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XM financial trouble



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 5th 06, 12:33 AM posted to rec.aviation.ifr
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Default XM financial trouble

I just brought my XM service then found this:
http://www.katu.com/stories/83441.html

Any inside scoop?

  #2  
Old March 5th 06, 06:17 AM posted to rec.aviation.ifr
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Default XM financial trouble

" wrote:

I just brought my XM service then found this:
http://www.katu.com/stories/83441.html

Any inside scoop?


No inside scoop, but as a ten year customer of Dish Network, the satellite
TV provider, I recall several similar articles about Dish back in the late
90s.

Let's hope XM retains or finds the management talent to weather this
short-term storm. Or perhaps Microsoft will step in, buy them out, and
save the day.

--
Peter
  #3  
Old March 5th 06, 04:30 PM posted to rec.aviation.ifr
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Default XM financial trouble


"Peter R." wrote in message
...
" wrote:

I just brought my XM service then found this:
http://www.katu.com/stories/83441.html

Any inside scoop?


No inside scoop, but as a ten year customer of Dish Network, the satellite
TV provider, I recall several similar articles about Dish back in the late
90s.

Let's hope XM retains or finds the management talent to weather this
short-term storm. Or perhaps Microsoft will step in, buy them out, and
save the day.

--
Peter


XM has six million paying subscribers and I believe the article said that
revenue has doubled from the year before. A hundred percent increase in
revenue per year means that XM is not going anywhere. They are just fine.
What I suspect is happening is that XM knows that when everyone has chosen a
subscription with either Sirius or XM then the market will be saturated and
very few customers will ever change providers so its important to get all
your customers signed up now. Thus they have decided to spend their revenue
signing up new subscribers this year to lock in decades of future profits.
Smart investors know this so they put out articles saying how XM is
operating at a loss driving the price of the stock down so they can buy in
to XM stock cheap this year and then rake in the cash later.


  #4  
Old March 7th 06, 07:22 AM posted to rec.aviation.ifr
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Default XM financial trouble

On Sun, 05 Mar 2006 15:30:53 GMT, "ted" wrote:


"Peter R." wrote in message
...
" wrote:

I just brought my XM service then found this:
http://www.katu.com/stories/83441.html

Any inside scoop?


No inside scoop, but as a ten year customer of Dish Network, the satellite
TV provider, I recall several similar articles about Dish back in the late
90s.

Let's hope XM retains or finds the management talent to weather this
short-term storm. Or perhaps Microsoft will step in, buy them out, and
save the day.

--
Peter


XM has six million paying subscribers and I believe the article said that
revenue has doubled from the year before. A hundred percent increase in
revenue per year means that XM is not going anywhere. They are just fine.
What I suspect is happening is that XM knows that when everyone has chosen a
subscription with either Sirius or XM then the market will be saturated and
very few customers will ever change providers so its important to get all
your customers signed up now. Thus they have decided to spend their revenue
signing up new subscribers this year to lock in decades of future profits.
Smart investors know this so they put out articles saying how XM is
operating at a loss driving the price of the stock down so they can buy in
to XM stock cheap this year and then rake in the cash later.


If XM were really in trouble my Sirius would have doubled. Instead
it's down about 30% in a lst couple of weeks.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

  #5  
Old March 8th 06, 02:39 PM posted to rec.aviation.ifr
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Default XM financial trouble

In article ,
Roger wrote:
If XM were really in trouble my Sirius would have doubled. Instead
it's down about 30% in a lst couple of weeks.



Which only goes to prove that Sirius is in even more trouble.

As long as folks are willing to throw money at the satellite radio
ventures, they won't be "in trouble." I do wonder, however, about how
$12/month is going to sustain the contracts for tens or hundreds of
millions of dollars for on-air talent; at some point, there has to be a
line in the sand for the providers. I suspect that, in the end, ad
revenue will be too lucrative to pass up, and the "commercial free"
channels will start to disappear.



JKG
  #6  
Old March 8th 06, 05:36 PM posted to rec.aviation.ifr
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Default XM financial trouble

On Wed, 08 Mar 2006 08:39:48 -0500, Jonathan Goodish
wrote:

In article ,
Roger wrote:
If XM were really in trouble my Sirius would have doubled. Instead
it's down about 30% in a lst couple of weeks.



Which only goes to prove that Sirius is in even more trouble.

As long as folks are willing to throw money at the satellite radio
ventures, they won't be "in trouble." I do wonder, however, about how
$12/month is going to sustain the contracts for tens or hundreds of
millions of dollars for on-air talent; at some point, there has to be a
line in the sand for the providers. I suspect that, in the end, ad
revenue will be too lucrative to pass up, and the "commercial free"
channels will start to disappear.

