Quote:
Originally Posted by TomCat 
Actually, even if that were the only revenue Howard's channels generate, it would still be a sound business decision, because that is still nowhere near what the subscription costs are for the length of time folks typically subscribe.
But the benefits of signing HS are much greater than his cost divided by the number of listeners to his show. There are a great deal of highly-paid advertisements on those two channels, for one thing. The other thing is that noboby even knew what Sirius was in 2004, and now their brand recognition is exceptionally high, specifically because of signing HS. You can't buy that kind of promotion any other way.
Sirius would probably be out of business by now without signing him, and not only has it made Sirius competitive with XM, Sirius became the dominant (aquiring) party as regards the merger. Sirius subscriptions gained at a rate roughly 7 times that of XM from the time HS announced in 2004 to the time he finally went on the air in 2005, which carried over until, well, right now. Sirius figured 1 million subs in the first year of Howard would make it a good business decision, but they got that first million before he ever uttered a word on satellite. He basically saved the company, and possibly the industry. CBS radio has had revenues decline 12% since Howard left, and the entire company of CBS is down 2.9%, specifically due to losses in the radio division. CBS losing 2.9% of its business is a lot less than it would have cost them to match Howard's deal at Sirius.
Signing Howard was just one more notch on Mel Karmazin's belt, and torpedoed Hugh Panero's career. Love him or hate him, Howard is a phenomenon without peer. No one else ever came close to having 82 #1 ratings books in a row, or ever will, which is equivalent to DiMaggio hitting safely in 56 games straight. Signing Howard may have been one of the smartest business decisions ever made by a struggling corporation.
Actually, even if that were the only revenue Howard's channels generate, it would still be a sound business decision, because that is still nowhere near what the subscription costs are for the length of time folks typically subscribe.
But the benefits of signing HS are much greater than his cost divided by the number of listeners to his show. There are a great deal of highly-paid advertisements on those two channels, for one thing. The other thing is that noboby even knew what Sirius was in 2004, and now their brand recognition is exceptionally high, specifically because of signing HS. You can't buy that kind of promotion any other way.
Sirius would probably be out of business by now without signing him, and not only has it made Sirius competitive with XM, Sirius became the dominant (aquiring) party as regards the merger. Sirius subscriptions gained at a rate roughly 7 times that of XM from the time HS announced in 2004 to the time he finally went on the air in 2005, which carried over until, well, right now. Sirius figured 1 million subs in the first year of Howard would make it a good business decision, but they got that first million before he ever uttered a word on satellite. He basically saved the company, and possibly the industry. CBS radio has had revenues decline 12% since Howard left, and the entire company of CBS is down 2.9%, specifically due to losses in the radio division. CBS losing 2.9% of its business is a lot less than it would have cost them to match Howard's deal at Sirius.
Signing Howard was just one more notch on Mel Karmazin's belt, and torpedoed Hugh Panero's career. Love him or hate him, Howard is a phenomenon without peer. No one else ever came close to having 82 #1 ratings books in a row, or ever will, which is equivalent to DiMaggio hitting safely in 56 games straight. Signing Howard may have been one of the smartest business decisions ever made by a struggling corporation.
Stern signed before Mel came aboard....
one could also argue, signing stern to SatRadio was one of the main factors that destroying FM radio!
