Where did the buzz go?

[TSS Taylor]

I am wondering if people think something happened to the positive Buzz over Satellite Radio lately and why it's lacking. Is it something to do with the channel changes or the way SIRIUS XM deals with the media and online? Or maybe you like the way things are and think the company is better than ever.

I'm looking for specific feedback for a project I'm working on. I'm going to take this feedback and it's going to be combined with some other feedback and it's going to be submitted to some people pretty high up. And yes I'm trying to be as elusive as possible on explaining what's going on

Thanks.

 

[Aaron]

I am more than satisfied with the results of the merged channel line-up. I'm not at all satisfied with how they kept us in the dark, and did a poor job of notifying us of upcoming changes.

If you could, please tell the suits we're fed up with all the single artist channels! :banghead:

 

[JJS]

The combined lineup could have turned out far worse. Plus, it's an austerity plan through the financial meltdown. Some day, dual receivers will predominate. But for now, the present lineup represents less choice of content than we had before. So there's little basis for buzz.

Sirius and XM channels can and probably should share on-air and programming teams...but should mix differently overnight, so that the XM Sinatra channel becomes more like High Standards, and the XM Opera channel more like Vox.

 

[drowe]

The merged channels seemed to take the worst from both services, the single-artist channels are a waste for the listeners, the best of XM? All these changes forced me away from sat radio. Add to that the terrible job they did notifying subscribers, advertising to new subscribers, and the stock that is in the tank. I don't have any faith that the service will survive in it's present form. Since there wasn't anything compelling for me to listen to, I cancelled my subscriptions while I could still get a refund for the yearly subscription I just paid and sold my radios while there was still a market. I still love the idea of sat radio and I'll be back if there is a reason, but for now it is slacker for me.

 

[Kryptonite]

There've been NO commericals about SiriusXM on TV. Honestly, the last TV commercial I remember was the one where the older formats of music kept knocking each other over in a domino effect with the Stiletto standing tall at the end.

The last media coverage I remember was when Howard did the "Christmas Tour" of Letterman, Conan(?), and Kimmel.

 

[Scales]

I did not like how they did not announce anything about the channel changes. Had I not been on internet forums, It would have come to a total shock to me. I realize things needed to be merged, I don't have an issue with that.

I do not like that we have not seemed to get a straight, or honest answer regarding the censorship issue, which seems to effect some channels, but not others.

I know financial times are rough, but It is very hard for me to fathom how they can justify not re-signing Bubba. Maybe he does not bring a lot of new subscribers, but he sure keeps a lot of them happy, and listening to the radio 20 hours a week. It is hard for me to not lose faith in leadership that can not justify spending a bit more money to keep Bubba, but can justify signing new people like Mad Dog.

 

[Vargas]

I am wondering if people think something happened to the positive Buzz over Satellite Radio lately and why it's lacking. Is it something to do with the channel changes or the way SIRIUS XM deals with the media and online? Or maybe you like the way things are and think the company is better than ever.

I'm looking for specific feedback for a project I'm working on. I'm going to take this feedback and it's going to be combined with some other feedback and it's going to be submitted to some people pretty high up. And yes I'm trying to be as elusive as possible on explaining what's going on

Thanks.

I still love SiriusXM and I'm actually ok with the merged channels. They took away a couple of good ones, but nothing I can't live without.

However, there is ZERO BUZZ SiriusXM this Christmas. I haven't seen any ads, no media coverage, no promotion, no nothing. I know times are tough and they have some debt to consolidate but they need to promote themselves. Maybe they're waiting for a cool new player to come out but they need to keep themselves out there.

 

[hank-the-dwarf]

For me the Buzz died when the punk channel was lost(even a little before with the repeditive playlists).Also all the wedding talk on the Stern show.Once i found pandora and slacker that was all she wrote.

 

[TSS Taylor]

These are good points. Keep it going

 

[HecticArt]

For me, the lack of proper planning before merging the channels was a major mistake.

- There is too much redundancy between channels now.
- Censored music is unacceptable.
- Not making sure that the songs from XM's library were tagged properly to
work with Sirius receivers is a problem.
- Boombox should come back

In general, it seems like the channel merge was rushed through. Programming seems to have been consolidated by only a couple of people that aren't familiar with all genres of SiriusXM music.

 

[v1ru5]

I am wondering if people think something happened to the positive Buzz over Satellite Radio lately and why it's lacking. Is it something to do with the channel changes or the way SIRIUS XM deals with the media and online? Or maybe you like the way things are and think the company is better than ever.

