siriusbuzz post mention the carribean market and no one has written on that. limited terrestrial stations and no NAB to worry about. add in boaters and hotels and commercial establishments. this is an untapped market
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siriusbuzz post mention the carribean market and no one has written on that. limited terrestrial stations and no NAB to worry about. add in boaters and hotels and commercial establishments. this is an untapped market
The problem is most are poor and while there maybe 3 million in Puerto Rico, most of them are not going to pay 12 dollars a month for radio. The repeater towers are not cheap at 120,000 to 160,000+ a piece and they need what 20 of them. I figured they could get away with 5 or 6 towers that would be worth it but needing 20+ that makes it expensive to maybe get another 10,000 to 30,000 subs.
John, the cost of each repeater is approximately $60K -- based on what XM paid for theirs in Canada. The need for building towers may not be needed. There is undoubtedly cell towers and tall buildings for Sirius to rent tower space on. In fact, I do not think that Sirius or XM has ownership of any towers... they simple lease space on current towers for their repeaters.
20 repeaters at an approximate $60K each would be $1.2MM. Still a good chunk of CAPEX at a time they need to be minding expenses.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by homer985
That is without the land requirement, land in Canada is cheap compared to Puerto Rico. If they have the towers and can just lease them that is fine but if they have to build them then that is another story all together.
I don't see any expedience in building it if they won't come..... It took the FCC 6 months to approve the documents.... How long do you think before an operating plan is actually up an running? Wouldn't it make some sense to start where towers are already serving a lucrative market, such as resorts and business accounts catering to the more affluent tourist trade? How important is it to have service up in running where affordability is in question? I would thing that any phase in of services will take this approach into consideration..... The satellites are already up and the transponders / towers are about improving coverage... I would think that using the Sirius Sat system less towers are needed with their elliptical orbits... and maybe getting the Dominican and Jamaica into the mix would make it more lucrative.... I'm not talking about subs to the locals as much as making it available to the Tourist Trade and Boating etc.... the numbers are small but, the coverage to a woldwide touring population is huge.... If they took a broader approach to market and spread the word, even break even would be a cheap way to advertise the services.... Just a few thoughts regarding the market served.....Quote:
Originally Posted by john
John,Quote:
Originally Posted by john
Don't know what you base your comments on....but as a Puerto Rican, I can tell you you are wrong. Plenty of folks would sign up for the service.....plenty have cable and Satellite TV....even the so called "poor" manage to have cable and at least 2 vehicles per houehold....but of course there are a few pockets there that equate to backwoods Appalachia....but as a whole you are dead wrong and living in the past if you think that PR is a bunch of poor people with no electric or phone or cable who can't afford a SATRAD sub.
Listen guys, first of all Puerto Rico has been wanting access to satellite radio for a long time. I dont think it would have been to hard for SIRI/XMSR to have gotten approval from the FCC to put in repeater towers. There can only be one reason for them not wanting to go through with it. That is that it did not make that much sense to do it from a financial stand point. That said, I dont think that they wont make some money from it and that it wont help in getting more subscribers. The problem is that they see is that it would be alot cheaper and easyer to get subscribers here at home then to try and expand into an area that has a real poverty problem when compared to the USA. If you dont get it "asm610" here is an example for you, take an area in the USA comparible in population density and would need 20 towers to cover 3 million people. The fact is you wont find it. Take the total amount of towers SIRI have to cover the whole USA and compare that to the amount they will need to cover PR. You will find the ratio is out of wack.
I have said myself that I do believe this concession was no big deal because it will help in getting them subscribers in the end, "That in the end it helps SIRIXM". The problem I see is that they maybe doing it alot earler then they would like. That this question came up long before this and they went over the cost of it and said well that would be great latter but why dont we work on getting subs here first were it is alot cheaper to do so. Thats why I dont think you will see them going to much futher outside PR until they have gotten most of what they can out of the USA first.
John, the point I was trying to make before is that Sirius and XM don't own any repeater towers in the US or Canada -- they lease space on EXISTING towers, whether it be current radio/tv towers or current cell towers. There is no reason to think that they would abandon that pattern now and do something different by building there own towers in PR. In fact, from what I hear, PR is quite connected and likely has a large amount of towers for Sirius to lease tower space from for these new repeaters.Quote:
Originally Posted by john
As I noted before, the cost of a repeater is around $60K each... 20 at that rate is about $1.2MM plus installation costs -- call it $1.5MM at most (including the engineering inolved in researching the locations, assuming that that hasn't been completed yet).
Then you add in the leasing costs, which is a booming business now. There are a lot more towers out there than people realize. And there is no reason at all for Sirius to have to build their own.
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john,Quote:
Originally Posted by john
Not looking to argue....for a company trying to find its way...putting repeaters in PR is a win. They get a TON of Vacationers between Planes, Cruise ships, Military families visiting etc...plus they would add plenty of subs from the Island itself, and possibly several other adjacent Islands. PR is the starting point for the progression into the Carribean and beyond. GPS with XM nav and SIRI on boats..and don't forget alot of people get into SATRAD once they hear it...ie on their tropical vacations. Ratio may be out of whack...but seems worthwhile in the big picture. btw...did I mention CARS.....lots of them on that Island....probably more cars than people.
I guess that was my point.... no need to rush into P. R. and build infrastructure.... they are a very well served and already developed Island Nation with a good handle on their own needs and consumer wants.... I assume SXM is using local marketing talent and engineers to figure their network needs out and they know best where the best "bang for the buck" is... Its not going to make SXM turn a profit, but the Puerto Rican people are as passionate about their entertainment (or more so) as any group of people on the planet.... This IS as great opportunity to get the word out... In reality there are probably more Continental U.S., P. R. residents on the Mainland here than on the Island... I think their is an opportunity to expand and to do in a very willing resident consumer and tourist market.... AND the FCC says SXM has to..... now that's funny..