio network. CNET News.com's Charles Cooper, John Borland and Harry Fuller debate whether CEO Mel Karmazin is crazy like a fox--or simply crazy.
Listen now...
(9.5MB mp3)
Indeed, at the beginning of 2005 the company predicted it would reach 2.5 million subscribers by the end of this year. Now it's instead on track to reach more than 3 million by the end of the year, according to the company's latest earnings release.
"We're not putting a number on it, but we do believe that if he hasn't already paid for himself, then he has contributed a tremendous amount of subscription growth over the last year," said Sirius spokesman Jim Collins.
Under current projections, analysts say it shouldn't be hard for Stern to pay for himself.
"I think it will turn out to be a very astute investment by Sirius," said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett. "The value of what (Sirius has) already gotten from him in promotional appearances alone is worth tens of millions of dollars in free advertising."
In a recent research note, Friedman Billings Ramsey stock analyst Maurice McKenzie said he expected Stern to draw about 1.5 million new subscribers for Sirius, weighted heavily toward the last quarter of this year, and the first quarter of next, when the buzz around the shock jock's defection is peaking.
See more CNET content tagged:
Sirius, Howard Stern, satellite radio, Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., radio
Limbaugh alone has 20-25 mil and there's also Hannity, Beck, Savage, Reagan, O' Reilly, Ingram ..........where do I stop? If Sirius were serious - they go after the main stream in America, not the fringe kook left.
entertainer, and THE most influencial man on radio. Believe it or
not, he IS the choice of main stream, not just of the "far left".
Of course he is not for everyone, and Sirius knows that, that's why
they have another 110 channels (not including weather/traffic
channels) for subscribers to choose from.
1. If people can get content for free from Hannity, Beck, Savage, et al, why would they pay for Sirius? Unless, of course, Sirius were able to get all of these talk show hosts to defect to them at once.
2. The shows you mentioned (above) are not targeted to or listened to by "mainstream America". They are conservative shows with conservative audiences. Conservatives like yourself believe that you are actually in the center of the American political spectrum, so I can see how you would make this comment, but I assure you it is inaccurate. Let's review: Conservatives are on the right, but think they are in the center. Liberals are on the left, and *know* they're on the left.
3. (OK, I know I said "two things"...) Howard Stern's audience is not just the left, "kook" or otherwise. He would not have such high ratings if that were the case. You seem to think that Republicans are all about decency and apple pie and only "other people" listen to smut. Please...
-Robert
The Democrates (and political center) are listening to either their own mixed audio CDs or NPR.
and elevating his location isn't likely to elevate his value or
significance.
But all that is somewhat academic. Now that I have MP3's I can
play at home, in the car, and where ever else I might be, radio is
no longer of any interest to me, free or otherwise. So with a
worthless media, and an even more worthless 'personality' on
that media, maybe even a nickel is a gross overvaluaton.
Where are values going?
Stop thinking you are America, no one person is and the idea of imposing your values on someone else is what is wrong with this country.
The religious right and the hypocrites in the republican and democratic parties should stay out of people lives and worry about running this country like a business and protecting our rights guaranteed in the Constitution.
-Robert
www.luckystiff.org
Please also visit:
google.com: "circumcision"
www.circumcision.org
www.jewishcircumcision.org
www.norm.org (foreskin restoration)
Shame on them. I'll personally never buy a Sirus radio.
Anyway, they are Stern's biggest rivals, and when they first started on XM a year ago, the first few weeks were about swearing as much as they could on the radio and about getting the lesbians in, having people call in while having sex, etc. However, as they themselves admitted, you can only do that so many times before it's boring and the listeners are bored. Many of their shows have no sex involved and become more of a regular talk show, but a regular guys shooting the s**t style show. Lots of joking around, ragging on each other,etc.
For example, today's show spent over an hour playing clips of tv and radio people screwing up, such as the weatherman who said "Martin Luther ****...KING JR!" etc. They played a dirty Christmas song, talked with a rock band singer for awhile, and so on. 4 hours, no sex.
My point to this, is right now Howard Stern thinks his new show is going to be all about lesbians, sex, swearing, porn starts and crude jokes, however don't be surprised if by March, most of that stuff has gone out of the window. Opie and Anthony had more sex stuff on their FM radio show in a week then they have had on their uncensored show in a year, only when they do have it, there are no bleeps!
