The only problem with that is that he would now have to pay for everything and everyone up front and hope to recoup his costs through sales to listeners and/or affiliates. Sort of like Bubba. But I do agree that it would be nice if he were to move over to providing content rather than pushing a single type of delivery medium. I know there is value in being exclusive to one medium, but that benefit is more for the service provider rather than the content provider. As a content provider (which Howard really is) it would benefit him more if his content were available on every available platform and thus to a much bigger potential customer base.

I supposed. But did you hear him about two weeks ago when he talked about it? He sounded like he's already looking into it and knows everything about it.

Who knows.

Finally a way so that Artie and Robin will never be able to listen. I remember Artie saying something about the fact the main place people listen to the show is in their cars and trucks. Even if Wifi starts to expand it will be a huge undertaking for it to get into 1/4 of the vehicles that have Satellite now.

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maybe. but I hope he doesn't limit himself to internet radio. he should also do podcasts, maybe video podcasts, mp3 download, itunes, zune store, etc... They should do everything they can to make it easy for people to subscribe. Being on SatRad really makes it hard for people to listen to the show they way they used to when he was on FM.

That's the giveaway, once Howard professes to anything about a topic you can't bet the house and the land it sits on that he really doesn't know shit about what he's talking about.

Internet radio or podcasting? You mean the things he railed against once he found himself in sat radio?

Hilarious.

Howard Stern 3.0: The future of entertainment BuzzMachine

Howard Stern 3.0: The future of entertainment
We just got a glimpse of Howard Stern’s next life, I think. I was running errands today listening to a repeat of the show from this week when I heard Stern talk with a caller about what he could do on the internet. Thanks to my handy Sirius Satellite radio, I was able to – Tivo-like – back and up repeat what he’d just said and I wrote it down:


"Tomorrow I could go on the internet and start my own channel with my own subscribers. You’d be able to click and watch us on TV, watch us in the studio live, streaming. You’d be able to listen to us streaming. You’d be able to get us on your iPhone. You’d be able to do everything right at the click of the internet. I wouldn’t even need to work for a company. I’d be my own company… So true it’s ridiculous."

Sounds like more than idle admiration of technology to me. Stern has a year left on his contract on satellite. He’s so valuable to Sirius, they surely will make him an offer it would be hard to refuse. But I suspect that much of his last reported $500 million contract came in stock and that stock is now worth $0.59 (I know all too well, because I own some), so continuing with satellite would still be a gamble. Besides, he has plenty of money and no divorce settlement to pay off (or so it would certainly appear). This week, he was lambasting Rush Limbaugh for ripping off his listeners selling them T-shirt; in response to a question from Gary Dell’Abate, Stern said even an
extra $1 million wasn’t worth that. Could he be rationalizing a cut in pay?

On the internet, Stern would get the complete freedom he has long lusted after. He would share his revenue and value with no one but his staff. Now that we can listen to radio over the internet – on our internet-enabled phones – we can listen to him anywhere (is this why he has refused to allow Sirius to put him on the iPhone? I’m still unhappy about that). He would have direct relationships with his fans. He could charge them (and, yes, I would pay for it; he’s why I subscribe to satellite now … see, I am not a pay bigot). He could sell advertising in new ways. Fans could get him anywhere, anytime. If he’s smart – and he is – he could open up enough tidbits to go viral, letting his audience market him for free.

I wrote about Stern as a pioneer in my book. He rethought radio networks and built his own. He brought satellite radio to critical mass. But satellite radio was always a transitional technology, waiting for ubiquitous connectivity that would enable on-demand programming anywhere. (I tried to warn Sirius’ president, Mel Karmazin, here.) Now our phones can give us radio and soon Stern will be ready for them; they will make him portable.

There’s a larger trend at work here: Entertainers (radio, music, comedy, books, columnists, even filmmakers) will have direct relationships with their audiences. Like Stern, they won’t have to work for companies or go through them for distribution. That’s already happening, of course, on the web for creation, distribution, and monetization. That idea is even extending to funding. Look at Kickstarter – a Spot.US for creativity – where your most loyal fans who most want you to make something can fund or invest in it, maybe for nothing more than the privilege of helping you (this is the Wikipedia ethic). It returns to the age of patronage, only now the kings don’t fund the artists, the public does and less money is wasted on middlemen.

Maybe this is all wishful thinking. I’ve been dreading Stern’s retirement (but I think so is he). So I’m hoping that he makes the leap to the next generation and that others will follow his example. Am I reading too much into his conjecture about the internet? If I am, I’ll bet Karmazin is, too.

: Tim Windsor adds in the comments: “Sounds like Howard needs to make a pilgrimage to Leo Laporte’s TWiT Cottage to see how this can be done professionally for surprisingly little money.”

Right. Leo shows it all: how to do live video with chat and also distribute across many platforms.

Great post!

The 3.0 option is fraught with issues, chiefly what the hell to do technology wise with all his fans that listen to him in their cars? But it certainly is a huge weapon in his contact talks with Sirius.

Oprah Winfrey will end her syndicated show, report says -- DailyFinance

Oprah Winfrey will end her syndicated show, report says
Jeff Bercovici
Nov 5th 2009

Oprah Winfrey has been the queen of all media for most of the 23 years she's been on the air. But it looks like she's about to pull a Howard Stern -- packing up her free, over-the-airwaves broadcast and taking it to a more exclusive venue.

According to Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke, Winfrey is days away from announcing her decision to end her syndicated talk show with plans to resurrect the show on cable after the launch of the Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN. The Oprah Winfrey Show would cease to exist in its current form in mid-2011, when her syndication deal with CBS Corp.'s (CBS) CBS Television Distribution expires.

Stern made a similar move in 2005, jumping from CBS-owned Infinity Broadcasting to Sirius Satellite Radio, which offered him a $500 million contract on the premise that his presence would lead huge numbers of his fans to sign up for its service. Stern is now rumored to be thinking of leaving radio altogether in favor of broadcasting over the Web.)
A spokeswoman for Winfrey's company, Harpo Productions, says Finke's report isn't accurate: "[Winfrey] has not made a decision yet. As she's previously stated, she will be making an announcement before the end of this year."

But Winfrey can't put off the migration much longer if she hopes to make OWN a reality. Originally, the network, formed as a joint venture with Discovery Communications (DISCA), was supposed to go live this year. But the launch has been delayed amid turnover in the new venture's executive ranks.

Finke reports the new target launch date as first-quarter 2011. If that's so, you can be sure The Oprah Winfrey Show will turn up there sooner rather than later.

I don't think Howard's love of getting his angst out into the world via his mouth is now anywhere near his love of making money and living out his dream while doing nothing or next to nothing for the rest of his life.

The streaming and Internet and podcasting ventures are all dependent on spending money for bandwidth, something that Howard will never do. Which leads him to a corporate sponsor for a show. Does anyone see that happening?

Really, at this point, who cares?