We guess those
bailout talks with
DirecTV weren't so futile after all, huh? The satcaster's parent company,
Liberty Media, has just stepped in to rescue Sirius XM from the
clutches of bankruptcy, providing a $530 million life raft that it will use to pay off looming debt payments and keep operations humming. Liberty will write a $280 million check immediately, of which $171 million will go straight to debtors. Another round of funding (to the tune of $250 million) will be available to Sirius XM in order to "help it pay its debts and ward off a potential takeover of Sirius by Charlie Ergen's DISH Network." In return for this mighty appreciated favor, Liberty Media will own 12.5 million shares of preferred stock in
Sirius XM, which it can convert into common stock should it so choose. Also of note, founder John Malone and Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei are likely to join Sirius XM's board of directors. Is that a collective sign of relief we just heard, or what?
[Via
Denver Business Journal, thanks Michael]
posted Feb 17th 2009 10:05AM
thank god i got scared i was going to loose my service for a few minutes there. hopefully they do not get taken apart and used for their spectrum.
I was scared I was going to loose my lifetime plan for 2 radios! (that comes out to $1,000)
Worse than that, I was scared I was going to "loose" my bowels!!
I was scared about whether or not subscribing for a lifetime subscription 2 days ago was a good thing.. *sigh of relief.(reply to previous comment ;) )
WOO HOO!
Good. I'm glad. I hate regular radio. 5 minutes of music, 75 minutes of annoying commercials. I just hope prices don't skyrocket.
I am very glad that they will stay afloat a while longer. There needs to be a petition to get rid of Mel. He has almost completely ruined 2 companies with his BS. He needs to go.
amen, sister.
Thank Goodness.
I wish someone would rescue ME from bankruptcy.
I though Obama was doing that. Riding in on his stallion to save the world from the evil republicans. Going to change the country in 100 days and give everyone a house, money and a new car too! Wait, don't tell me - he was full of it.
^He's not. You, however, clearly are.
MadMike is a troll, but I'll quickly bite: Obama got the banks to cease foreclosures, is giving each taxpayer $400 credit, and implemented large credits for car purchases. And he did it all in 20 days, not 100. So maybe it's YOU who's full of it?
"Obama got the banks to cease foreclosures"
??? Banks are still foreclosing homes, I have not idea where you got your info from....
Obama did not put a stop to it.
yeah I don't know where you got the fact that homes aren't being foreclosed on. The news you were referring to was one back stopped foreclosing on homes because they weren't getting much of a return, nothing to do with Obama.
A plan is being considered to place a moratorium on home foreclosures. Stop with the politicking of basic human dignity. That, or fuck off completely. Your choice.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hRdNEUn0EJdRzHIWuwdox6VWT7JAD969O8LO3
The best thing that could happen to these guys is a Chapter 11 restructure. They have totally missed the point of satellite radio and killed the purity it brought. Here is the restructuring plan that would put them in the black.
1. Play content COMMERCIAL free, I'm NOT paying to hear commercials. The cable-tv model is not going to work for radio.
2. Drop the 30-40 multimillion dollar celebrity contracts. Stern, Snoop, Martha - F you. Cut the contracts by 80%. If these washed-up celebs can't work for single digit millions, then get some good celebs who will.
3. Focus on content. Content is king and sat radio is no exception. Allow users to create 'private streams' on the website (like Pandora) and then stream stations playing the hits from a handful of artists.
4. Do you REALLY need a hundred million dollar studio? Really?
They need to trim it back and focus on WHY people choose satellite radio.
#2 is a must.
If you are that close to oblivion, you need to ditch the dead weight. There are plenty of people who can provide quality programming without the ego-sized salaries.
And I do think some ads are fine. When I watch shows online, I get a brief 30 second ad. Not a biggie knowing that it helps pay for the service.
I really agree with this!
The business is still a net loser. It can't turn a profit.
I agree that most of the the celebrity stuff has not scored big numbers to warrant their salaries, but if Stern goes so does the company. It's been widely stated by Sirius that over 65% of all Sirius subscribers list Howard 100 and Howard 101 the channels that they listen to more than any other channel.
