Things are staying eventful for SiriusXM. Liberty Media this week continued its ongoing campaign to take control of the satellite radio provider by buying up 40 million additional shares of the company, bringing its total ownership to 48.8%, up from its 40% stake back in March. Liberty’s intent here is clear. In a a recent […]
As I’ve admitted before, I can be a stickler for sound quality when it comes to consuming audio media. Unfortunately, in so many ways the fidelity of plain old analog broadcast FM radio is rarely matched by digital media, where lower bitrates and lower sound quality are chosen for cost considerations, or to squeeze more […]
Lured in by the debut appearance of Howard Stern as a judge, I watched both hours of tonight’s season premiere of America’s Got Talent. I’ve never watched the show before, nor any of its stablemates, like American Idol. So let’s not bury the lede: I will not be watching again. You see, I’m a lapsed […]
Everybody’s blogging and twittering away over Liberty Media Corporation’s failed attempt to take de facto control of Sirius XM satellite radio. The Federal Communications Commission rejected Liberty’s application on Friday. Liberty owns 40 percent of Sirius XM stock. The reasons for the rebuff appear to be technical: “We find Liberty Media’s applications to be unacceptable […]
SiriusXM announced positive first quarter results on Tuesday, with the number of subscribers growing to an all time high of 22.3 million. The company also said that its retaining 45% of subscribers who got a trial subscription with the purchase of a new satellite radio equipped car. Its stock (SIRI) price jumped a bit–from $2.26 […]
North Americans can be accused of taking our selection of radio broadcasting for granted. Sure, I’ll be amongst the first to complain about the homogenizing effect consolidation has had on commercial radio. Yet even small cities in the US and Canada have a wide variety of commercial, college, non-commercial and public stations to choose from. […]
Last Thursday, on the eve of the company’s tenth anniversary celebration with Bruce Springsteen, SiriusXM CEO Mel Karmazin appeared for a thirteen minute interview on Jim Cramer’s CNBC investment show Mad Money. There are two big questions on the mind of satellite radio watchers: will John Malone’s Liberty Media buy up more of SiriusXM, and […]
SiriusXM announced its 4th quarter 2011 results today, revealing that the company turned a profit and reached 8.7 million subscribers, with 1.7 net subscribers added last year. While those numbers apparently look good both to the company and investors, SiriusXM is only holding on to 44% of subscribers who get a free trial when they […]
It’s almost hard to believe that satellite radio is a decade old this year. Actually the XM service launched in September, 2001 while Sirius launched service in four states in February 2002. I remember clearly the hoopla around the debut of this new radio service, and devouring a feature article about XM in Sound and […]
This is certainly an indicator of strong growth for internet radio and streaming services. Music royalties agency SoundExchange announced Tuesday that it ended the year collecting $292 million in royalty payments, up 17% from 2010. These royalties are paid by internet, satellite and cable TV music-only services for the right to play sound recordings, and […]
