Back in late September, whispers started whirling that Liberty Media was planning on taking its satellite radio game worldwide. And today at the Reuters Global Media Summit in New York, Sirius XM Radio Inc. CEO Mel Karmazin didn't necessarily squash such speculation.
"We understand that Liberty has expressed an interest in WorldSpace," said Karmazin.
But don't think that Sirius XM would contribute money to the partnership, Karmazin is obviously focused on profitability (and rightly so). Instead, it's Sirius' know-how in the marketplace that is the true added value.
"We would put our expertise and experience in the pot and Liberty would put their money in the pot," Karmazin said.
And what expertise could Sirius XM offer? In particular, partnerships with automakers. Afterall, WorldSpace has only managed to strike a deal with Fiat thus far, while Sirius XM have relationships with countless automakers - many of which are international.
"So one would think that if Liberty were to do something there that they would want as strategic partner somebody who has successfully done satellite radio in 5 percent of the world," Karmazin said.
In addition to relationships with auto manufacturers, Sirius XM could also offer expertise in building satellite radio equipment, Karmazin added.
Sounds interesting, but not without its challenges. What do you think? Would a global satellite radio operation be a success? Or be setup for failure?
[via Reuters]
Thanks Bob!
"We would put our expertise and experience in the pot and Liberty would put their money in the pot," Karmazin said.
And what expertise could Sirius XM offer? In particular, partnerships with automakers. Afterall, WorldSpace has only managed to strike a deal with Fiat thus far, while Sirius XM have relationships with countless automakers - many of which are international.
"So one would think that if Liberty were to do something there that they would want as strategic partner somebody who has successfully done satellite radio in 5 percent of the world," Karmazin said.
In addition to relationships with auto manufacturers, Sirius XM could also offer expertise in building satellite radio equipment, Karmazin added.
Sounds interesting, but not without its challenges. What do you think? Would a global satellite radio operation be a success? Or be setup for failure?
[via Reuters]
Thanks Bob!
Liberty is more interested in WorldSpace than Mel admits on. It appears to be on track to acquire the company, holding all of WorldSpace's debt obligations after Noah Samara, the founder of WorldSpace, defaulted on his winning bid for the company in a bankruptcy auction earlier this year. And this isn't terribly fresh news. You reference September above, and the article below appeared almost two weeks ago.
http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/200911185253/sirius-radio-planning-acquisitions.html
The only thing that comes to my mind is that SatRad in not going to change, SiriusXm think that they have the perfect programming, they don't listen to us or at least to me, I send emails and they completetly ingore them. Before the merger I was more then happy with the programming, XM had music for everybody, now they have music for some, before I used to recomend everybody XM, after the merger I do the contrary.
Once in a while a read Orbicast and the coments of others and I see that most of them have negative coments of SiriusXM, but I see that Orbicast the only thing they do is give good publicity, sometimes I think they are getting pay by SiriusXM and I would like to be wrong.
I think that our comments can make SatRad better because we are the ones that listen to it, we are the ones that can make good publicity.
The day that Orbitcast stay on our side or at least be neutral than I'm going to consider to donate.
www.real66raw.com
Give me a break Jorgev. I'm sorry, but when I hear people like you complaining about programming post merger, I smell BULLSHIT. You can't be serious. You people act as if EVERY station was cancelled when in reality only REDUNDANCY was cancelled. Sat radio has changed for the better, and you are either bitter or a short. People like u have such a biased agenda against the company that your argument just rings false. The choices on SiriusXM are overwhelming,diverse and vast. For u to complain otherwise is absolutely ridiculous and I smell a rat.
I thought, pre-merger, that XM already had a relationship with WorldSpace. In fact wasn't at least one of the pop channels programmed by them? I'm not sure if the relationship extended to ownership or not, and if that continues today, but I'm surprised that the companies aren't more integrated already.
Wuwei, I'll give you some points there in that the programming hasn't completely changed in certain categories. Aside from O&A, I listen to a number of the rock stations, and actually gained a few stations (Bruce, Little Steven's Underground Garage, Jam_On) that I like. I also like the changes to Liquid Metal, but can sympathize with more extreme/death metal fans being less pleased with the changes in programming there. I'm happy to see more Sabbath, Maiden, and thrash showing up there.