Martha and Snoop sure, but Stern has more than earned his contract in terms of listeners brought to the channels. Something like 60% of the 20 million listeners tune into his channels.
Now if we could get him back to a 5 day work week....
Put the ads on the non-music channels. That or maybe an ad window on the player units themselves. Ads are an evil, but they help pay for things, so I can live with them.
Huh? I'm getting no ads on a Sirius receiver at all. I'm guessing you folks getting the ads are on XM receivers? If so, that really sucks and you may want to change out to the Sirius set for now.
Dude!
You are so on the money with this one - no pun intended.
I have sat radio for the content...yeah Stern is funny, but not $100MM funny.
I want music and plenty of it , no commercials, so dumping most of the celebs would have no impact to me, except for keeping Sirius around longer.
Mel may understand radio but he doesn't understand business. Instead of nickel and diming current subscribers, he needs to increase the subscriber base. Solution: LOWER pricing:
Drop Sirius Everything from 12.95 to 6.99 and eliminate the additional receiver discount to make it even across the board. Start a la carte pricing between 3.99 and 4.99 and drop Sirius Everything to 12.95 (or less). Why? There are millions of dormant receivers that can receive Sirius but do not work with the la carte plans. This forces them into the 12.95 price point unless they want to buy a new receiver.
Its all about VOLUME when it comes to media. Something Mel can't grasp...
The thing is, the commercials come from stations like NPR, ESPN Radio, and Radio Disney, which are on regular radio. There is space designated to put commercials in on these broadcasts. What are they going to do about that? 2 minutes of blank space? The reason they have these on here is because they are national stations that people listen to.
It's a lot easier to move around listening to these national stations than to search around when your FM radio station gets too far away.
All I want is Sirius' old channel 34 back :(
Newish breakbeat + a DJ Icey show, who could ask for better radio than that?
Hey now!
In don't see how $530,000,000 is going to help.
Well, half a billion will pay off that idiotic contract Howard Stern got.
damn, i was kinda hopin they cut off everyones service and you guys would have to go back to that old time thing called the FM radio, now that they have HD now and sounds better then XM but you know whatever. I have my own radio station, you kno its called over 40GB of mp3's
Over 40GB of MP3's you most likely stole from torrent and other sources. And I hate to say it, but music discovery is still important to some people... I have discovered MANY new artists on XM and Sirius and enjoy listening to the variety without fumbling through my iPod constantly.
I DO agree with the quality of the stream. There is no good reason XM has to sound like it's coming through a tin can. I have a respectable audio system in my car, factory installed. Sometimes I would swear I'm listening to a 28kbps stream.
yeah i noticed that the quality between my factory pre installed radio and my stand alone receiver that i bough when sirius first came out is way different. The stand alone sounds great compared to my cars radio...and to think i paid extra to get an Eddie Bauer entertainment system in my car, what a waste.
Music discovery? You discover new pop on the radio or what? I think about the most obscure thing I ever heard on satellite radio was by X(from Los Angeles/Wild Gift), but I already owned the CD.
I discover new music all the time at waffles and what, so if discovery is your main thing I'd go for the torrents. Nowhere else will you find such a wide array of music to listen to. And if you find something you like you can still feel free to support the artist. I've bought more music because of torrent sites than I ever would've without.
# 2 is dead on!
Sirius shot itself in the foot years ago with that insane contract they gave Howard. All that $$$ for 4 shows a week in addition to the 8 weeks of vacation time he gets. To add insult to injury, the show was better when it was on terrestrial l radio.
Ba, ba booey to yall
This was definitely the best thing that could have happened. The amount of misinformed morons posting about this topic is amazing. Anyone saying bankruptcy would have been good, is obvioulsy just shouting with zero research or knowledge on the situation.
