Tag Archives: SiriusXM Radio

Ad-Supported SiriusXM Requires No Paid Subscription

Eight years ago, I wrote an article for this blog titled “SiriusXM Radio is Now Free.” At the time I was speculating on what might happen to over-the-air commercial radio if the satellite company were to turn on their ad-supported channels in every vehicle equipped with a SiriusXM radio.

Well, it looks like that is finally coming to pass.

SiriusXM’s Growth Has Stalled

Fred Jacob’s wrote in his blog on Friday that…

SiriusXM, increasingly frustrated by their inability to grow their subscriber base.  Looking at the Netflix model, the satcaster earlier this week unveiled their own ad-supported tier for no fee.

Obviously, this is a radical departure from SXM’s legacy subscriber-driven platform.  Radio Ink reported that no matter how you look at the in-car battlefield, satellite lags far behind traditional radio listening.  SiriusXM, however, performs much better in luxury brand, such as Mercedes-Benz and Audio, as well as in newer vehicles.

Inside Radio says there are other hoops for drivers to jump through.  While SXM CEO Jennifer Witz says the new plan is all about “repositioning our business for the future,”  the story goes onto say the free service is only available to owners of vehicles with the company’s  360L receivers.   Additionally, eligibility is limited to those whose free trials runs out and can only be activated by one vehicle per customer.

But it’s a start.  While the company acknowledges it will take time to amp up the platform’s commercial options for advertisers, you can see that’s where they’re headed.  SiriusXM needs to jumpstart its user base, while cashing in on inventory sales.

Will it work?  Can a radical move to offer a “free” version of satellite radio actually be a game-changer for SXM.

We can all speculate about the wisdom of this risky move by SiriusXM, but like the growth of [other ad-upported] channels, it attempts to cash in on the notion of not paying cash for any media content.

Pay & Free

It doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to understand why satellite radio is deciding to have the best of both worlds. Offer the premium pay channels to those willing to pay for them and at the same time create a free tier of channels that could be ad supported by national advertisers.

What history shows us are things that happen in other industries and services – eventually making their way around to virtually all of them.

NOW – It’s only a matter of time.

Link to my 2016 blog article: https://dicktaylorblog.com/2016/07/17/siriusxm-radio-is-now-free/

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Best of the Blog 2017

73On this last Sunday of 2017, it’s a good time to look back at the year just past and share with you The Top 5 Most Read and shared blog articles from 2017. Maybe you missed them or perhaps you’d like to read them again.

To date I’ve published 180 articles that have been viewed around the world over 115,800 times.

My Most Read Article in 2017

My most read/shared article of this past year was “Coal Ain’t Coming Back & Neither is AM Radio”. It was published on August 20, 2017. It told the story of how the fate of the coal industry in America was akin to that of AM radio stations. America’s broadcast industry was built on AM radio beginning with the first commercial radio license issued in 1920. This article received the most comments of any I published this year and was widely shared.

Second Most Read Article of 2017

In April, I wrote an article based on a blog reader question titled “The Question Radio Itself Has Yet to Answer.” That big question was, “what can radio do that other media can’t.” I opened the issue to readers to share with me their thoughts before sharing mine. It stimulated lots of emails, sharing and discussion.

Third Most Read Article of 2017

My third most read article would be the follow-up article to the one above, “What Can Radio Do That Other Media Can’t.” It was in this article I shared some of the over fifteen pages of reader comments, as well as my own thoughts. In my summary, I boiled it down to 5 key things: Live, Local, Community, Companionship and Relevant.

Fourth Most Read Article of 2017

In October, after the FCC voted 3 to 2 to eliminate the Main Studio Rule, I wrote “Live & Local?” It posed the question about maintaining the first of the five key things radio can do that other media can’t I wrote about back in April.

In this article, I shared the observations of Maynard Meyer, a local radio manager and owner from Madison, Minnesota who concluded in his statement to the FCC in 2004, “From what I’ve seen through my personal experience, as soon as a hometown studio is closed and relocated, the local service is relocated as well.”

After the article published, Mr. Meyer emailed me and said he still felt the same in 2017 as he did back when he testified before the Federal Communications Commission 13-years earlier.

Fifth Most Read Article of 2017

And finally, the fifth most read blog article I wrote and saw lots of people sharing, was “Radio’s Best Feature.” In it, I wrote about the speed of change in our world today and how to expect it to keep accelerating going forward.

Radio needs to understand its role in humankind. Technology doesn’t transform our human nature.

Our need for love, touch, companionship and community will always be a part of our humanity no matter what technology brings.

Most Read Articles, Period

Two articles I’ve written continue to see lots of traffic and continue to be far and away the two most read on my blog.

They are “SiriusXM Radio is Now FREE” and “The Day the “Dumbest Idea” Invaded the Radio Industry.” Both articles have now been read over 7,000 times.

The first article I wrote for my blog was “Clear Channel Media & Entertainment becomes iHeartMedia” and it was read a total of five times.

Why I Blog

I blog for broadcasters, educators and students.

I blog to provide media mentorship and to pay-it-forward to the broadcasting industry that I have been a part of for 50-years.

I’m grateful for the more than 88,000 people from all over the world who have visited to read an article that caught their interest.

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Next week I will begin my fourth year of blogging with all new articles.

Thank You for reading.

Feel free to contribute your thoughts to the discussion in the comments. Together we can all learn by sharing our experiences, knowledge and wisdom.

Happy New Year!

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Filed under Education, Mentor, Radio, Sales