SIRIUS Satellite Radio has just announced that they have added 600,460 subscribers for the second quarter of 2006, bringing the total amount of Sirius subscribers to 4,678,207. That's 64% higher than last year's second quarter subscriber additions.
Wow. This beats analysts' estimates hands down.
and beats XM net subs by 51%--I do believe XM will have bottomed now and it be up hill from here--Still, its EXTREMELY impressive Quarter for Sirius--Much higher then projected
This is good news for Sirius, and bad news for XM. I sure hope XM's marketing department will start learning from their mistakes soon... Of course, more Satellite listeners still means fewer Terrestrial listeners, which is still overall a good thing for the industry as a whole.
I guess the Stern effect is not quite over.
it will be in august.
Well, at least it proves that Bridge Ratings is fill of shit.
I'd be careful about creating too much of a link between Stern's influence and Sirius' fortunes.
Sirius picked up 60% of the new satellite customers this quarter. What would it be without Stern? 40%? 50%? 59%? Who knows. I think it's just as easy to attribute their nice win to XM's inventory problems, different marketing strategies, or other content differences as to the pull of Stern.
I'm sure Sirius has a pretty good idea of how many of the new people are Stern fans, but none of us really do. I think the media beats the "Stern effect" drum because it's too lazy to go beyond sound-byte explanations. But really only Howard himself thinks that all the new subscribers in the past 18 months have been his fans.
64% higher than last year's second quarter subscriber additions
the only REAL difference is STERN. weather or not they signed up because of stern it does not matter...his name and publicity got them this kind of growth.
What is worse is
SIRI-600,460
XM- 398,000
ouchy.
Everybody here attributes anything that happens at Sirius to Stern. Sirius has many other channels with other great choices (NFL, NBA, Nascar in 07). Stern just put Sirius' name in the news and made it the "name" for Satellite radio.
These numbers are impressive and I hope that XM can step it up, and then Sirius can step it up after that....we all win when there's competition.
Why am I not surprised? Stern's fans are giving him credit even for the people who AREN'T subscribing because of him. If someone sees a Sirius ad featuring Howard and the NFL and buys it because he wants NFL, I'm sure Stern chalks up another listener for himself but that's just not how reality works.
Fact is many, if not most new satellite customers don't and couldn't distinguish between the two brands when signing up. Sirius appears to have an edge in visibility at the moment; congratulations to them. But let's not pretend there were 600,000 people crawling through the desert to buy Sirius units because they couldn't live without Howard this last quarter.
matt, that's because Sirius had NBA and NFL before the recent spike in subs. Its not "all Stern" but like you said, he is more responsible for the brand awareness than anyone else.
"I think it's just as easy to attribute their nice win to XM's inventory problems, different marketing strategies, or other content differences as to the pull of Stern."
Inventory problems? Can't really argue that one, unless you mean of course that they've had TOO MUCH product on shelves because nobody's buying. They certainly haven't seen a shortage of product due to customer consumption.
The ill-advised marketing campaigns I would agree with...they've really hurt the bottom line.
So...of the almost 400,000 subscribers that XM added, how many did O&A bring?
Sirius pulled in some great numbers, well done.
"the only REAL difference is STERN"
Not entirely. Stern (and his hyping) was a big contributing factor, but I believe Mel has more pull. He knows how to market his product, whereas Hugh does not.
"Inventory problems?"
Yep, at least in the biggest SDARS market, the Northeast. As I checked out several markets, many were out of all XM products except for a few scattered Sportscasters. I'm sure that the FCC issue was the reason. Now it's Sirius' turn with the FCC. Of course, this isn't the main reason XM stunk it up. It is Hugh's (and his team's) lack of marketing skills.
I am curious as to the OEM and retail market share between the two.
What is this inventory issue everyone speaks of? i have yet to walk into a retail store, whether it be Circuit City, best buy, Wal Mart, Target, PC Richards, Comp USA, etc, and see an "inventory shortage" of any kind. i see plenty of innos and helix's, nexus' and skyfi 2's, roadyxt's and sportcasters, and in circuit city you cant walk out of the car audio department without tripping over the "exclusive" roadyxt/boom box combo! dont beleive me? go to circuit city.com and pull up any xm model. use 10011(NYC Zip code) and 11722(LI Zip Code) every model is in stock and ready for pick up with a 24 minute gaurantee!!!
inventory shortage puh- lease! also, the inno has been out for 2 months now, and the helix 1 month. plenty of those in stock everywhere.
xm is failing, opie and anthony are failing, now oprah is the next big failure for xm!!
we know there was and is a stern effect i 'm not a fan of nascar but i'm looking foward to the nascar effect. then we well see a difference
Of course stern had nothing to do with it. Don't you guys know how popular richard simmons is on 102? Word spreads about that lovable faggot. 11 million satellite subscribers can't be wrong. Fuck testical radio
Sirius lies about their subscription numbers. they count all of the cars sitting in dealerships which arent even sold yet. So I wouldnt believe anything that sirius said. They are so emberassed about how much of a disapointmant old Hoo Hoo was that they have to lie to make it look better. Free FM and XM rule, Sirius Sucks. O and A Army Spread the Virus.
Ramone, nobody listens to you anyway. Stop trying to lie and to "spread the virus" on a best of both worlds satellite radio website. If you want to say how much you love O&A, go to the XM websites and say that, not spam a good site like this.
