Word: sirius
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...wonder that in the past year satellite radio, which like cable TV was once laughed at--pay radio? C'mon--reached critical mass. Sirius' audience surged from 351,600 listeners to more than 1.4 million; XM added 540,000 subscribers in the first quarter of this year to reach an audience of 3.8 million. Reasons: better programming choices; lots of programming choices. In other words: game on. Advances in technology mean that every listener is up for grabs. Broadcasters have to contend not only with satellite operators like Sirius but also with cell-phone makers and service providers, iPods...
...Arbitron. Viacom recently wrote down the value of its Infinity radio business by $10.9 billion, but terrestrial radio still hauls in around $20 billion a year in revenues, mainly from local advertisers like car dealers and banks, rendering it an important marketing tool and generator of free cash flow. Sirius, in contrast, forecasts revenues of just $210 million this year and an operating loss of $480 million. Moreover, the company is continually playing catch-up to XM, which has leapfrogged Sirius with its technology and consumer electronics and boasts its own compelling programming, including dozens of ad-free music channels...
What XM lacksand what Sirius is gambling onare marquee names like Howard Stern and Martha Stewart, stars who CEO Karmazin is convinced will differentiate his brand and lure subscribers and, eventually, big ad dollars. Stern, whose history with Karmazin dates to the mid-'80s, fits in naturally with Sirius' bad-boy image. Frustrated by the feds' indecency crackdown, Stern is literally counting down the minutes (on his website) left on his contract with Infinity, his current home. He has been a relentless promoter for Sirius, trying to coax his 12 million listeners over to pay radio. He is also charging...
...Stern brings in the young dudes, it will be up to Stewart to even the scales with women. Sirius appeals to guys because men tend to be early technology adopters and because Sirius has bulked up on pro sports, offering channels for NBA, NFL and NHL games (assuming that hockey returns), and starting in 2007, stock-car racing via NASCAR, which Karmazin lured from XM. Sirius signed Stewart for a bargain $30 million over four years, plus a share of ad sales. It's paid to her company, Martha Stewart Living OmniMedia, in return for a 24-hour women...
...rationale for signing such big names is to drive ad sales, creating a revenue stream in addition to subscriber fees. But Sirius doesn't pay for any of the traditional audience-tracking services like Arbitron, instead surveying listeners by e-mail and phone, so Sirius can't tell advertisers how many folks are listening in a given quarter-hour, a key metric advertisers use to negotiate rates. "Our clients aren't falling over themselves to advertise on satellite radio," says Jon Mandel, chairman of the ad-buying firm MediaCom US. Karmazin says he is confident that his stars will earn...