Originally Posted by
john
First to you julie, I have always believed Stern will not retire any time to soon, his ego is way to big for that. If that is the case then he really has nowhere else to go and get what SIRIXM gave him or even anything close to it. Lets face facts here, Stern took advandge of a position SIRI was in at the time, that time has now changed and Stern and Mel know this. I also think he will get much less then before. For those that want to run a comparison then just go back to what Stern was getting before SIRI hired Stern. Of course then you have to also add in the cost of his channels lets remember much of that 500 million (100 million per year plus 234 million in stock) went to building and producing the 2 channels with his name on them. Fact is I think Stern will not only stay for less but will get some kind of face saving option like less total hours or moving the time forward or doing the show from his home. Stern also is no dummy he knows that he could retire but still keep the channels with his name going and reap major money for basically doing nothing (when compared to before) plus he will get the added bonus of not burning a bridge so if he likes he could return very easy without looking like he made a mistake.
Havakasha, I have made a projection long ago of the number of subscribers stern was responsible for bring to SIRI, it was 2.2 million. The facts were there to back that number up. The first one is the jump in the number of subscribers that SIRI had after the news came out about Stern going to SIRI. There is no other way to show any other reason for the jump in subscribers, after taking out any increase of OEM penitration, it still falls way short of SIRI jumping up to 1 million subs in a quarter compared to what they got in quarters before biggest increase was 300,000 until Stern came in. Also there was a clear fan base talked about if you were reading much of SIRI news back then. Many including Mel talked about at least 2.6 of the 11 million listeners being very big vans, to the fact that they have spent more on Stern products in a year then the cost of a subcribtion. Taking those numbers all together and there in no way that stern got less then 2.2 million people to come to SIRI and may be as many as 3.2.
doclogic, now after saying what I have said above I will also agree with you on that, just because Stern was responsible for getting at least 2.2 million subscribers, it does not mean more then 500,000 will be lost if he leaves. I would also like to say that if Stern continues his other channels without him on them then that loss would most likely be alot less.
The basic fact is Stern will get less because the same situation in which contracts are being talked about are no where the same, the ball is now not in Sterns court it is in SIRIXM's court. Stern options have been basically reduced to retiring or working for SIRIXM that was not the case before.
toxdoc, I know you would like to say he has plenty of other options but really his own pod cased for what was discussed before for a dollar a month. First the problems are really to many to go into but here are a few. Stern will then have to gamble that he still has the popularity to get to a point that it is going to be profitable that could be more of a gamble then his ego will allow. Considering if he just stays put then he could most likely earn more then going out on his own. As for terrestrial stations how can Stern explain, first why he said he would never go back to terrestrial he is now back to them, Then he has to explain why he was willing to go back and get less then what SIRIXM was willing to give him (even though it was less then before). Because yes thats right there is no way terrestrial will be able to come even close to what SIRIXM will still be offering. There is noway Stern ego will allow anything that makes him look like he was wrong.