Howard Stern's contract is up at the end of the year, and he is in talks to either renew (usually a 5 year deal) or flat out retire. He is being coy on his decision, but I still think he re-ups.

But what happens to Satellite Radio if he retires? I am getting a 6 month free subscription because I bought a new truck, and I wonder if I will renew my subscription if Stern does retire?

My question is simple: Does Satellite Radio need Howard Stern to essentially stay in business? Or am I overestimating the Howard Stern fanbase out there?

The reason I have Sirius is for Howard. As much as I like a lot of the stations on Sirius and the exclusive program they have from time to time, if Howard leaves so am I. I just have other means to listen to music in my car, (mostly cds in my case) that I couldn't justify keeping Sirius if i can't listen to Howard. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels that way and you'll see the company take a major hit in subscribers come January if Howard doesn't re-sign.

I can't even listen to the guy for 5 minutes without moving on.

I think satellite radio is on its last legs anyway. I've been on a 5/$25 promotion forever. They are begging for people. Truly, the Sirius may be more profitable WITHOUT Howard's huge syndication deal.

They may lose subscribers but gain revenue.

Don't know the answer to your question, but surely it will take a big hit. I got Sirius because of Howard when he moved over, but I will still be keeping the service if he does retire.

I know more than a few people who subscribe to satellite radio just for Stern's show. Other than that, it's pretty much a dinosaur between streaming music services and podcasts.

yup, i am also a subscriber for Stern. the price is just so absurdly expensive that i won't justify the cost anymore if he's not on. when my renewal was up earlier this year, they wanted $700 for 3 cars. that's fucking absurd. i got them down half that price, which was still over $100/car.

Are you sure you don't want to hear Lithium play the same 25 songs over and over or the comedy stations play the same Schumer and Gaffigan sketches 10 times a day?

I thought Sirius service was $15 a month (maybe cheaper paying for more than a month at a time?), how did it come out to $700 for 3 subs?

The show jumped the shark after Artie left. Its no different than Kelly and Michael now.

I don't think its a sustainable business model.

$45 * 12 = $540. Not sure either.

Sirius All Access is $18.99/month x 3 subs, plus "music rights fee" bullshit they charge. That equaled over $700 for the year.

Ah, internet access. Not worth it when Pandora is free.

They have gotten really bad about phoning it in with the playlists over the last year or so. I am finding more and more of the "oldies" stations just play the exact same songs in the exact same order on a cycle. And by "oldies" stations, I am talking about the ones that aren't playing new music. Hair Nation is a station I love but it is the worst about repeating the same playlists over and over.

The new music stations (Alt Nation, Octane, etc.) don't seem to do that (or as much that I notice it).

I don't even listen to Howard Stern and I think he came with my last subscription. I go thru stages with him where I listen for several weeks but then take several months off. I just like having something on my radio that is terrestrial and I don't have to worry about losing signal or fiddling with my phone to play something every time I get in the car.

But I will dump it again if they try to go up on me for my renewal next month. CDs and Spotify are fine with me.

If you're paying full price for a subscription, I feel sorry for you. I've had a subscription for 10 years and I've never paid full price. Just call and say you're going to cancel and they'll try and give you one of their current deals.

Those of us who pay full price are subsidizing those of you who don't[if we didn't pay full price they couldn't have survived this long with people only paying for partial subscriptions......think about it].

Exactly. I love the service, so I don't mind paying the price they are asking for it. $15 a month is not going to break me.

Totally doomed. Looked what happened to Clear Channel when he left terrestrial radio. And that was FREE!

I never listen to Stern. Ever. I did for a little while when he was on terrestrial radio, but got bored with him pretty quickly.

I listen to several stations - Ozzy's Boneyard, Hair Nation (especially Monday afternoons/evenings for Eddie Trunk's show), ESPN, Mad Dog Sports, 40's Junction, Radio Classics (Old Time Radio), etc - enough to keep me subscribing.

Stern leaving might allow them to cut regular prices and attract more new listeners. It's not like you can listen to streaming radio or podcasts on your car stereo (well, not without plugging your phone in and burning through data at a high rate - and the sound quality isn't great when you do that).

I'm not a subscriber, but Howard is the reason I utilize Sirius's 30 day trials. Haven't done so in a few months though, but I should for my commute.

Yeah, but David Lee Roth sucked it up on K-Rock right after Howard left, and the station itself never recovered. Plus, both Gary and Artie turned down opportunities to stay and have their own show. If your show is big enough that when you leave, they try to hire your producer as on-air talent, you're definitely doing something right.

I listen to podcasts religiously in the car, without burning through any data as they are downloaded locally as they update. And the sound quality is perfectly fine

Between podcasts and Audible, I barely listen to radio anymore. Even for Stern, who is still amusing but utterly emasculated since Artie left/was booted.

Anyway, I don't think Satellite Radio is doomed, but I think SirusXM will be even more a niche product than ever.

For you Stern fans, maybe check out Bennington 12-3 on Raw Dog. It's a pretty fun show.

This Bloomberg article is interesting. Apparently only 12% of Sirius subscribers listen to Stern, and only 5% would really care if he left. The financials are interesting too.

In January 2014, Macquarie surveyed 800 SiriusXM subscribers and found that while SiriusXM is available on the go for premium subscribers via Web and mobile apps, 84 percent of listening takes place in cars. Of the respondents, 12 percent said they listen to Stern—the equivalent of about 3.2 million listeners. Five percent said they’d consider leaving SiriusXM if Stern departed. A rough estimate suggests it could cost the company about $240 million in lost revenue annually if he left. For a company that generated $4.2 billion in revenue last year, that would be a substantial blow—but hardly crippling.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...eaval-in-radio

I'm pretty sure there are more than 800 people that subscribe to SiriusXM.

Wow, they generated 4.2 billion in revenue last year?! I know those aren't profits but thats still a shockingly high number. I would have guessed less that 500 mill.

But the whole point of a survey is to extrapolate data from a representative sample size. They're not going to get the thoughts of every single customer.