Sirius and the NYU Medical Center are partnering up to create a medical and health information channel.
Ingeniusly entitled "Doctor Radio Powered by NYU Medical Center," the channel will be on Sirius channel 119. The 24/7 channel will air both live and taped programming, and will feature a listener call in format as well.
Earlier this year, XM launched ReachMD, a Clear Channel-produced channel dedicated to the medical community. While it seems that ReachMD is mainly targeting the medical professional, Sirius' Doctor Radio will instead bridge the gap between the medical professional and the everyday person.
Initially, Sirius' Doctor Radio will include over two dozen NYU doctors participating in shows on a weekly basis, Sirius spokesman Patrick Reilly told Business Week. The broadcast studio will be built in the NYU Medical Center's lobby, allowing for doctors to finish working with a patient and step behind the microphone without skipping a beat.
No channels will be dropped due to Doctor Radio, Reilly said, because it will run on a channel that's currently earmarked for occasional sports programming.
Doctor Radio will launch in early 2008.
It's all about content .
It is interesting that Sirius has found it necessary to do this what, 6 months after XM did?
While the "ping-pong" chart has been ridiculed time and again, this does clearly show how the head-to-head competition drives the two to compete, not against terrestrial, but against each other.
StackPointer, you are dead wrong.
This is because Content is King! Mel Karmazin is a radio veteran and is leading the merger of Sirius and XM because Content is King! You think you may have formulated an intelligent argument about why the combining of these two companies reduces competition, but you seem to forget that Content is King! No matter what you say, I have only one answer and that's Content is King! It's the answer that is correct and the louder I yell it, the more correct I think I become.
And before you forget, Content is King! This channel proves it.
I agree StackPointer.
This channel is less about content and more about
(a) Trying to attract customers from the medical field; and
(b) Trying to attract ad $ from the lucrative medical field.
The vast majority of listeners have no interest, whatsoever, in this stuff.
If anything, it absolutely shoots a hole in the "content is king" theory -- there is certainly far "better" content available for radio broadcast; the question is how much revenue can a particular niche market deliver.
Stack, I was kidding bro. :-)
LOL. I get it now.
People don't watch Fox, they watch American Idol. People don't listen to Sirius or XM they listen to Howard or O&A or music.
Honestly I don't believe most of you know what content means. Ryan understands it. I don't think you guys do. Its a matter of understanding the way media works. Understandably a lot of you guys are techies, probably Ryan included. But the difference is Ryan, since he is a highly intelligent guy, is willing to open his mind up to realize that what we are actually dealing with here is media.
All Content is not created equally. A lot of it is horrendous, much of it is targeted which is valuable in itself (ie. this type of health channel) but when you get that exclusive unique content with mass appeal you have struck media gold.
Incidently targeted content is what the Cable Network business was built on ( ie. ESPN, MTV Networks, Discovery Networks). A tremendously valuable alternative to network television, and ultimately a much better media business model.
>>> but when you get that exclusive unique content with mass appeal you have struck media gold.
Yeah, LOL.
Just like Sirius "struck media gold" by paying Stern 3/4 billion dollars, which has resulted in a net loss since they day he was hired of about a billion dollars, and which will never be recovered by Sirius before Stern walks at the end of his contract.
Absolute media gold.
Stack: "Yeah, LOL.
Just like Sirius "struck media gold" by paying Stern 3/4 billion dollars, which has resulted in a net loss since they day he was hired of about a billion dollars, and which will never be recovered by Sirius before Stern walks at the end of his contract.
Absolute media gold."
You forgot to include that the Stern move was the single biggest reason that Sirius was able to compete with XM and subsquently able to attempt to acquire XM.
>> You forgot to include that the Stern move was the single biggest reason that Sirius was able to compete with XM and subsquently able to attempt to acquire XM.
I didn't forget it, I just don't agree with it. Sirius merging with XM is a by-product of their having hired Mel, NOT Stern. The way Mel "grows" businesses is via mergers. He doesn't know HOW to compete, only how to merge. He has contributed hugely to the mess that terrestrial radio is today.
In addition, Stern is a terribly underperforming asset for Sirius, and the only way to use him effectively is to get him heard by more people. It is the only chance they have to make him pay his own way, let alone, to become profitable. As of the end of this year, Sirius will be a billion dollars in the hole on Stern. They'll be lucky to break even on him before he retires.
While Stern was a desperate measure undertaken at a time of sheer desperation on SIRI's part, I'm not sure what else they could have done. So, did Stern SAVE Sirius? Perhaps. Was there some other alternative? I think so -- I think they could have saved the company without destroying its financial future in the process.
There is this confusion amongst the self-acclaimed Summa Cum Laude accounting graduate crowd: Adding subscribers is not the same thing as making money. Not by a long shot. Sirius added lots of subscribers as a result of Stern, no doubt. But they also lost a billion dollars MORE than anyone projected in the two years since Stern was hired. That's reality.
Sirius wouldn't have been in existance today if they hadn't hired Howard because XM would have hired him. Also one of the biggest reasons Mel came to Sirius was because they made the content deals with Howard and the NFL. Mel stated that to the press when he came on board.
Sorry we disagree as always Stack. Learn media.
Kettle Joe’ s Psychedelic Swamp Revue Announces Spring, Summer Dates Kettle Joe’ s was formed out of a chance happening- the coming together of these seasoned and highly regarded musicians at a benefit concert. According to Donna Jean Godchaux- MacKay,“ When we teamed up in New York City” last November,“ we immediately realized that playing together was something we wanted to pursue further. We decided early this year to bring in Mookie on keyboards and work a week in a rehearsal space. We tried it out with...