I would expect cancellations to increase dramatically in the short run.
So, the upside of the channel cutting will be customers getting offered and then accepting free subscriptions for awhile.
I would expect cancellations to increase dramatically in the short run.
It's interesting to see how many people are jumping ship over speculations.
When I decided to subscribe to satellite radio just over a year ago, I had looked at the line-ups of both services: the music, sports, and news channels. Both had programming I liked, Sirius just had more of what I wanted, such as NASCAR and Radio Margaritaville. I listen to at least a few hours a day, and I guess I never have noticed this lack of quality in music some people say there is, if I didn't like what was on one channel, there were many others to choose from from my presets.
Well I've been listening and if you listen to music, you'd never know anything was going on at XM. I think for folks that don't read blogs or forums on the subject probably don't know anything is even up.
That being said ... Sirius XM has not handled this well at all. They should have done this big bang (layoffs and format changes same time) or released the information and a date to avoid the speculation 1/2 of which will be wrong.
I have been thinking a great deal about this in the last few days & it just does not make sense. The savings are minimal (I read someone estimated $8 million/year.) and it seems like just the wrong people were let go.
They have to cut costs dramatically to survive. 8M is a big amount, and you need a several more of those 8M savings in order to get to some reasonable financial health. Right now it's about survival. The stock is trading for a quarter (.25)
Whether we like it or not, Sirius XM doesn't answer to us as much as they answer to the share holders and investors,
I'm sorry. I should have disclosed my position.
I owned both SIRI & XMSR shares before the merger. The worst buy was a block of XMSR in 2005 at $31 (yes I'm an idiot). I still own shares. I have been holding on out of faith in the product......no hope of ever reclaiming my investments. I voted no on the merger. I intend to go to the December shareholder meeting in NY.
Over the years I have been a big supporter of Satellite radio.......both companies.
While I am certainly not happy with the money that I have lost, I am much more upset about what I perceive to be the recent reduction in the quality of the programming.
Latest example: Instead of Igor we get a sound effects channel for Halloween.
if people were that die-hard about their music, then i would speculate the weren't much of a satellite radio fan but a fan of the music genre. if you filled up an mp3 player of those songs and artists these people liked and replaced it for their reciever, i don't think they would notice that much of a difference.