octubre 06, 2004

Howard Stern won't be dealing with the FCC soon

Howard Stern and Sirius radio today announced an $100 million a year deal where Stern will leave the public airwaves. The $100m a year covers Stern's base competition, studio costs, staff, etc.

I saw a Sirius representative discuss this with Neil Cavuto today. Sirius believes that they will only need about 1 million new subscribers to break even. They estimate that there are about 11 million Stern fans right now. Sirius believes these fans are very loyal to Stern, as evidenced by his movie, two bestselling books, etc.

Stern's base compensation will be in the tens of millions, but he'll also have incentives and bonus compensation.

An interesting deal. Sirius charges each subscriber $12.95 per month. Stern won't have to worry about the FCC anymore; he can be as lascivious, crude, and tawdry as he wishes.

Satellite radio has had displays and PR booths at every festival/event I've been to recently. But until now I'd always considered it to be today's equivalent of the .com boom. That is, an idea unlikely to ever make money.

Now I'm not so sure. I have some friends who have gotten satellite radio and love it. They say they would never go back to regular radio. Stern may be on to something big.