The launch of the Oprah & Friends channel, accompanied by frenzied blogging by your's truly, was also billed as the most successful channel launch in XM's five-year history in terms of ad sales, according to a report by AdAge.
Normally fellow listeners are accustomed to hearing ad spots by the likes of StubHub and BoDog.net - all fine establishments mind you - but not necessarily "A-List" in the world of advertising. So when big names avertisers like Acuvue, Dove, GE, Iams, JC Penney, SlimFast, Splenda, Target, Warners TrueFit, AirTran, Honda and Rinnai all buy into Oprah's XM radio show, one has to be impressed.
While XM is mum over the terms and length of the advertisers' contracts, they have categorized many of the deals as investments worth millions of dollars. Harpo and XM split the ad revenue between each other.
[AdAge]
UPDATE: The photo is of Oprah and Friends all pressing the on-air light together at a breakfast at the Rainbow Room in NYC.
Mel has got to be jealous over this news. Congrats Harpo/XM.
Nobody watches her show, she's just in it for the publicity and the money. I'll give it a week to be "successful" on the air.
"Nobody watches her show"????
I hope you are kidding. Oprah is a money making machine because of her TV show. But wait! She is on TV for free and on XM; she must already be a failure. Don't tell those A-List advertisers!
"Nobody watches her show"??? Like her or not, MANY watch her show. You may be a Sirius supporter, which is fine, but you really can't be Sirius that you believe that nobody watches Oprah. Right?
As for that listing of advertisers on day 1 of a new show on a fledgling medium, that is quite impressive. If the publicity train keeps moving, expect many more high-profile (and dollar-spending) companies to jump aboard.
HARPO production = Great PR people, know how to create buzz, know how to sell a product
XM = "What's PR?"
I love XM (and in the spirit of full disclosure, own stock) but their marketing and PR efforts are crap.
Thank you, HARPO!
"I'll give it a week to be "successful" on the air."
a week ! i think we need to give it until the end of the holiday season to decide if it's successful or not .
"Nobody watches her show"????
"I hope you are kidding."
There is a sale at Target on Sarcasm. Go pick some up. Think he was joking. Duh
"Nobody watches her show" has to be the dumbest post i've read today.
"Nobody watches her show, she's just in it for the publicity and the money. I'll give it a week to be "successful" on the air."
You obviously have no clue what you're talking about. For a channel to JUST START AIRING and have this HIGH a calibur of advertisers speaks volumes of the quality of the production that goes on here.
By the way, television isn't "free". How many people don't have cable or satellite by now.
This is a win-win already.
Again they are missing the exclusive content.
wonder if this will have the staying power esp with her only being on what 30 minutes a week?
TV to Radio is a big medium difference.
>> Again they are missing the exclusive content. >>
Um, AFAIK the shows on Oprah's channel is only on XM? What exactly are you referring to?
'shows ARE only on XM', that is.
:Um, AFAIK the shows on Oprah's channel is only on XM? What exactly are you referring to?"
Oprah is on TV 10x as much and she is not exclusive to XM...her friends are.
Oprah friends = Not sure on home run
Oprah = prob home run if she was on more.
i do not belive her "friends" are the reason people would sign up and stay, oprah would be..and she is not exclusive
So you are saying that not only the advertisers are stupid putting a promo on XM, but her viewers and listeners don't like the people she has on her show on TV. Question.... Why would Oprah put her "friends" on her show if she knew that nobody likes them. As for Oprah not being on that much ( which seems to be an XM- hater's anti- Oprah battle cry) XM signed Oprah to do a show and create a channel with as many "friends as she wanted. XM did not sign Oprah to be a talk radio host like Howie, O+A, or any other jock. She is not a jock. Oprah is Oprah and if she wnats to do 1 min. a week, she probably will.
People sign-up for Oprah, and stay For Oprah and Freinds... Get a new battle cry....try to spin this in another bad direction.
i saw stern on tv several times last week, so he is not exclusive to sirius.
"Again they are missing the exclusive content."
What difference does it make? Oprah's friends' call-in show is exclusive, as well as nearly all the other over-the-air content.
Not only that but MANY housewives/moms are on the roads and will be drawn to such a show when they aren't near a television.
Why must everything be exclusive to be a draw anyway. Last time I checked the only true "exclusive" content on SDARS is Stern (well 80% exclusive anyway, minus the VOD), and he was a radio jock to begin with.
It makes a big difference. Most of Oprah's friends are no-names that people could care less about. They will be able to ride Oprah's coat tails to bring in a few listeners but not many.
Besides it is not necessarily exclusive content that counts, it is about making it easier for a subscriber to get it from you than from someone else. It is presently easier for most home makers to catch Oprah at home since she is rarely on XM.
Yes, while most home makers are in the car running errands, most of those trips are short (picking kids up, running to the store, etc). And when they are in the car they are probably more likely to be listening to the Wiggles, Veggie Tales, etc.
