Why Howard Stern Will Remain With Sirius XM
Whether or not Stern renews his contract is the topic du jour these days. Each day we are subjected to Sterns own opinion, the opinion of the media, and the opinion of all of Stern’s fans. Opinions are a great thing, and contrasting opinions makes for good debate and perhaps some good radio as well.
The reason Howard Stern will remain at Sirius XM is actually quite simple. HIS EGO. After decades on the airwaves, his methods and personality are well known. Stern is an exacting person who revels in the subject of Howard Stern. When on terrestrial radio, his moves did not tale him off of the FM dial. It simply transitioned him to another channel already available in the same market. Each successive change brought him a better contract, and all he had to do was shift to a new work address. The shift to satellite was a big step. It meant losing listeners who did not want to pay to hear Stern. It also meant more freedom than he had ever had before.
If Stern were to shift to a platform such as Internet Radio he would not have the ability to say that the “new show will be better because it is uncensored”. It would simply be another shift that would make people pay to gain access. It would mean fans would have to upgrade their cell phones to a smart phone. It would mean that people would need to pay more each month to get data. It would mean that he will in effect need to start over.
When Stern left terrestrial radio he predicted they would suffer. Terrestrial radio has suffered. They did suffer from his departure, but the bulk of that suffering was the condition of the economy and not the absence of Howard Stern. People who did not move to satellite simply found something else to listen to.
Stern also likes to credit himself with the merger being a direct result of his arrival at Sirius. Stern was probably a part of that, but believe me when I say this, Mel had the merger planned even before his own deal was publicized. Mel was working the merger when Stern was still broadcasting on terrestrial radio! Stern loves to be an integral part of something. It is in his ego. It is who he is. I am not being critical here, I am simply stating the obvious.
In Howard Sterns mind he is the reason for the success of Sirius XM and the reason that the two satellite radio companies merged. What would happen if Stern left and satellite radio survived without him? Whether Stern stays or leaves, satellite radio will succeed. Stern knows this. Can his ego handle a thriving satellite radio platform while he does podcasts? If Stern is as powerful as he imagines himself to be, it would mean that satellite radio would suffer terribly in his absence. That simply is not going to happen. Even if the hard core fans cancel in protest of Sirius XM not resigning Stern, the numbers will be quickly absorbed by a massive influx of subscribers delivered via the OEM channel. Stern is at a point in his life when he should be winding down, not starting over.
Would a Howard Stern app get a ton of initial downloads? Sure it would, but how long will it last. The number of people that are “Howard only” is finite. Most listeners like the show, but also listen to many other things. Sterns initial success away from satellite would bring about confidence that the move was smart, but the numbers over the first year would demonstrate less and less of an audience, and the ad dollars would dry up.
Sterns best solution is to remain with Sirius XM. It is simply a matter of dollars. Can anyone else pay him what he makes now? Can anyone else deliver the potential audience he has now? Satellite radio has 30 million active listeners that all have the ability and potential to tune in. That number grows daily. A Howard Stern app would have to start at 0 listeners, with the potential of the audience being diminished by whether or not people have a smart phone, whether or not they want to upgrade, whether or not they know how to use it, and whether or not they find a pre-recorded show appealing.
Howard Stern is in a tighter box than he will admit. Yes, he can go anywhere, but the expense of doing so may not be something his ego can handle. Sirius XM will need to pony up big bucks to keep him, and the debate on whether he is worth it is a subject for another article. Stern will stay with Sirius XM because his options away from the satellite radio provider require a lot of work, marketing, and most of all a lot of risk to his ego.
Position – Long Sirius XM
Sorry Spencer, you’re opinion here is ludicrous! While SiriusXM may survive the future, neither Sirius nor XM were going to survive the last 3 years without the millions of listeners Howard brought over. XM made terrible decisions that was taking it down, not to mention Dirius had no listeners and their radios and hardware are extremely bad. I constantly see the complaints. Without Howard, most of those people would have left as well. Like I said, SiriusXM may survive without him, but it also MAY NOT. They need him and until more tech comes out over the next 3 to 5, he needs them as well (although if he goes back to FM, he will be everywhere)!
It takes the gross $10.50 per month income from 793,650 subscribers alone to pay Howard’s $100 million per year. This does not include extras that her gets and I did say that it was the gross amount from each sub, not the net. Once you factor in these two other conditions it can be assumed that WELL OVER the net amount of 1.5 millions subs or more are required to cover Howard’s tab. If Howard doesn’t want to renew for a fair amont then let him go. He’ll then fade into obsurity in no time. Sirius will lose some subs for sure, but where are those people going to go? You can bet that it won’t be terrestrial radio with all of its commercials or even Internet radio with its present limitations. Sirius will also be $100 million ahead of the game. No complaints from me as I don’t like my investment being held hostage by unreasonable demands.
