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by heavymark 2824 days ago
In regards to, "Why do I need satellite radio when I can just listen to a podcast, or preload a bunch of music on my phone?" you don't if you only listen to music or content accessibly on your preferred streaming service. Their strength is in their specific content, most notably Howard Stern to note one. If and when Apple Music/Spotify gets and/or can take away that big talent then yes Sirius will eventually be dead in the water. I use Sirius for things like CNN. I tried using CarPlay app for that and didn't work reliably enough compared to the simplicity of just knowing Sirius in car is always there and always work even if ones phone dies or any other random situations. Sirius has horrible customer support and they deserve what is coming to them, but still think they have a lot of gas left in in them as long as they continue to retain their headliners and come preloaded in new cars with free trials.
1 comments
jbob2000 2824 days ago
Sirius is in a tough spot. I've heard from many people that they only listen for Howard Stern. If Howard was smart, he'd pivot to selling podcasts and doing live streaming like Joe Rogan. He could cut out the sirius middleman and bring much more money home.

There are so many places to get news that I'm actually surprised to hear that sirius is an important place for you to get yours.

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nicobn 2824 days ago
Howard Stern makes a risk-free $80M/year for 4 hours of radio 3 days a week. Maybe he could make that much making podcasts, but why risk it ? He's at the tail-end of his career anyway.

Do you know a lot of "smart" people who would trade a guaranteed $80M/year for possibly more doing podcasts ?

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chiefalchemist 2824 days ago
Stern is smart :) He obviously could do that but can't be bothered. He's not starving to death. So unless he's going to leverage his brand to build others and broaden his (a la Oprah) by having a family of stations under his control then it's probably not worth it to him. How can he not go to bed thinking, "I'm one of the luckiest schmucks in the world"?
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bearcobra 2824 days ago
The entire US podcast ad revenue in 2017 was $314 million. Stern is paid $80 million a year. Seems like the smarter choice.
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