Never thought I’d pay for radio, but with Adam Carolla being taken off the air tomorrow, I don’t think I can listen to the morning zoos…
Anyone know what’s going to happen to satellite, and in particular Stern? I realize it’d be a guess, but not going to pay $ just to listen to the 1980s music channel
Sirius/XM was close to bankruptcy, but an infusion of $500 million from Liberty Media should keep them afloat at least into next year.
Maybe the best plan would be to avoid a service contract longer than a year.
They just got a reprieve from their debt from a friendly source. But even the hostile takeover attempts don’t worry me much, because Sirius is not going to be broken up. It’s value is in its 20mil or so suscribers, so it will continue. The losers may be the shareholders, and bond holders, and the banks if they go chapter 11. Along with some of the high paid talent like Ophra and Martha, and maybe even Stern, if the new owners have a hard on for him. But I think that they will see that he was responsible for a lot of the new suscribers, and continues to be theglue that holds them to that monthly payment… I have had it for 3 years now, and would’nt go back to terrestial radio for anything. It will be the last thing I cut, since I spend a fair amount of time in my car on trips, and also listen online here too…
I say go for it, just don’t buy any stock, unless you really feel like gambling…
You are fine with sat rad as a consumer, we will leave the investor thoughts to another thread! Satellite radio will be around for years to come as a service, but if it is Howard Stern you are buying it for, it is worth noting that his contract expires in 2010 and what he does with respect to that is all speculation. Great service though, I don’t own a car so don’t pay for it but rent a car 200+ days a year and always love it when it includes sat rad as it does make it hard to listen to anything else after you get used to satellite.
Hopefully you saw that Adam’s podcast started today. Not sure how often he will post it, but if you’re a fan you should check it out.
I officially pronounce satellite radio doomed.
The Sirius/XM merge was a complete disaster. At least as an XM subscriber. They will have to support the XM hardware in cars for decades which means they won’t be able to fully realize the cost savings of one technology and satellites.
Stern’s salary is a significant portion of subscriber revenue and he’s just not bringing in subscribers like they hoped. I don’t find his show to be that funny anymore, but yet I still pay his exhorbitant salary. I bet they will renew his contract when it expires because he does bring in several million listeners, but he won’t be making near the same money. Whether he will just quit because of that or not, I don’t know.
I was previously streaming XM to my iPhone… now they want to charge $3/mo for that benefit. And here I thought part of the conditions of approving the merger was no increase in fees. I primarily listed to Opie & Anthony, the comedy channels (since gone after the merge), the classic vinyl channel (since changed for the worse after the merge), and Flight 26 (popular stuff since renamed “The Pulse” and made much worse after the merge).
The iPhone is surprisingly good at streaming radio despite AT&Ts best efforts to be lousy. There are several applications available including last.fm and Pandora and AOL/CBS radio. I really think that’s the future (I actually think IP streaming built into your car stereo possibly getting bandwidth via bluetooth from your " " cellphone is, but that’s decades off).
Just my opinion…
I love my satellite radio. I had sirius long before Stern announced he was going. I have not listened to terrestrial radio in years. I hate it. I either listen to the music stations, Stern or my iPod. I will never go back.