XM Satellite loss widens, director quits. Things look very bad indeed for XM. They are losing marketshare to Sirius by leaps and bounds. I have Sirius and absolutely love it. I don't think there's much difference between XM and Sirius in terms of music. I have XM as part of the DirecTv package and Sirius in my car so I actually know what I'm talking about for once. The programming differences emerge more with the talk and sports.
Howard Stern is the elephant in the room. He signed on with Sirius and brought in something on the order of 3 million subscribers. By some accounts, that put another 200 million in his pockets. Not bad for dick and fart jokes.
He really is the only major personality that can draw that kind of listener base to a subscriber service. Rush, Hannity and Imus have large audiences but derive no benefit from moving to satellite. They are not pushing the envelope of censorship and are not constrained by FCC rules. Their only constraint is the amount of advertising they sell on each show which eats into their airtime. In fact, one reason I find Rush unlistenable is his advertising. He spends most of the show telling you how much he has to cover and then goes to commerical. When he comes back, his long, drawn out droning and pontificating preclude him from every making a point. Hannity is a bit better but if I had a dollar for every time he said "I gotta take a break" or "I'm up against a hard break", I'd be a rich man.
XM, according to the article, is in trouble. What other draw can they offer that Sirius does not have? They have Oprah but she's only doing 30 minutes a week of new content and the rest is fobbed off onto supporing players. Not even her tv show will be broadcast on XM. Sounds like they paid a lot of money for her name and probably won't have much to show for it. Satellite radio is the domain of young guys who like gadgets. I'd wager the male/female ratio of subscribers is very very high.
Is there room for both? I don't know, but I don't think so. DishNetwork and DirecTv found that out the hard way and ended up merging b/c they were getting beaten by cable. Satellite radio will probably end up the same way. They'll be niche markets within the same company.
Howard Stern is the elephant in the room. He signed on with Sirius and brought in something on the order of 3 million subscribers. By some accounts, that put another 200 million in his pockets. Not bad for dick and fart jokes.
He really is the only major personality that can draw that kind of listener base to a subscriber service. Rush, Hannity and Imus have large audiences but derive no benefit from moving to satellite. They are not pushing the envelope of censorship and are not constrained by FCC rules. Their only constraint is the amount of advertising they sell on each show which eats into their airtime. In fact, one reason I find Rush unlistenable is his advertising. He spends most of the show telling you how much he has to cover and then goes to commerical. When he comes back, his long, drawn out droning and pontificating preclude him from every making a point. Hannity is a bit better but if I had a dollar for every time he said "I gotta take a break" or "I'm up against a hard break", I'd be a rich man.
XM, according to the article, is in trouble. What other draw can they offer that Sirius does not have? They have Oprah but she's only doing 30 minutes a week of new content and the rest is fobbed off onto supporing players. Not even her tv show will be broadcast on XM. Sounds like they paid a lot of money for her name and probably won't have much to show for it. Satellite radio is the domain of young guys who like gadgets. I'd wager the male/female ratio of subscribers is very very high.
Is there room for both? I don't know, but I don't think so. DishNetwork and DirecTv found that out the hard way and ended up merging b/c they were getting beaten by cable. Satellite radio will probably end up the same way. They'll be niche markets within the same company.
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