What is the up side of the channel cutting?

IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
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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.


Yes nothing beats a good rumour. Latest rumour is that it will be 11/15-11/17 instead of 11/05.

I find I listen to Sirius different than XM. With Sirius I listen to several channels over 1 week while XM I tend to stick with 1 channel for a longer period. But its not like going back to FM. It's not the end of the world to lose one over the other.

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.
 
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.


Well not the music so much as the DJs.

Two examples: Soul Street (60) & Fifties (5)

These channels have been gutted of their DJs. These were not idiots that just voicetracked 'that was' & 'this is.' They were knowledgable people who added interesting comments (trivia if you must) about the music. Channel 5 was also heavily into live listener interaction over the telephone, in-studio guests (live with listener question via the phone), & live coverage of events (Elvis anniversary - live reports from Graceland).

Browse around this site to see one of the many things we have lost....

www.mattthecat.com

I know many people don't like DJs at all & would rather hear just the music. If that's the situation, I would think that Slacker would be much better than what we are left with on XM channels 5 & 60.

.........just IMO.........as always your milagem may vary.
 

DAB

Mod Emeritus
Oct 9, 2008
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Oh I very well realize that DJ's add flavor to a channel there is little doubt about that. However, to already jump to the conclusion that all these channels will be crap because the former programmers or dj's are now gone doesn't make much sense to me. I think it is possible if Sirius does it right they can combine much of the programming from like channels and create some very good channels. Hopefully they understand they will need to have deeper playlist and will accomdate those folks on the XM side with that. This can still be done and remain hit based if you will. The problem with Sirius has always been shallow playlist with very little rotation of adds and removes. If they keep the playlist fresh with lots of adds and removals in a daily basis (in other words fresh playlist) I think the XM'ers will be okay. I also think the percentage of overall listerners that give two shits about the DJ's are very small and usually those that do will get over it fairly quickly.

The other side of this is this is a necessary evil if this company is to have any chance of surviving. It has to happen like it or not. Now how they went about it, well that I think does suck.
 
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.

We all know that broadcasting jobs have a high turnover but when all of the talent and the program director on a channel are fired at the same time there is a repudiation by management of what was going on with the channel, not simply cost reduction. At least 3 of the gutted channels were very well respected......maybe even the flagships of XM. Is management sending a message that this isn't what they want the new company to be like........or is there something even more nefarious going on here? Either way this stinks!

In the past, I have resisted the conspiracy theories but something is very wrong here. I am very close to joining the ranks of those that believe that management is not operating in the best interest of the shareholders.

btw SIRI closed at 0.31 today.
 

DAB

Mod Emeritus
Oct 9, 2008
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I can tell you that over the years that I've been involved with this company not only as a subscriber, but from my days at SBS when we attempted to build a working relationship with them. These folks talk out of both sides of their mouths and you can't trust anything they tell you. I don't give them much credit for anything.

However, I do think that no matter how small the perceived cost cutting maybe in doing this I think they still have to do it. It will be awhile before we'll see the stock rebound, right now SIRIUS is sort of caught in what is going with the economy as a whole.

Now with all that said, I don't see what they are doing as not being in the companies best interest. I think the way they've gone about it seems crazy, I think many will question their judgement and they may have in fact made some mistakes. Like I've said many times they are not famous for making real good decisions. Still I think whatever they are doing they do think it is in the best interest of the company as a whole going forward.
 

Rev. Jim

New Member
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 agree that this out wasn't handled very well.

I remember listening to Mel on the Opie and Anthony show after the merger was OK'd by the FCC - Mel said that he and Sirius had no real understanding of what XM's finances were like since they were prohibited from taking a deep look until they officially owned the company.

But the planning for th merger --- they had over a year to at least plan or think about what the company would like after they merged. They knew that there was a huge debt payment coming up in 2009; so that isn't a surprise. Things appear to be a little choppy on the Sirius XM management side.

Then again, I am speculating. Everything that has happened could be part of a grander plan that none of us know anything about.
 

Manco

Active Member
Oct 14, 2008
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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)
 

Jgatie

Banned
Oct 14, 2008
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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)

Not to mention downsizing, cost cutting and lawoffs are a sure sign that a company is serious about stopping the bleeding and people who buy stock like that stuff. Whether we like it or not, Sirius XM doesn't answer to us as much as they answer to the share holders and investors, because it's capital investments they need right now in order to survive.
 
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.
 

Jgatie

Banned
Oct 14, 2008
1,402
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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.

You are in a unique position, and I do not disagree with your assessment of the cuts. But if there is one thing I have learned, there are moves that will ensure longtime customer satisfaction, and there are moves that will ensure short term investor satisfaction, and these moves are diametrically opposed 99% of the time. Every time I've seen the latter moves consistently inplemented over the former, a golden parachute usually follows around 18 months later.

Ask me about my former CEO who sold every support contract he could to overseas sweatshops and then left with his 42 million right before the formerly stellar customer satisfaction reports dropped like a stone. 10 years later my (former) company is still strangled by contracts that have cost them 10 times more real dollars then they ever hoped to have saved.
 

MNXMFan

Member
Oct 24, 2008
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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.

MP3 players are nice, but the people you say that too would already be there if it were a viable solution.

XM talent really made the genre's live. The people behind the music lived and breathed the stuff. You can't replace that with an iPod.