Well, I for one hope that Sat Radio sticks around. I have one, along
with about 5 other friends and we all like it much better than local
stations. When they first came out, I was like you. I thought, who
would buy this technology? They would have to be crazy to pay for
radio. After going on a flight with a buddy that had one, I was very
much thrilled to have a good time radio while going cross country. I
liked the fact that I could listen to what ever I chose and not loose
reception.

I somehow got stuck in the 80's as far as music is concerned and I
like being able to select just the 80's music or talk radio. What ever
your pleasure, its there in full abundance. To me its like paying for
Cable or Sat TV. You pay to have the availability of options. I bet
there were people saying the same thing about cable ventures when they
first started popping up. They figured that why should they pay for TV
as long as they can get it for free with the antenna that they have
sticking 30 feet in the air off the back of the house. That's fine if
you want to watch the same 2 or 3 stations all the time, but if you
want other options, you pay for it. Its just that simple.

As far as the commercial free stations are concerned, that is not
what drew me to Sat Radio so its not a big deal if they play a few
commercials every once in a while.


Scott D.

take out the obvious to email me
  #7  
Old March 8th 06, 07:47 PM posted to rec.aviation.ifr
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Default XM financial trouble

Scott D wrote:
As far as the commercial free stations are concerned, that is not
what drew me to Sat Radio so its not a big deal if they play a few
commercials every once in a while.



Well, it is to me. When the commercials hit the airwaves on satellite, I'll be
seriously rethinking whether I want it or not. Right now there are two big
advantages to me: I can drive incredible distances and never lose the station,
and the fact that it's commercial free. When they start playing commercials I'd
have to ask why do they need my $12.95 each month.

You know, I love TIVO for essentially the same reason: I can blow past the
commercials on recorded shows. Typically I prefer recorded stuff to live for
exactly that reason. If TIVO ever interfered with my ability to fast forward,
I'd have to rethink whether I needed them or not in the future.

Opinions vary, I guess.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE


  #8  
Old March 9th 06, 01:08 AM posted to rec.aviation.ifr
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Default XM financial trouble

In article ,
"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" wrote:
Well, it is to me. When the commercials hit the airwaves on satellite, I'll
be
seriously rethinking whether I want it or not. Right now there are two big
advantages to me: I can drive incredible distances and never lose the
station,
and the fact that it's commercial free. When they start playing commercials
I'd
have to ask why do they need my $12.95 each month.


I agree. While satellite radio does provide some benefits other than
commercial-free, the commercial-free aspect to the music station is a
big draw.

My wife and I are planning to cancel our cable television service soon
because of the incessant commercials and the fact that there's rarely
anything worth watching on the cable channels. It just isn't worth the
$50/month that we pay for basic cable to watch "World Poker Tour" all
weekend on the Travel Channel (explain what poker has to do with travel.)

The problem with commercials is that there are way, way too many of
them, both on television and radio. The money is too easy. I don't
want to listen to a commercial every 2 songs, or endure 20 minutes of
commercials every hour because the station plays "more songs in a row
than any other station." XM already runs commercials on some channels,
albeit their own commercials, which are annoying enough. And of course,
the news and talk stations (some just a simulcast with television) have
commercials. However, the first time I get an ad banner that pops up
along side the weather on my Garmin 396, satellite radio is going into
the dumper.



JKG
  #9  
Old March 9th 06, 03:40 PM posted to rec.aviation.ifr
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Default XM financial trouble


"Jonathan Goodish" wrote in message ...

My wife and I are planning to cancel our cable television service soon
because of the incessant commercials and the fact that there's rarely
anything worth watching on the cable channels.


Welcome aboard...we (family) did it four years ago and I can count on one
hand the times we missed it (most notably during the Iraq invasion).

The problem with commercials is that there are way, way too many of
them, both on television and radio.


Worse is how utterly annoying (dare I say 'insulting' ?) the vast majority
are.

Instead of cable, each month we put the money into adding towards our very
nice collection of DVD's. We have about 200 now.



  #10  
Old March 19th 06, 04:20 AM posted to rec.aviation.ifr
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Default XM financial trouble

On Wed, 08 Mar 2006 08:39:48 -0500, Jonathan Goodish wrote:

I do wonder, however, about how
$12/month is going to sustain the contracts for tens or hundreds of
millions of dollars for on-air talent; at some point, there has to be a
line in the sand for the providers.


Keep in mind that, aside from acquisition costs, new customers cost
nothing. That is, the infrastructure is the same for one customer or one
trillion customers. There *is* a number of customers where $12/month
covers that infrastructure.

I've no idea whether or not they can reach that number, mind you. I don't
even know if the number is greater or lessor than the number of people on
the planet grin.

I hope they succeed. I haven't purchased their service (I don't listen to
much music), but (1) I like having the option and (2) I like the aviation
products and I hope at least to purchase that at some point.

- Andrew

 




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