Sirius does not suck. I have had Sirius satellite radio for a number of years. The one thing that I notice Sirius doing is improving the quality of their service. I am pleasantly surprised by added touches that keep popping up on my radio. I know many new Sirius satellite subscribers. A couple of them once had XM.
ramone ,ramone, ramone. a little number crunching for you.fan sites wise. wackbag.com-31,638
SFN-84,825
tell your p p pussies to talk bad about stern some more its a great commerical for sirius.after these numbers now i know why u use the term hoo hoo. its what we stern fans call opie and anthony. who? who? and please could you come up with a better insult. his fans can , why not people who hate him.
""Inventory problems?"
Yep, at least in the biggest SDARS market, the Northeast. As I checked out several markets, many were out of all XM products except for a few scattered Sportscasters. I'm sure that the FCC issue was the reason."
Where int he Northeast. Certainly not the DC area where product is 2 to 1 XM on the shelves. And Definately not PA or NY where there is enough XM product to make up for the difference in subscribers.
Where are you seeing this shortage? Where is anyone seeing this shortage? There was PLENTY of inventory left over from the fourth and first quarter loss to make up for the FCC investigation.
trust me, o and a always win in the end. we are now on the great free fm and have millions of listeners. it must suck to be a hoo hoo fan because he probably only has a couple of thousand listeners at this point. hoo hoo doesnt care about his listeners while O and A treat their listeners like family. I feal bad for any HOo Hoo fan because you dont know what you are missing. O and A Army spread the virus
this is a place to talk about sat.radio.take your free fm and your watered down show and go away.stern always wins in the end.ALWAYS!
hoohoo sternfan73 is ripping o&a off
Ramone
You do realize Stern QUIT & left behind the stations that OnA are creaming over & that they did not replace Stern & were a distant second choice don't you?
You do realize that while OnA might broadcast to more because they are on a free airwave that Stern still has more FANS don't you?
You do realize that not everyone that listens on FREE radio can be considered a die-hard fan & that its fairly obvious to everyone but yourself that Stern was worth 1.5-2m subs due to his programming & even more for his brand recognition don't you?
Get out of your cocoon where you think OnA are more popular & realize that while they are a popular radio entity that they are in NO WAY near Stern. They are closer to Mancow's level (although ahead for sure)
They recently did an in store in NYC - their HOME market & drew less than 100, the daily "walk" draws 15-25 fans ... reality is a b*tch & that B*tch is obviously a Stern fan
:)
Ramone, you are now officially my idle. Your teachings and thoughtful comments have rubbed off on me.
It must suck to be an o&a fan. They only have 10,000 listeners. You don't know what radio is until you here stern. o&a are old and washed up, stern is king. Who wouldn't love free fm? its awesome. the 8 minute commercial breaks give me plenty of time to get to work without hearing the actual show. Stern treats his fans like royalty, always giving them ribs and studio tours. o&a hates their fans, they always hang up on them and call them stupid-heads. Howard Stern, spread those stripper's legs.
>>Stern treats his fans like royalty, always giving them ribs and studio tours >>
Ribs?!! Holy sh#t, I'm throwing out all my XM equipment right this minute and becoming a bonafide Stern lover!
All hail Howard, king of pork!
Ramone, please stop, you are making your fellow O&A fans look very bad. Whenever HooHoo is mentioned, you have to pop in and say ignorant shit such as "we are now on the great free fm and have millions of listeners. it must suck to be a hoo hoo fan because he probably
only has a couple of thousand listeners at this point". Do you realize how these comments look? Your nose is so far up O&A's asses that I'm surprised you can still breathe. and this is coming from a fellow O&A listener as well. The great Free FM? Please. I think it's great that they're getting more potential listeners and it is true that Howard's listener base is probably smaller. But this back and forth crap doesn't change anything. You aren't going to change anyone's mind by making these comments, so to save a little face, may i suggest that you get yourself an account on Wackbag or another O&A fan site and post your pro O&A tyrades there? As I said above, you just annoy everyone. Someone please bann this ass?
Hey pete, your supposed to say i'm embarrasement to sirius fans because of my ramone like sayings.
Hey, don't put yourself down. You're an embarrassment for *completely* different reasons...
;-)
You know, he WILL go away if you ignore him.
Anyone mind if I ban him? Speak up now because his time has officially come.
Yes please Ryan, please bann him! You know if I thought he offered something of substance I would defend him but he offers absolutely nothing but Pro O&A rants that even their fans find annoying.
I speak for everyone who reads and comments on Orbitcast by saying ban him from the site. He's nothing but a failed washup from what's left of the XM Marketing department. I like both O&A and Stern and I think O&A would be ashamed.
As one of the original LIVE hosts on Sirus Satellite from the day it launched, Wisdom radio, channel 114, I have a pretty good feel for the actual listening audience. It has taken 2 years to return LIVE, on LIME Radio, (formerly Wisdom), and the difference in listener response, reach, etc., is amazing. While not a fan of HS, I am grateful for his vision in making the switch. There is no doubt that his name is adding numbers, but programming is king. Quality in presentation and content is winning out. I always find it amusing how people focus on a few big tuna's while the world is actually made of many differentiated groups, and getting more diversified daily. I would be interested in feedback on my program, Positively Incorrect, live Mondays, on LIME Sirius channel 114, at 7 PM est with repeats. Don't expect dirty words, nake women or ex cons. Do expect intelligent future driven topics that effect your real life, not the headlines.
Scott Cluthe
You are all wrong, Riley Martin is bringing in all the new listeners!!!!
Just remember,
the Biaviians are watching.
Steeeeeeeeeeeeeeven Carrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, stern is on another vacation, and will continue ripping off all the zombies.. Steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeven Carrrrrrrrrrrrr go give these zombies aids!!!