Id like to be making that kind of money!

Eric Logan gets 3 Mets season tickets in the right field bleachers.

(Side note, all this merger talk is frying my brain. Can we bring the fun back?)

Ryan, to me all the excitement about satellite radio started with content. Howard, NFL, MLB, Nascar, Oprah, Commercial free music - all desirable content. That is where the future of the business is. Like every other media that exists. Thats the fun - not mergers, not technology, not distribution deals - CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT. Both Sirius and XM need to become innovative and expand exclusive content. The envolope has to be pushed. The possibilities are endless. People don't pay to listen to technology, they pay to listen to content.

Thats it pay the dope who has no talent the most.....

bye bye Hugh...

>>> Both Sirius and XM need to become innovative and expand exclusive content.

Apparently, you have missed what Howard Stern has done for Sirius -- rather than the projected losses of a billion or so for the last two year, they have managed to close out the last two years with 2 billion in losses. Exclusive content is working real well for them, right?

SIRI's entire reason for merging is to obfuscate the fact that they have overspent for content and have no apparent means to recover the cost of that content. The only winners have been NFL, NASCAR, Martha Stewart, and Howard Stern.

XM's reason for merging? Beats the hell out of me.

I sincerely believe that without the Howard Stern signing Sirius would not exist today. If Howard had signed with XM we would be looking at XM with about 10 million subs at the end of 06 and Sirius maybe a couple million subs. The game would be over. XM would have demolished Sirius into oblivion. Free cash flow positive seems to have been lost in the whole discussion of Satellite radio. Does anybody remember that Sirius became free cash flow positive in the 4th quarter? I read a ton of naysayers on message boards talking about bankruptcy predictions. How many companies can you name that are free cash flow positive that go bankrupt? Its really funny to read the internet message boards.

What really needs to be done is to go back to what makes media work. Content is King. Innovative, creative ways of developing and growing content is what makes or breaks any media company, Period. And satellite radio competes in one of the most entrenched forms of American media - Radio. Content Content Content! People don't pay to listen to Sirius or XM, they pay to listen to CONTENT!

Muscle, does music fall under the content discussion. Because for me the #1 attraction for xmsiri is the music...I believe that true long turm subs share my view. This is one reason new delivery systems like Slacker are such a threat. To me Howard and O&A are just filler.

I sometimes wonder where satellite radio would be if they didn't spend so much on big names and instead concentrated more on breaking and playing new music. Could this industry survive with lower sub numbers and a truly niche customer base?
Is this what Slacker is trying to accomplish?

"Side note, all this merger talk is frying my brain. Can we bring the fun back?"

ok, did you hear about O&A ratings in some markets.

Zero point Zero.

Anyone have any links, stern said they were chicago and one other place....lol

searching now for links. let the fun begin

/love PNess

"Muscle, does music fall under the content discussion?"

Of course music is content and Sirius and XM pay high royalties to play it. But they have to be more innovative with that music content. Differentiate themselves from their music delivery competitors- terrestrial, ipods, internet, cell phones etc. Celebrity DJs, live concerts, specials etc. Possibilities are endless and must be continuously expanded. Its all about content. How did MTV and ESPN become the biggest worldwide cable TV stations - Innovative content. Content differentiation.

Sirius became free cash flow positive in the 4th quarter? all they did was push some bills to be paid from december to january ,thats called fudging your numbers to trick your shareholders into thinking your company is better off than they are.

PNess
thank god your here to tell us what howard said, without you nobody would know stern is still out there :)

Bloodycape, I totally agree with you. However XM did the same exact thing. Not really illegal so they go over their payment terms.

"PNess
thank god your here to tell us what howard said, without you nobody would know stern is still out there :)"

O&A talked about it for a good day and a half so i guess 12m people heard it right?

"I sometimes wonder where satellite radio would be if they didn't spend so much on big names and instead concentrated more on breaking and playing new music."

There would be a shitload less subscribers. Every person I know bought Sirius or XM for Stern, NFL, MLB, and (toa lesser extent)O&A. I certainly wouldn't pay for music only. That's what I have my mp3 player for, remember?

The EXCLUSIVE content is much more important. You can get music, for FREE, in a million different ways nowadays.

PNess,

Did you find any links yet to confirm what Hoo Hoo said?

:mamoru:

Got the link where O&A say it was a 0.2 not a 0.0

http://media.putfile.com/Opie--Anthony-Rant-On-Ratings

Wow, big difference! Ha ha!

Screw exclusive content. I could give two shits about Stern O&A or whatever shit is there. It's all about music!

The fact that Gary never fired Hugh underscores why XM will lose in the end.