Howard a flop?? LOL
Xmas has been a dissappointment as compared to earlier projections but its Howard who put Sirius on the map--Without him, Sirius would have gone under--Imagine if XM had gotten him???

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Sirius really needs to fire its Publicity guys. Stern and Karmazin gets good press on their own, but Sirius as a company is consistently bashed to bits.

Hire marketers who know what they're doing!

Well...if it is a flop, it would have been last year's flop since he jumped in 2005. While I have not found him funny since the 80s, he certainly helped Sirius at a time when the subs were not coming in. Whether it was worth the $500 million and $200 million in stock is still a question that cannot be answered -- it's too soon.

As long as XM and Sirius continue to grow, this article will just go away and be seen as another attempt at the naysayers to bash satellite radio.

Stern a Flop? Ha Ha Ha, Well, Consider this. If he really had 22 million listeners as he himself claimed before going to Sirius, Then he is a huge flop. But if you have even half a brain you know that a "listener" is just about anyone who listened for even 10 minuites per week. So with this knoladge and the evedence that points to over 1 million stern fans that followed him anyone can think that although a flop considering the 22 million number, Its not a flop at all, infact its quite impressive. Problem here is that expectations were too high.

Not only does sthis guy have a distain for Sat. radio but he stinks at writing. Just awful!

Article aside, is Stern a flop though? Nobody will argue, hes done a lot of SatRad, Sirius more specifically, but what I never see is a comparison between what Sirus is paying him ($500,000,000 over 7 years I think) and how much new revenue he has generated from the subs he brought in. In other words, if the Stern move pushes Sirus to dominate the market, will it matter if Sirus cant any longer afford to pay their bills?

he should listen. wheather it be xm or sirius before he makes a judgement on sat radio.the stern show has never been better.long live sat.radio.

FancyPants - It's $500 million over 5 years, not 7, and don't forget the $200 million in stock.

What do you expect from a guy who cant spell Bruce?

For what its worth, the latest Bridge Report estimates Stern subscribers bring in approx. $22 Million a month in revenue. That equates, obviously to about $260 Million a year. Stern would argue that the Bridge Report's numbers are too low as he has brought more than 1.6 Million subscribers to Sirius.

As an aside, his contract was originally- $500 Million over 5 years, but with the stock he received, as part of the original $500 Million, going up in value, the total deal was worth a little more.

I don't like Stern, but he's hardly been a flop.

you have to ask yourself if stern hadn't moved to sirius, how bad would xm be crushing them? typical critic of stern. now he has to justify the lack of need or interest he has in sat. radio and he does it because of his media fed image of stern.

Thats what im saying. What is considered a flop? 2 million subs is an incredible feet, but if Sirus was estimating 6 million subs (and based his salary on such) then he would be a flop, right? Nobody seems to detail the criteria of their conclusions. They just state their opinions without really explaining.

RJR - Your calculation does not take into consideration discounted monthly subscriber fees for family plans, and it seriously neglects to subtract many of the costs, such as subscriber acquisition costs, which still continue to hurt Sirius. When you do the subtraction, it's not the incredible money-maker you may think. Still, he did bring subs to Sirius, which was hurting before him, so from that perspective it is not a flop. I still say it is too soon to determine if the money was worth it.

iband and RJR are you including advertising revenue?

Stern has been great for sat in general as it brought awareness--Xm has indirectly benefited too

"RJR - Your calculation does not take into consideration discounted monthly subscriber fees for family plans, and it seriously neglects to subtract many of the costs, such as subscriber acquisition costs, which still continue to hurt Sirius. When you do the subtraction, it's not the incredible money-maker you may think"

This can currently be said about EVERY contract signed by both sirius and xm. Neither one of them are making money and although this is expensive another way to look at performance is 500m for X subs vs other contracts such as Ophra/MLB/NASCAR.

if you compair his cost vs all other contracts and the amount of subs directly associated to that contract we would have our answer.

of course now the hard part is getting the information...from either company. do we really think MLB pulled in as many subs for 650m as stern did?

PNess, are you seriously comparing MLB and Howard Stern? If so, you need help.

Even at the height of his popularity, Howard's audience was dwarfed by MLB. PNess is full of his usual shit.

"Even at the height of his popularity, Howard's audience was dwarfed by MLB. PNess is full of his usual shit."

on XM radio? Good show me the link or any studies that looked at MLB subs on XM?

and stupid, it was a question not a FACT. notice the question mark????? see there is 5 more of them asshole.

Now you want my opinion, i think stern has pulled in more subs the MLB. There now you may rip me a new asshole....but then again you will just blah blah blah with your opinon which means as much as mine...NOTHING.

I had a lkittle back and forth with the "writer"one word...pathetic. He basically admitted he cut and pasted the Forbes article and did no further research. Basically he said a blurb doesn't require further investigation.

I'm only in it for the money.

If Howard had a wit's bit of decency, he'd forego a year's salary since everyone in the satellite world is taking it up the ass except Joe, Mel and Howard.

From Interns to Stockholders to those Sirius Salesguys busting their asses, we're the ones getting the bendover for these rollers.

i would respond, but orbitcast did it justice. Now if any anti-howard clones decide to continue the wrongful and false accusations, consider them douches.

