Sirius to Hike Subscription Rates?
When you shell out crazy big bucks for 'talent' such as shock jock Howard Stern, it's gonna cost you...and your customers. Sirius may raise rates to $14, which will help iRadio undercut the service with its $5-7 monthly price tag. XM and Sirius continue to fight the name game war...
Comments
um, i think thats a punch to the subscribers.... in a way, this was to be expected. My personal reaction about the Howard Stern trade is that its sad, sad that a company would pay a huge amount for "talent" like that. For right now, I think the new sign on for XM with Oprah ($55 Million for a 30min show) will appeal to women and gain subscribers. Sirus, well... who knows. Quality vs. Content, Content vs. Cost. iRadio, where the hell are you?
Posted by: Julio | February 10, 2006 08:55 PM
Yeah, somewhat. It's only a $1 increase, so perhaps customers won't mind much..? Still I do wonder whether XM and Sirius will ever be able to make up for the enormous salaries they're paying out. That said, Oprah was a smart move on XM's part -- her image is almost exactly the opposite of Stern...an interesting counter-maneuver.
I'm interested to see whether/how Motorola will pursue a strategy of signing on famous personalities...they've already started with a few.
-M
Posted by: MikeB | February 12, 2006 08:26 PM