55 Million Satellite Radio Subscribers by 2010?
I saw this today and thought I should address it since I have beat up on Sirius and XM in the past. The article starts out with this startling figure but quickly comes back to a more realistic outlook.
I suppose you could take this a couple of ways. It could mean that they have a large untapped market to pursue. If only 23% of consumers are even interested at this point, there is a lot that they can do to increase the public's awareness of the products. Even better, if only 25% of those who are interested- about 6% of consumers- actually have their products, that means that there is a huge growth potential here.
You could also look at this way. If only 23% of consumers are interested and only 6% have purchased a technology that has been mainstream and heavily marketed for the last five years, then you may have a problem. That problem may be that people don't believe that your product has enough benefits to justify buying the equipment and paying an ongoing subscription fee. Partly this is because the alternative is free! Unlike broadcast television, broadcast radio reaches the majority of American homes free of noise and clutter. Oh yeah, and if you think you are going to convince people that your product is worth that investment, time is running short.
Right... and guess what, it only gets worse once Apple drops the next generation of cellular capability into the iPod and it becomes 100% connected to iTunes. That means not just music purchases, but podcasts and internet radio streams. So, who needs that satellite radio?
Patrick bemoaned the crapulence of the sat radio business model last month.
Twenty-three percent of the online consumers Jupiter Research interviewed expressed interest in the service, but only a quarter of them presently have a satellite radio. XM leads the nascent market for nationwide pay radio, with more than double the number of subscribers at rival Sirius Satellite Radio.
I suppose you could take this a couple of ways. It could mean that they have a large untapped market to pursue. If only 23% of consumers are even interested at this point, there is a lot that they can do to increase the public's awareness of the products. Even better, if only 25% of those who are interested- about 6% of consumers- actually have their products, that means that there is a huge growth potential here.
You could also look at this way. If only 23% of consumers are interested and only 6% have purchased a technology that has been mainstream and heavily marketed for the last five years, then you may have a problem. That problem may be that people don't believe that your product has enough benefits to justify buying the equipment and paying an ongoing subscription fee. