Howard Stern’s Switch To Satellite Radio Made Him Lots Of Money—And May Be Costing Him Influence
Howard Stern stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars through his move to Sirius (NSDQ: SIRI) from CBS Radio but what has he lost? Millions of listeners—and with them, relevance and influence, contends the LA Times. The exploits and the FCC battles that made him famous and kept him in the news are in the past. LAT: “So far, the radio personality’s leap from traditional media to a niche platform has come at a heavy price—namely, cultural relevancy. Unlike an Arianna Huffington, who vastly increased her reach on her upstart website, Stern’s place in the national conversation has been reduced to a murmur in the din of the exploding entertainment universe.”
Then again, Huffington’s upstart site is free and Stern’s audience is subscription. It’s also loyal. The Sirius-XM (NSDQ: XMSR) Radio merger expands his potential audience to about 19 million but in a way that’s reminiscent of cable networks available in 70 million homes with only a fraction of those ever tuning in. Analysts peg his audience no higher than 2 million but Sirius says those figures are low. Sirius subscribers get Stern on satellite radio and internet radio as part of the full $12.95 package; as of last week, XM subscribers can add the show, which hasn’t changed all that much by most accounts, for $4.
What has changed? The LAT says the quality of Stern’s guests: “With a reduced audience, Stern’s show is no longer a prime stop on the major film promotion circuit. And the A-list guests who used to submit to Stern’s biting personal questions in order to hype their projects have become scarce.” He’s also missing the sense of controversy stirred up by the fights with the FCC.
Stern is under contract to Sirius through 2010. Would he switch back? Maybe, but as talk-radio host Tom Leykis told the paper: “Even if he does have a smaller audience in terms of his cumulative audience, that won’t last forever. Terrestrial radio is hemorrhaging audience as it tries to find its place in the Digital Age, while satellite is up tremendously.”
Related StoriesPosted In: Media & Publishing, TV, Satellite, howard stern, sirius xm radio
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Comments (5)
Oct 13, 2008 9:44 AM
I think you’re missing the point. In today’s disaggregated media world and the lack of a consumer center, it’s about serving your niche. It is definitely not about a mass audience. At the end of the day, Stern has brought millions of paying subscribers to Sirius and can super-serve his audience of 2MM loyal fans without having to worry about ratings.
King of All Media? Probably not anymore, but who really cares? He never really had A list celebrities on par with late night TV so I’m not sure that’s really missed by his fans. If you ask any of his paying fans, they will uniformly tell you the show in the last two years has been the best it has ever been. When will the non-Stern fans realize it’s not so much about the visiting celebrities and jiggle but about the drama and captivating relationship between the expanded show members.
Oct 13, 2008 11:45 AM
Who, exactly, was he influencing before? I guess there are strip clubs somewhere that aren’t getting the benefit of his recommendation. But we this guy was never influential. Controversial, yes. But there were never any big spending sprees attributed to him.
Oct 13, 2008 11:45 AM
This is another sad example of someone making an attempt to write an article for which she is not sufficiently competent to do so. When you use the terms “may be” in the title, it leads some to think there may be an unterior motive involved relative to what you intend to accomplish by writing the article. Not all readers ride into town on a cabbage patch wagon.
Oct 14, 2008 12:08 AM
This is a joke. Stern is the reason sirius took over XM and not vice versa. Terrestial radio is unlistenable and will soon be left to the people who can’t afford sat radio aka the people no advertiser wants to reach. Won’t happen over nite but once you’ve listened to sat radio…reg radio won’t due.
Nov 2, 2008 3:35 PM
I am happy for Howard Stern’s success, but I am not a fan, and his shows are more about porn then freedom which he once advocated these days.