XM financial trouble

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

Any inside scoop?

" 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

"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.

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

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

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

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