PNess,

I'm not an idiot, that wasn't a question you asked, it was a snide remark. Kind of like me saying "do I really think you're not a douche?". See how that's a remark, not a question?

As for how many subs. In the short term I'm sure Howard's pulled in more subs but his pull has waned and I would expect MLB to continue to steadily pull in subs for years. How many in the end will be the only true way to measure its worth.

it doesn't really matter that much anymore because its all about keeping the oem subs re-subscribing. retail sales are fading to the point that oem is extremely important. people got their stern fix, now its word of mouth and a few commercials, unless he does a homeless shoping spree and gets blasted by o'reilly. mlb, like pfreak said, will always be a steady trickle, like the nfl for sirius. for the record, stern crushed mlb in sub additions, if mlb brought that much, it would have been documented.

Pre-Stern, Sirius was an also-ran.

Post-Stern, Sirius has better market share, better sales, and better brand recognition than XM.

We should all hope to "flop" like that.

Is this guy for real? I hope his readers enjoy many hours of Peter White, the king of all cheesy jazz.

"for the record, stern crushed mlb in sub additions, if mlb brought that much, it would have been documented."

gotta agree.

Also same can be said about O&A, if they were the force they said they were on XM there would have been as many studies done on them as stern, as well as XM would have been using those numbers to offset the impact of the stern effect.

imagine if they could have countered the stern effect by saying, "MLB has pulled in more subs then stern...."

Yes, Howard is a flop.

If retail is, in fact, fizzling at this point, Howard is a flop and will be an even bigger one.

Sirius bet the farm on Stern being able to save it. Unless Howard somehow can get Sirius to a point where it is cash flowing, quarter in, quarter out (and contrary to popular belief, they're nowhere near that), then he has failed. Clayton hired Stern to salvage an otherwise dead business.

While Stern definitely brought Sirius additional retail share, it will mean nothing if Sirius cannot get to a level of sustained growth that will get it to profitability (not merely "CFBE", which has nothing to do with profits) -- which is what he was hired to do.

I have, from the outset, maintained that Stern was a bad deal for Sirius. Many people have prematurely jumped on the "Stern is a Success" bandwagon. Hiring Stern may have prolonged SIRI's existence, but if retail is in fact drying up, he will not have succeeded in catching the Hail Mary he was thrown.

This is a very troubled company right now. Just as he hid the problems at retail for several months after XM announced it, Mel may try to hide the financial difficulties Sirius is facing at this point. I see little indication that Stern is going to save Sirius.

What is going to happen to Sirius when Stern takes his 500 Million and runs at the end of five years? Sirius will be dead in the water. Alot could happen between now and then but Sirius needs to focus on all its other programming as well. Would all the Stern fans have signed up for Sirius if Howard wasn't there? I'm doubting it. Just focusing on Stern will hurt them big time in the long run. But as of right now you have to be retarted to call Stern this years biggest flop. If he didn't join Sirius the company would be so far behind XM it would be close to dead. And if XM signed him Sirius would be even more in trouble. I'm not a zombie Stern fan at all but its true.

One thing you stern lovers fail to realize. NOT EVERY ACTIVATION THAT HAPPENED AFTER STERN SIGNED ON CAN BE ATTRIBUTTED TO HIM. I know you would all love that to be but the grandma that buys her Chrysler 300m with sirius factory installed in it did not buy it for Howard, much as his and your egos would like to believe it. Not that it doesn't happen, but you honestly can't say that everyone activatied is just for him. If you do then you are just delusional.

Stern has already saved Sirius. It would have died long ago in the wash that was created by missing almost an entire year of business against XM. Now, with Howard, Sirius has become #1 in retail for almost 1 1/2 years. That says a lot about what he has done for Sirius. In the OEM front, it gives the listener a chance to hear not only what Sirius has to offer in music, but talk as well...with Howard. And any of his fans that did not switch to the retail Sirius may decide to keep it with the OEM side when they buy a new car. This is a plus no matter how you look at it. The whole switcheroo that occured in September of 2005 shows that, and the fact that it is still going is continued proof of what he has done for Sirius.

Flop? Nope, not in the least.

"If he didn't join Sirius the company would be so far behind XM it would be close to dead. And if XM signed him Sirius would be even more in trouble. I'm not a zombie Stern fan at all but its true.

Posted by: regularradioequalsawful"

No Sirius would not be dead in the water they would have hired O&A. :)

Stern has temporarily stabilized Sirius, not saved it. He is no longer bringing in new subs and I don't expect he will again. Sirius may be #1 in retail but retail isn't a big driver of subs anymore, Sirius are still a distant #2 in terms of overall sub numbers and have worse OEM contracts. And what will Sirius do when Howard retires in 4 years? They will lose most of those Stern subs who won't stick around once their hero is gone. When you gamble your entire business on one talent who isn't even in it for the long haul the future looks bleak. I'm shocked by the slide thier stock price has done in the last 4 months. Simply shocked.

Umm, is it just me or is it a law that to be a Howard Stern fan one must not be able to spell or use correct punctuation?