I'm looking for specific feedback for a project I'm working on. I'm going to take this feedback and it's going to be combined with some other feedback and it's going to be submitted to some people pretty high up. And yes I'm trying to be as elusive as possible on explaining what's going on

Thanks.

IMO there's no buzz PERIOD because all the buzz is among those of us that already have Satrad. Sirius, stop preachin' to the choir.

 

[TSS Taylor]

IMO there's no buzz PERIOD because all the buzz is among those of us that already have Satrad. Sirius, stop preachin' to the choir.

I disagree. The momentum of the service is from subscribers who tell their friends about it. Convincing friends to get satellite radio because all I do is talk about how much I love it is far easier and cheaper than convincing people by pushing the service on others.

 

[Grüpsaar]

I do feel a bit mad that there is no huge ads or any sort of publicity for Sat Rad anymore. The only time I see Siriusxm on tv anymore is for a vehicle commercial saying it comes with sirius, or a radioshack commercial. No actual ads for the service itself, no media coverage, no store displays.

 

[Vargas]

Problems as I see them:

1. Nothing exciting enough to entice new subs. If you love Howard, you already have it. Everyone knows that Sirius has NFL and Nascar and yes, that probably leads to a few stragglers here and there but all in all, there is nothing NEW to promote.

2. The merged channels, while necessary, did nothing to help and is actually more confusing now. Despite having SiriusXM I still really only have Sirius because despite being the same company I can't get MLB or O and A, or OPRAH, etc. Same for former XM customers--they pay extra for Stern but might get NFL???????? If it is one service, MAKE IT ONE SERVICE, give me everything and just charge me $14.99 a month instead of $12.99, I know they can't raise prices as this was a concession of the merger (STUPID concessions).

3. ZERO promotion. Haven't heard a word about anything. Not the best move during the busiest shopping season of the year.

4. Stop Trying to be everything to everyone. Let's face it. SiriusXm is a device for guys. Yes, women listen too but the male is usually the buyer of the radio. You cant' have everything. Target a certain demo, gear your programming toward that demo and advertise to that demo. You should be top of mind to a particular group of people and then expand from there.

5. Need new radios with new accessories that people that walk around with and show off. Most likely, the people that bought the Ipod Touch and Iphone already had an MP3 player and already had a cell phone. Guess what, the Ipod touch is cooler so they bought it, flaunted it and then more people bought it because of its coolness. When I got my SL2, people would comment on how cool it was. I'm ready to upgrade but have nothing to buy. I've had the SL2 since it came out in September of 07---in the MP3 player world, this translates to about 4 years------WAY too long.

6. ZERO placement in the Big Box stores. Every person out there recognizes that Sat-Rad is cool and better than regular radio. Most people have probably been in a car that had sat. rad. Yet, when all of these potentiall people walk into a Best Buy or Circuit City, they see NOTHING promoting the fact. I know CC and BB would rather sell $1200 laptops and Big Screen TV's but for Sirius to be buried in the back of the store is a loser. You actually have to LOOK for it rather than just stumble across it. This is a major problem.

 

[out of control]

My feelings were strong that the merger was going to loose subscribers in the process, and that the merger was not going to save the company long term. Post merger would be a mess. In my opinion my feelings became reality.

Problem with sat service is the following......

1.equipment is expensive
2.can be hard to get a signal for some
3.subs get confused on installation process
4.weak customer service with lack of training
5.sound quality is very weak
6.too many alterations in the channel line up - they will change the line up- then not update things like logos, etc.
7.Monthly package pricing is high compared to overall service quality

In my mind the monthly sub fee is cheap, but not worth it because the listening product is lousy. At this time the whole thing is just really sloppy with the merger. Is it two companies or one right now ? The SiriusXM company name is very confusing. Having separate web sites, customer service, billing depending on who you sub with is too confusing and not convenient. I see no buzz for the service at all. The company is doing a good job of digging their burial site all by themselves.
Internet radio is the future in my opinion, and sat radio can not compete with it. Listening "on the go" with cell phones, G2 type devices, etc.

I think the state of the industry struggling speaks for itself, and verifies my comments to be very relevant.

 

[joe2k4]

I hate the fact some programs aren’t consistent. For example Rick Dees weekly top 40 has been on pop2k at 9 pm on Sundays and tonight it isn’t there, and they took it off the XM schedule on there web page. I just wish I could learn to trust something am tired of finding something and then it being taken away. I don’t have a problem with the post merger channels; I have been enjoying 90’s on 9 and pop2k. I miss Hotjamz, but whatever. I also have an XM radio because I enjoy having Fox Sports radio, and I encourage my friends to buy SAT radio, but I wish I could just rely on there schedules.