Finally, one thing I will say to you conservatives , Howard is more like you than you think. He's in his middle 50's, should be getting is AARP card, loves his daughter and his wife (before his divorce) but his job is selling his act to the 18-35 male crowd, the age group that advertisers love. If he could get paid $500 million to host a politics talk show, that's what he would be doing. However, sex sells, so that's what he gives his listeners.
Anyway, they are Stern's biggest rivals, and when they first started on XM a year ago, the first few weeks were about swearing as much as they could on the radio and about getting the lesbians in, having people call in while having sex, etc. However, as they themselves admitted, you can only do that so many times before it's boring and the listeners are bored. Many of their shows have no sex involved and become more of a regular talk show, but a regular guys shooting the s**t style show. Lots of joking around, ragging on each other,etc.
For example, today's show spent over an hour playing clips of tv and radio people screwing up, such as the weatherman who said "Martin Luther ****...KING JR!" etc. They played a dirty Christmas song, talked with a rock band singer for awhile, and so on. 4 hours, no sex.
My point to this, is right now Howard Stern thinks his new show is going to be all about lesbians, sex, swearing, porn starts and crude jokes, however don't be surprised if by March, most of that stuff has gone out of the window. Opie and Anthony had more sex stuff on their FM radio show in a week then they have had on their uncensored show in a year, only when they do have it, there are no bleeps!
Finally, one thing I will say to you conservatives , Howard is more like you than you think. He's in his middle 50's, should be getting is AARP card, loves his daughter and his wife (before his divorce) but his job is selling his act to the 18-35 male crowd, the age group that advertisers love. If he could get paid $500 million to host a politics talk show, that's what he would be doing. However, sex sells, so that's what he gives his listeners.
Do you know why baseball players still make so much money? Because others will pay the asking price.
Whether or not you and I think Howard Stern is worth a plugged nickel, is not the issue.
As long as he produces a product for which enough people will pay, he will keep producing that product. Moreover, if enough people want to pay for it, those people and all that money have a good chance of shielding him from any FCC regulations that might be proposed to "protect the public interests."
http://londonink.blogspot.com/2005/11/will-ads-on-satellite-radio-be-profane.html
John O'Rourke
mark d.
I recently purchased a Sirius radio just so that I could listen to his new show. And several other people I know are doing the same.
Regardless of your personal take on Stern (I'm honestly surprised at all of the holier-than-thou comments so far), he will help Sirius overtake XM in 2006.
If large numbers of people want to hear Howard Stern and pay the subscription rates for a satellite radio service that provides him, then he will likely earn large sums of money. That's a far cry from having money taken/stolen via taxes from one's paycheck, property assessments and transactions which are then spent on all sorts of government projects that politicians and bureaucrats have decided is "in the public interest". Try not paying those taxes and you'll come face to face with the force/gun of government. Scirus is a business and either gets voluntary customers sufficient to make a desired profit or it folds up. With government, only a lack of enforcers will cause it to wither and die - but that's not an impossible dream.
In addition those who do not like Howard Stern can socially preference against those who do - just not associate with them voluntarily. Of course having good defensible reasons for this dislike would be more likely to influence those "fans" of Stern rather than just make them laugh at apparent timidity. The same type of social preferencing against enforcers of government - the real power base - could reduce their numbers significantly leaving the politicians and bureaucrats to enforce their own mounds of paper regulations/laws/edicts or see governments wither and die.
**Kitty Antonik Wakfer
MoreLife for the rational - http://morelife.org
Reality based tools for more life in quantity and quality
Self-Sovereign Individual Project - http://selfsip.org
Nice rant though, did you mention the war??
Since Stern followers robustly defend his "program content", I propose Stern take put his show onto his website via audio/video stream. Stern will have his little open medium that he's always wanted. It will also be impossible to accidently be forced to listen/watch any of his smut, since his site could be password protected. Stern followers can then listen/view all the things Stern stands for, smut and porn...even kiddie porn if that's what their into.
Street
Bridge.
I'll tell you what - a lot of this is the far right's thinking that American is going to hell because of him. That's right - a whole country going to hell.
Also, can someone clarify if Stern is receiving $500 mil or the show is receiving that much?
- Our 1st Guarented Right As Americans
- by luckey68 December 15, 2005 7:58 AM PST
- What was it called?? Freedom Of Speech Mabey?
- Like this Reply to this comment
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