And by the way, if Sirius did not get Howard Stern. There would be no Sirius today. Sirius already recouped his contract a long time ago in subscriber growth directly from his signing. That's not an opinion, it's a statistical fact. And don't say if he didn't sign with Sirius he would have gone to XM either. He's made it very clear that the did not like XM's offer or the way management was doing business. He probably would have just signed with another terrestrial radio station or retired and eventually XM would have gone out of business as well.
The only reason Sirius/XM was in any trouble at all is due to the credit freeze and the bad economy. During any other "normal" time the company would have just refinanced their debt, just like hundreds of other companies do all the time. Now that option has been taken away, hence big companies like Circuit City shutting down. Mel K is a genius and no other CEO could have done what he did.
Howard Stern was shopping himself to the non-censored highest bidder at the time. Even though he says he did not like some things about XM, he would have been an employee if the deal was better at the time and Sirius would be dead.
I am not sure why there are so many people whining about Sirus/XM
If you don't like the service don't subscribe, why is that so hard for people to understand
I don't hear commercials on the music channels only promotions and station breaks? what music stations are they listening too.
There is more to sirus/xm than just music I like to listen to CNN sometimes and yes of course there has to be commercials they fill in the ones on CNN, I do listen to Howard its entertaining i like to listen to BBC 1 and sports mostly the soccer channel (125) love the EPL I can listen to NFL and the other sports if i so desire.
I dont think i have turned on my FM/AM for the last two years in my car
My god its less than $20 a month cable bills are closer to 80-100 a month
most people spend more at Starbucks than they do for Sirus/XM one Grandee Latte a week $3.25 is equal to almost a subscription.
companys are failing left right and center big ones from Kmart to circuit city cars are not selling people are losing there jobs I am hoping that Siruis/xm can hang on and survive. its a really bad time for luxury and that's what this is
and I know people are losing money on the stock i have lost thousands too but I still enjoy the service
maybe they made mistakes in programing but then i think its more that people don't like change there comfortable with the stations they have and its hard to get used to something new.
I don't know why people take the time to come her and bash? I really wonder how many of those people that came here and said there quitting did ? and if they did why are they still here?
enjoy the music the talk the sports its the best option we have
How long until Sirius/XM channels disappear from Dish Network, given that their competitor just bought in?
It probably won't disappear after Sirius's contract with dish ends, after all, the same company owns Stars, and you can get that on any cable or satellite provider.
Lets be real, it's only a matter of time before it goes under again, unless they lower the prices to close to $0 (not likely given the circumstances).
The regular XM package is $13 with the XM Sirius package @ $17 that's $156 and 204 a year.
Now days people don't want to be "told" what to listen to, they want to have a say, Ipod/itunes, CDs/MP3's/WMA allow you to have thousands of your OWN music and you decide what you want to listen to and you ZERO commercials and ZERO dj's interrupting.
Now with 3g networks on phones and programs like Pandora, LastFM, and others, you get all the benefits of new music and varity and none of the negatives (paying for commercials, dj's, same songs over and over)
I thought that Satellite would give variety however there is only a few of each genre and they often play the same songs over and over again (because they have the same dj in the at the same time everyday) -
bottom line, Satalite Radio is a sinking ship-
Believe it or not, some of us listen to channels other than music and there is no comparable alternative (and no, IMO podcasts are not a comparable alternative). I prefer national sports talk radio and new--local radio is pure crap. I can also catch any MLB game, NHL, and tons if college fb and bb that I would otherwisenot have access to. Also having access to radio stations my kids can listen too is a huge bonus for those long car trips. Add the music on top of all of this and I feel I'm getting tons of value.
If you only listen for music then i'd probably agree that it's overpriced and there are better options. I'm glad they worked something out for the near future b/c idon't have an aux input to stream from my iPhone and local radio is simply awful.
The problem can be summed up even more succinctly: Kids don't buy it.
Mel destroyed the quality that was XM Radio. I wish the whole thing failure. Let someone who knows what they are doing run satellite radio. And yes, we need to have TWO players once again, or it WILL fail.
The rumors of last week were not with DirecTV, it was with Charlie from Echostar (Dish Network).
