Howard Stern Free All Week on XM
It is a great idea, and one that promises to help XM’s subscriber base experience the content available on Sirius. Howard is typically available to XM subscribers through a “BEST OF SIRIUS” package that comes at a cost of about $4 per month.
The company recently announced that roughly 500,000 XM subscribers buy the “BEST OF SIRIUS” Package. This is in contrast to about 200,000 Sirius Subscribers who pay $4 extra to receive the “BEST OF XM” deal. It will be interesting to see how these numbers balance out in future quarters. In my opinion, the biggest differentiators between the tow “BEST OF” packages is Howard Stern, and it appears that the company will capitalize on that.
In all, the BEST OF packages represent about $2,800,000 in additional monthly revenue for Sirius XM radio. While some people have been critical of Sirius XM’s marketing, this promotion has true merit. The company is marketing to those that already subscribe and understand the value of the service. The likelihood in getting a few extra bucks out of an existing subscribers. With only about 5% of the subscriber base participating in the “BEST OF” programming, marketing dollars and promotions such as this represent a good growth target.
The next issue on the plate needs to be a similar promotion for Sirius subscriber to get exposure to XM. Perhaps this will happen with baseball, which has been rumored to be coming soon to the “BEST OF XM”. Kudos to Sirius XM for making what is a very sensible marketing decision on this one.
Position – Long Sirius XM Radio
As an XM subscriber since Feb 2002,this is a non-issue for me. My motivation to subscribe to SatRad was certainly NOT to listen to butt-wipes like Stern ,O&A, Bubba The Love Sponge,et. al. but for the QUALITY non-commercial music,information and yes UNCENSORED comedy from the likes of Kathleen Madigan,Lewis Black,etc who are less featured on that poor Sirius substitute “Rawdog”.
Stern’s pimping—-so what else is new?? Go right ahead but it’s not something I’d pay one red cent for or pay hard bucks for “Best Of”. I can hear the replys already,”Shut up—He’s the reason SatRad really took off”,blah,blah, ad infinitum.
XM was doing fine with out him and O&A was NEVER a draw for XM.
Give me a reason for me not to renew my multi-year sub when it expires next year.
A free week of Stern ain’t it I can tell you that.