Liberty Media rescues Sirius XM from bankruptcy
By Darren Murph 
posted February 17th 2009 10:05AM
posted February 17th 2009 10:05AM
[Via Denver Business Journal, thanks Michael]
posted February 17th 2009 10:05AM
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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.