The first rumors were Echostar/Charlie, but the rumors of Liberty/Malone came very shortly afterwards.
Nice to know they are sticking around. I had a Sirius radio on my last rental car, and I liked it.
Stern is the reason I DID NOT buy into Sirius or Sirius/XM. I can get his same (usually better) sophomoric humor from the drunks at my neighborhood bar for free! I used to listen to XM religiously on the free XM channels that came with my DirecTV link. When I wasn't watching the visual content, I was listening to an XM channel--and that was at least 90% of the time. Sirius/XM has the potential to save the music industry, but they keep missing the point. Give us real music, a bit of background on it from someone who knows what they're talking about--not some overpaid DJ, but someone who is passionate about it. More live performances, interviews, original content from performers (live or studio), and I'll be there. I'm as irreverant as Stern has ever been, but he's old hat...long before he followed the big bucks to Sirius. I lost all respect for Sirius when that happened. The only course they have is to leave the mainstream and adopt the models of pirate station(s) of yore. We'll all come to see what's going on. Anyone can punk out and get in trouble with the FCC like Stern did. That's not "cutting edge," that's punking out. It might bring some of the sheep along, but not loyal listeners. I couldn't imagine buying a Sirius receiver after they pulled in Stern-->much less paying a monthly subscription. Sure, the move generated a ton of press, but most of us weren't impressed then. We're still not impressed.
You decided NOT to buy SIRIUS because you lost 'respect' for them when they signed Stern? This doesn't make any sense. Like it or not, there's no other personality on radio bigger than Stern. Or close to Stern. He's the only personality worth the money because he's exclusive to Sat Radio. Sure they have Oprah - but if you're an Oprah fan turn on the TV. You want Stern? Nowhere else are you going to find him. People forget that not only did he bring in a huge subscriber base, but he also generates the top ad revenue for the company. Like him or not, you can't claim to lose respect for a company because they signed Stern. You clearly have a personal issue with him that's clouding judgments of a company.
"Liberty Media will own 12.5 million shares of preferred stock in Sirius XM, which it can convert into common stock should it so choose"
Can someone translate that to average joe?
Average Joe Speak: They lose their investment last, after other shareholders.
Antiquated business model with narrow scope. As soon as they merged, I cancelled my account. I don't know why, but wouldn't it be great if all those car (preinstalled without consent) "sirius/xm ready" packages just went silent? Can you imagine if DirecTV and Dish merged? Comcast and Timewarner? Bloated monopoly anyone?
Bloated monopoly? Kinda like the bloated subscription rates siri/xm keeps putting out. Pretty much all their "new" subs are those 1 and 2 year freebies sitting in cars that are sitting on dealer lots these days.
Considering they make less than 50 cents a year from an actual paying customer i guess there really isn't much difference.
Liberty Media?.
lol, it is the company that daily put the bread on my table.
^_^
I've had Sirius for almost 3 year and probably listen to 90% Stern and 10% music. If he goes or retires I cancel immediately and go back to FM/CDs/MP3s.
I think a large portion of Howard's audience feels the same way. My advice would be to trim all the other less important celebs and get Howard to a more reasonable contract.
perhaps they need an ala carte system where I can pick and choose my channels, I don't listen to half of them anyway (especially when they're moving them around every 2-3 months). I listen to hits1 in the morning, and then comedy or 90's channel on the way home. I could care less about stern. They used to have a decent dance channel but nixed that when they merged.
And there's plenty of ads on all 3 comedy channels, one time I was flipping between all 3 channels and they all had commercials at the same time. I really don't care about cleansing my colon or making my thingy thicker and wider, thanks
They do have this with their new subscription plans. I think you need to get a new radio to do it though.
I'm glad to hear that they managed to stave off bankruptcy. I wouldn't be able to go without my navtraffic.
I'm so glad that happened!
Well, back when it was XM or Sirius I chose XM because for one reason I do not want to listen to Howard Stern.