Howard reminds me of a little kid who says that if he doesn’t get what he wants then he’s not going to eat his dinner or isn’t going to breathe. For those parents who give in to type of behavior you have all sorts of mayhem waiting for you in the later years. Howard is all about business. Make him a good offer, but let’s not have Sirius shoot itself in the foot all over again with outlandish contracts as it did in the past when competing with XM. Those days are over.
Count on it, Howard is going to breathe and/or eat his dinner, I mean renew. He does crazy things at time, but he’s not stupid.
At this particular moment with consistent siri share onslaught and manipulation and the general market hysteria Stern may be somewhat relevant for siri’s momentum but not survival. However, in a bigger picture projecting two or three years from now Stern is irrelevant. Satellite radio is turning into a standard feature in a car similar to an “air conditioner”, as one car dealer said in an interview with your site. I would be shocked if Karmazin agrees to pay HS anything close to what sirius had to pay him more than five years ago in order to lure him away from xm. Someone, hopefully Howard’s agent, should remind him that there is only ONE satellite company left nowadays and he will never make close to even substantially reduced new payment form siri, let alone the freedoms he enjoys at the company. These are different times and a different company with different type of competition than it used to be when sirius and xm were cutting each other’s throat for each and every new talent or deal. Incidentally, this will happen with any contract that will come up for renewal in the future. This is why I keep saying that all contracts coming up for renewal is a huge area for savings for siri that will contribute significantly to its EBIDTA growth. I completely agree that Howard’s big ego may be getting in the way of negotiations and may screw up not only the deal by also end his career as we know it now. With or without HS siri will still succeed and prosper for years to come.
Simple solution. hS resigns and launches an app through SIriusXM. Let Howard take 90% of the app fees
“Stern also likes to credit himself with the merger being a direct result of his arrival at Sirius. Stern was probably a part of that, but believe me when I say this, Mel had the merger planned even before his own deal was publicized. Mel was working the merger when Stern was still broadcasting on terrestrial radio!”
Amen Spencer! You are dead-on again . . . nice to see that top button loosened-up!
Mel may have been planning it, but Stern delivered it! There is no way in hell Siri takes over XM ( and let’s be honest this was no merger) without Stern. No chance!
This opinion is baseless – well, actually it is grounded in biased conjecture about Howard Stern’s motives and ‘ego’. I would give you my opinion about the quality of the writing and perhaps my take on Howard’s future plans, but the latter would be equally unwarranted and, as for the former, the author’s sloppy efforts speak for themselves.
Why Thank you….
By the way, please tell me where my opinion about Sterns motives and ego are biased? Stern is the first to admit that he has a huge ego.
Sterns motives can be traced to his historical moves with regard to contracts. Sterns motives can also be attributed to what he himself says on his show.
“In Howard Sterns mind he is the reason for the success of Sirius XM and the reason that the two satellite radio companies merged.”
Success? SIRI has a long way to go before anyone can deem it a “success”.
Do you know for a fact that Mel was working on the merger? That comment seems speculative to me.
Other than that, I agree that any move can be considered “starting over”, and in listening to Stern’s own words, it seems that would be something he wouldn’t want to do.
I read your article on mobile internet vs. internet. If Howard simply put up a web site, then all you would need to do open your browser and enter your username / Password. No need for apps??? Of course, he still needs a place to produce the show.
stern will resign–He will work less…but get paid less–So everyone can claim they got what they want–I still wish they would make him work the same hours but move him to afternoon slot
“Resign” means two opposite things. How about saying “re-sign” for signing again.
I don’t know about Stern, but as orlik and his aliases keep saying – SXM will have a world monopoly with their sekret settellites and will be $20 next month.
Malone is the shot caller at Sirius XM not Mel. Mel might be the front man but don’t be fooled – it is Malone’s final decision to re-sign Howard or not. Don’t know what his relationship with Howard is.
I can’t believe you.
Who cares what Stern,O&A and their ilk do? When I subscribed to XM in February 2002 none of these buttwipes were even on sat rad as I recall (seems like O&A came along as an additional subscription fee a little later but I digress…….)
My motivation to subscribe was for the SUPERIOR music & comedy programming that XM offered at the time.
Now we have this watered/dumbed down combination that is a shadow of what XM once was.
I don’t give a rats ass what Stern & buttwipes like him do. Mel and his minions have permanently hobbled XM so what’s the point???
