Yeah, unfortunately with Mel "the Genius" in charge schlock will always trump quality. However, let's not be too pessimistic about all this. There are significant differences between the satellite radio business and the cable (and even satellite) television business that will inevitably drive decisions. Radio--as we are all fond of saying here--is also a much different medium than television.
For one thing, subscription radio by its very nature will always be of interest to a distinct minority of users (especially when compared with subscription television). It's going to have to appeal to niche users willing to part with some treasure every month. That's a rather tall order. Terrestrial radio will always cater and appeal to the mainstream listener and they can get that for free. Even the most dense of Americans will figure this out for themselves (if they haven't already). If Mel doesn't figure it out soon, even he'll be out the door. The key to his (and his merged company's) survival, after all is said and done, is a sustained rise in the share price. Mel's mass market approach hasn't accomplished this. (Quite the reverse has happened in point of fact.) Smart leaders change course when confronted with failure. Maybe Mel is sincere when he says there will be more and better diverse choices in programming because, in truth, that's the only path to success. I'm already on record as fearing that we're just creating a version of Clear Channel on steroids; but that is a worst case scenario and-- fortunately--best and worst case scenarios never actually emerge whole. It's always somewhere in the middle. Let's hope that middle ultimately leans more in our preferred direction. John Figliozzi ----- Original Message ----- From: Lee Reynolds <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thursday, March 22, 2007 2:09 am Subject: [Swprograms] La plus ca change... To: [email protected] > Re. Richard's posting - > > "Once merged, a-la-carte packages would be offered that provide > variouschannel mixes at rates less than $12.95/month. Such > packages "...will > include an attractive mix of music, news, informational, sports, > children's, and religious programming...." > >snip< > Wonder if a "public radio bouquet" would be offered?" > > Want to bet that you'll find they're rapidly going down the cable > TV road as > regards packages? > > I bet when the time comes you'll find 'packages' that consist of > one or two > highly desirable channels interlarded with unlistenable crap - the > audio-only > analogs of cable packages that force you to accept 30 channels of > cubic ziconia > programming for each channel that is actually wanted. > > I think that we'll soon be seeing the radio equivalents of garbage > like QVC and > HSN paying Siruis/XM to be carried by them and their streams > placed in > subscriber packages. > > Because of this additional revenue stream Sirius/XM will *not* be > allowing the > peasantry to buy by the individual channel. > > It was fun while it lasted but the mediocre *always* drives out > the good in > present day society. > > Lee > _______________________________________________ > Swprograms mailing list > [email protected] > http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms > > To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > dx.com?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above. > _______________________________________________ Swprograms mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], or visit the URL shown above.