On the flip side, the playlists do seem a bit smaller to me. I see the BoneYard playing a smaller mix than they used to (for example, the Scorpions and Ted Nugent are great but are getting played to death), with a little more "FM DJ" type chatter. I don't mind a little talk if it adds to the experience (Deep Tracks is a great example), but the chatter on many of these stations really hurts the experience.
Genre-wise, though, certain groups got hit, and I can certainly understand being displeased if it was something I was a fan of. I was really disappointed to lose Beyond Jazz.
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Back on-topic, I would have been skeptical of taking satellite worldwide given that Americans spend a disproportionate amount of time driving compared to the rest of the world, but I was surprised to see in another recent post how much satellite is listened to outside of cars.
Wuwei: I have to say that I am pretty much in agreement with Jorgev regarding the programming. I rarely listen anymore. I maintain radios mainly for the rest of the family.
However, I am not in agreement with Jorgev about his criticism of Orbitcast.
Andy: Yes. There I beleive ther was a financial stake but XM pulled out long before the merger.
Count me in as also being in agreement with Jorgev.
SiriusFM is playing less music than ever before. The playlists continue to shrink. The decades channelsplay the same tired stuff day in and day out.
That is why I split my listening between Sirius and Internet radio. At least on Internet radio you hear more variety of songs on their decades channels.
Already bought a whole bunch of songs for my iPod that I had not heard in years -- and only through FREE Internet Radio.
Ever since Mel became involved with SiriusFM the company has taken a nosedive. They completely ignore subscriber complaints. They don't care what their subscribers think.
The list of the "ignored and exasperated" gets longer every day, yet Mel & Co. refuse to acknowledge the situation. The greatest advertising in the world is postitive word of mouth; nobody, including myself, is talking up satellite radio anymore. I used to hype this thing so much it wasn't funny. It's been many months since I recommended Sirius/XM. I sometimes hear the same song 3 or 4 times a day on some channels. With all due respect, Mr. Karmazin, this is absolute BULLSHIT. You promised us the" best radio on radio"; you're not even as good as some of the radio stations on that God awful, mind numbing, piece of shit terrestrial version that we abandoned - only to have you offer us the same crap. Adding insult to injury... we are PAYING YOU FOR IT !!! Do you and your souless cronies have a conscience? A sense of right and wrong? Any empathy for millions of pissed off subscribers? If you do, you sure know how to hide it.
The single most cost effective and long term game changing thing these pompous asses could do is to give this crappy programming a desperately needed makeover. If not a complete overhaul, then at least some meticulous tweaking by somebody who gives a shit about music, and the proper way to program it.
When it gets to the point where you are essentially paying for AM/FM radio, all of a sudden that free version of the SAME EXACT THING... doesn't look so bad after-all! Bottom line: if you want more subs - improve the programming and listen to the subscribers. You just might learn something.
Another reader in agreement with Jorgev. XM is a shell of what it used to be thanks to the idiot programmers at Sirius shits.
And Wuwei must certainly have been a Sirius listener before the merger.
First, Worldspace needs to finish their transition to the new ETSI technology. Their ETSI transition is only half-done and half-assed. Receivers in Europe do not work anymore and they had to be replaced with ETSI receivers. The other beams had yet to be converted when the company virtually shut itself off.
Yep... Wuwei is a tool. Obviously he never knew how good XM was before the "revolution" oops I mean "assimilation". Siri programming is just an overpriced version of the FM jock shit I went to satrad to escape.
I think back to the days when people actually debated which music programming was better, XM or Sirius.
Now there can be no argument at all. XM music has become totally intolerable. The great channels we had before, like X-Country TopTracks Bluesville and even 60s on 6; are all gone now replaced with pure crap.
A lot of people knew the merger would destroy the medium and that is what has happened. When I first got a taste of XM in Jan 2002 I thought man this is it. I dont need anything else.
It is really too too bad.
The irony of supplying this shit to Europe is that Euros will think even more negatively about Americans. Same for Asians. However maybe enough feedback from those voices could make a difference in the content. Just dreaming.