SiriusFM = stuck in $1/share status till bankruptcy.
Thanks Mel for f**king up a great thing.
Stern is in a tighter position than he’d like to admit, agreed. Sirius did not pay $500 million cash for Stern — most of that was likely in Sirius stock/options (which, as we all know, are virtually worthless). He feels a little suckered I’m sure by that deal, and is anxious to go on and make more cash — in effect, become his own broadcaster. I can understand his desire to go down this road, because he’s a little tired seeing the majority of the money he brings in go to others. (Not that Stern is hurting for money, by any means — just that the rich always want to get richer.)
Sirius, on the other hand and despite its horrid stock price, is in a sweet position after 5 years of Stern. He’s brought in millions of subscribers. Even if 50% of those subscribers cancel after Stern leaves, the other 50% will stay on (including me, since I like commercial-free radio). Plus he brought about the momentum to ensure the Sirius/XM merger and ensuring that it’s an option for almost any car radio you buy today. This means that as long as Sirius is in cars, new subscribers will continue to come in. Sirius believes — rightly or wrongly — that they can replace the subscribers they lose if Stern leaves just through new subscribers that come in through car sales, etc. (especially when the economy picks back up).
The biggest problem Stern faces with moving to the Internet is how NOT mobile it is for most people still. Try connecting any smartphone today to a live streaming feed for 2 or 4 hours — the battery will never make it. This may change over the next 2 to 4 years, but it’s not something that is going to be solved in 4 months.
In other words, the technology isn’t there yet to meet Stern’s specific needs.
His best deal? Re-sign for the 2 or 3 years they want, and then hope the technology is further along at that point to be able to leave with a stronger future planned. I doubt they’ll give him the 1 year deal he wants, unless he wants to eat it in salary.
wow you are a moron stern did cuase the merger and the radio business will suffer without him you never heard the history of howard stern have you or watched private parts. you sir are an idiot and your opinion is stupid and doesnt matter, take you stupid conservitive ass else ware. the terestrial radio suffered becuase of the economy? LOL you are stupid they couldnt replace stern to save there lifes, everyone wants him, he gets offers everyday you are a stupid stupid feeble man. pls die in a car accident.
—you never heard the history of howard stern have you or watched private parts. —
Or better yet, read his books. They’re all about loyalty, staying with your wife no matter what…great works of fiction.
He ever apologize to Steve Dahl for stealing his act?
If Stern goes to the internet it will not necessarily be ‘Pay for Listen’. The content may be free to us listeners while he will sell advertising to make $$$.
How is this any different than what “Jackie the Jokeman” has done. Eventually, they will just tell him “No.” and it will be over. I love Howard, but honesty, I’ve been unemployed for some time, I’d be grateful for any job at his point, seeing Howard complain that he may not get 20 Million a year or more is disgusting.
You are so wrong about Stern and about Sirius. It is time people start giving stern the respect he deserves. Before he came to Sirius they had 600000 listeners. Almost all of these were on one and two year contracts that came with the purchase of their brand new cars. Howard made Sirius become a household name. Once stern leaves so will I. Along with probably 6 million faithful and it would be more but most are locked into prepaid accounts. So please stop the hating. The man is a genius and deserves to be treated as such.
Uh, HELLO! Content, Content. That’s what STERN has, SiriusXM just happens to have Stern for the moment. I was a XM subscriber mainly for NHL coverage, I got the best of Sirius for Stern, nothing else. If Sirius is not able to meet his demands, I will cancel my package.
I want Stern, when I want him and I will go get him anywhere he is. Personally, Stern should leave and then put Sirius on their knees.
Now that it’s official and Stern has resigned, which any longtime listener knew was coming, as Howard has always waited till the last minute to announce a new contract, and announced early and often when he was leaving for Sirius originally.
I am resigned to the fact that mainstream media will not ever give Howard his due. Everyone I know who has Sirius XM listens to Howard and most will cancel if Howard leaves. Mel knows that Martha Stewart, Oprah, Jamie Foxx, Chris Russo, and Rosie and not bringing in subcribers. Howard is. I expect Sirius to start selling a lot better for the holidays now and for people to go with longer term coverage.
I wish I could read an article on Howard that acknowledged how important he is to the entertainment industry now and historically, and how vital he is to Sirius’s existence. The guy is a visionary. And if Mel planned the merger while Howard was on terrestrial radio, I am sure he knew that he needed Stern to pull it off. Why else would he give him so much to get him there? Howard agreed, delivered, and it makes sense for him to stay with the company he helped establish and where he is free to do his thing.
I only wish HBO would simulcast him…