The company which can provide the most big names/events and get subscribers to turn to them rather than search elsewhere for the content (terrestrial, internet, tv, etc) will be the big winner. While this does help XM, XM is far behind Sirius in this respect. Sirius has much more sports programming and once Nascar joins Sirius in Jan, XM might be in trouble. Just look at the exclusive contents listed on the two websites. XM looks anemic.
http://www.xmradio.com/exclusivemusic/index.jsp
http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/Page&c=Page&cid=1107787275024
2 or 3 hours of Oprah a day = home run the size of Howard coming over. 30 mins a week, Gail King has failed in tv and radio, home decerating on RADIO, and more Drs yacking about more crap, I dont know. Will these subs stay around after Oprah stops talking about on each show
If she is so big, does that mean oprah takes over as king of xm, leaving O&A in her dust? When the holiday season is over and numbers are calculated, what percentage is for oprah(the new biggest thing ever to hit radio) and what percentage for old news O&A?
Yeah, FaFaFluFly is right. It is way more business savvy to put all of your eggs in one basket. That way that one show can mean profit or failure. That is what all the investors at Wallstreet say, "Consolidate all your resources into just one stock, screw this diverse portfolio fad! Sure you may be profitable but you will never be able to pin down what worked the BEST." In case you didn't know XM is a business and not just a vehicle for talk show hosts'egos. Moron.
>> If she is so big, does that mean oprah takes over as king of xm, leaving O&A in her dust?>>
And it only took 17 posts this time for a Stern fan to mention O&A. Good work!
Does it matter? A solid company doesn't profit or lose money on the activities of only one or two performers/employees.
>> Oprah friends = Not sure on home run >>
Two words: Dr. Phil. He started out as a "friend" of Oprah once upon a time.
its called sarcasm History Channel. i was pointing out that everyone screams O&A is the biggest and best and now all of a sudden oprah is. Pete, it took 14 posts to talk about howie, shove it up your ass
This is devustating news for tired old terrestial radio, and good news for XM and Sirius and Howard Stern.
Oprah going to satrad means that testicle radio is dead and buried.
Now everybody who staid away from Siruis and XM will finally see the light and choose satellite radio, thanks to Oprah.
While Oprah is a bona fide hit on TV, her "friends" are an unknown quantity to the audience.
While some women may be convinced to buy XM because of Oprah's name, I really do not think they will be entranced by one of her "friends" talking about interior decorating on RADIO.
If you think that Oprah's XM channel is a guaranteed hit, why isn't her Oxygen TV channel doing better than it is? Test patterns get better ratings than that dog.
" Two words: Dr. Phil. He started out as a "friend" of Oprah once upon a time. "
How many years has Oprah been in the media? (Give you a hint she started at 17). How many of her friends have made it big in that time. I would not say that she is particularily good at spotting tallent.
"While Oprah is a bona fide hit on TV, her "friends" are an unknown quantity to the audience."
I'll only speak for Dr. Oz :
From Wiki
Dr. Oz has appeared numerous times on the NBC Nightly News , ABC World News Tonight, and CBS Evening News, and on 48 Hours, Turning Point, Dateline, Good Morning America, the Today Show, CNN, McNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, Discovery, PBS documentaries, Oprah, and more than two dozen other shows.
Oh and he is the Director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Columbia University Medical Center
Oh he also has 2 best selling books. Unknown....
>> Pete, it took 14 posts to talk about howie, shove it up your ass >>
So like some Pavlovian mutt you see the name 'Howard' mentioned and you automatically have to throw O&A under the bus, no matter WHAT the context is?
Re-read the comment where Stern was mentioned, please Tom C. was simply likening Oprah's migration to satellite radio as having the same sort of impact that Howard made when he went- but only if she was on for more time during the day.
If you and a few others weren't such overreacting jackasses, maybe you wouldn't get into as many arguments around here.
My wife loves Oprah she watches her show every day. Has she mentioned getting XM for the Oprah channel even once? Nope. She could care less. If she did ask for it I would just laugh at her and tell her to leave the gadgets to the man of the house. She wouldn't even know how to hook up XM! Where does this wire go. LOL! Hasn't XM learned anything from the Oxygen channel? I hear it's called that because they knew that's what it would be gasping for eventually.
tussell your fawning over Oprah is hilarious. We all know you're bieng sarcastic.
>> My wife loves Oprah she watches her show every day. Has she mentioned getting XM for the Oprah channel even once? Nope. She could care less. If she did ask for it I would just laugh at her and tell her to leave the gadgets to the man of the house >>
I'm sure you two have a great relationship, what with you forcing Sirius down her throat and all. ;-)
"UPDATE: The photo is of Oprah and Friends all pressing the on-air light together at a breakfast at the Rainbow Room in NYC."
I thought they were rubbing Oprah's belly for good luck...
To Pete: My wife dosen't want XM. Sorry she just dosen't want it.
So you're saying she dosen't want it?