 

[joe2k4]

Oh and bring classic games back to MLB Homeplate, I miss that.

 

[ProperModulation]

If they really want something big to attract new customers, they need to get rid of the "best of" stuff and make ALL the channels part of the basic service for the regular rates (at least as much as they can given bandwidth limitations). I think that would make the service much more attractive to potential customers and make existing customers more likely to add radios. I've had a broken radio in my truck for a few months now and I hate to say that I am in no hurry to replace it. If they added the best of XM to the base Sirius package at no extra cost, I would re-activate it in a heartbeat. This is especially true on the Sirius side as the "Best of XM" package is kinda weak.

I've been turned off by several less-than-satisfactory CS experiences over the past year. I got tired of having to replace broken radios then having to deal with poor quality customer service reps. Calling CS feels like a craps shoot as you never know what they are going to mess up with your account. The funny thing is that I have received much better service from the Indian call centers! And stop with the petty fees for anything and everything. I understand the need to make money, but nickel and diming your customers to death isn't the way to do it. Don't act like you are doing me a favor by waiving the $15 fee to swap a broken tuner as there should not be a fee for that in the first place!! It now feels like dealing with a cell phone company when you deal with Sirius, and that's NOT a good thing.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I would suggest that they support the devices they have with timely firmware updates, fixes to issues reported. Its been over a month and my SL2 still does not have logos for the new channels and I can't love a song on 1/2 of them. Changing logos is not rocket science.

 

[DAB]

For me this is pretty simple; lack of communication from Sirius Corporate to subscribers. I have said for a very long time that it was my feeling that Sirius Management has isolated themselves from subscribers for so long that they honestly don't know what subscribers want. There is a very huge disconnect between Sirius Management and Subscribers, this is evident by Karmazin and Greenstein's most recently public communications.

I understand the merger was necessary and I also understand that they needed to merge channels in order to try to save as much operating expense as they possibly could. I do not necessarily agree with every aspect of the changes, but for the most part I am happy with them. I do believe this forum as with any forum tends to pick up those that are unhappy and the most vocal. But I do not necessarily believe it is representative of subscribers as a whole. I've said that most were more upset about the changes happening with no notification vs the actual changes themselves. This very thread more or less proves that out.

The stock is down and it seems that buzz is gone. But I think the buzz was gone long before the merger. I think the 17 months of these companies sitting idle has caused most of this. Them not having the money to do a large Holiday ad campaign was not good. I am not sure how they expect to grown the business without trying to build a buzz with advertising. However, even with all that I do not think Sat Radio is done. I still believe that Mel will come up with the fianancing to pay their debt that is due.

It is possible that Sirius will need a new management team to eventually get beyond this hump. I do feel that Mel as a CEO is good, but Mel as a program manager just doesn't work. Mel needs to stick to working on getting loans, working with creditors and trying to build the business. He needs to back away from micro managing the music programming and allow the professionals that work for him to do this. I think they need to become more transparent about decisions. They need to build a relationship with subscribers because this is what build loyalty. They also need to give subscribers a direct means of communicating with programmers, so that this would allow them to tweak channels and even remove and/or add channels based on direct subscriber feedback. This too would go a long way in building some subscriber support and loyalty. The problem is that no one right now is loyal to sat radio, but then sat radio hasn't given us a reason to be loyal.

I think there have been many mistakes made, the length of time it took for the merger approval. The poor planning that took place prior to and right after merger approval. The fact that many channels don't work with the song artist seek on Sirius tuners. The fact that the music libraries were not properly setup so that channels that should have had uncensored non fm radio version would not have gone through this issue. Plus I think that reducing some genres as they did was not appropriate, though I do understand there is only so many channels they can have. But I think I could have done this change without sacraficing so many popular channels, but then again my choices would have just pissed off others, so it truly wouldn't be easy. Sirius also needs to actually provide real support to the tuners they have on the market. If you are going to have tuner with channel icons and wallpapers, then you need to make sure you keep them updated. This also makes subscribers feel like Sirius doesn't give a crap after they made an investment in a high end radio.

I still think sat radio is going to make it. I understand some have canceled, but I still don't buy that it as many as it seems reading forums. While I know there have been cancelations the question is will the net ads and churn just cross each other out while there be a net loss after the holiday season or will there actually be a net gain when all said and done.