Also, three or four months ago I was at a point where I was not going to renew my subscription because of all the commercials. What am I paying a subscription fee for anyway? A month or so before my renewal date the adverts cut way back and seem almost tolerable now. If I wanted commercials I would stick with regular FM.
I do love traveling for any distance and not having to keep finding good stations. I hate that I can not get my football games through regular Sirius XM.
I've had both Sirius and XM in the past, and was thrilled with the merge.... I really felt like I got the quality music XM offered, but the quality news and talk that Sirius had.
I agree, they need to get RID of the celebrity contracts.... the only name (besides stern) that is pulling his weight is Bob Dylan - his theme time radio hour is amazing and great radio - everyone else is a waste of money, I'd be curious to see how much "time" each person puts into their radio station or show.
Could this mean that DirectTv will offer more Xm/Sirius stations through their programming? That would be pretty cool.
Doubt it. Remember DirecTV used to carry Opie and Anthony's channel on XM, and they took it off twice, the most recent one permanently. Apparently DirecTV isn't interested in SiriusXM for anything more than music channels.
I don't think some people understand that Sirius actually IS worth the price. I live in the mountains of NC and I have literally 2 radio stations locally that go in and out of reception and I hate the music they pay. Paying $13/mo is worth it to have continuous music from all sorts of artists, plus I can travel without having to continuously find new radio stations. And like others have said, the music channels don't really have commercials... they have live DJs that do occasional breaks in the music but they aren't advertising for anything that is non-sirius, at least for me. Also as others have said the talk channels have commercials because they are on national broadcast and have breaks for commercials... what else is Sirius supposed to do during that time? Dead air time?
I just hope Sirius can weather this storm because I will probably keep it for a long time.
I'd go with "or what". Mel killed sat rad. It would have been fitting to see it go bankrupt. We could then hope for a return to the sat rad that existed back in '01, full of music and variety. Not the 500 song playlists and other crap on there now.
Man oh man... I was quaking in my boots when I heard that Sirius/XM was on the brink... I've been an XM subscriber since it came out, long before Stern or any of those other celebrity idiots.
And I'd like to echo the sentiment expressed by quite a number of posters here: LOCAL FM RADIO SUCKS BIG-TIME!!! Local radio is what drove me to satellite radio.
There have been some good things and bad things with the merger. I like the new comedy channels (but hate the ads), but I HATE HATE HATE the "DJs" on my Decades and music channels! STFU and play the #@&*!%$ music! Those ridiculous DJs were half the reason I ran screaming from terrestrial radio--with the other half being the one song/five ads/two songs/twenty ads format...
I just canceled my XM subscription Friday. I had it for a around 6 Years I really enjoyed it in the past but when the merged happened they canceled my favorite station fungus53. They replaced it with one of their one artist channels "The ACDC channel". I'm not sure why anybody would want to listen to only one artist, wouldn't you just buy their greatest hits Cd?
Last time I checked they had five one artist stations. 1.Led Zepplin 2. Metalica 3. Cold Play 4. ACDC 5.Kenny Chesney
Around a month ago I was sent an email saying XM/sirius would be having a rate increase. It stated that if I acted now I could receive additional savings by paying for 2 years in advance. I had 2 units, one which had best of sirius. I took them up on their offer and paid for 2 years. Then on friday I noticed that I was no longer receiving best of sirius. When I called them they told me it would cost me close to an extra $100.00 to keep the best of sirius package. This would totally negate all of the savings I thought I was receiving by paying the lump sum. Not to mention I felt like they pulled a fast one on me.
I'm a big talk radio fan. I now plan on using the $17.00 dollars a month on audio books and podcasts. Also I have found some awesome talk on aol radio on my iphone.
This is essentially a take private transaction by Liberty. From a price perspective, it would probably be cheaper to do under chapter 11, but that would open up the company for sale to other third parties, which Liberty obviously doesn't want and piss off many of the customers and content providers.
The Company is still losing tons of money every quarter and the new car sales will make the situation worse, so this is small drop in the bucket that will keep the lights on for a few more quarters. That is still good news for Sirius stakeholders.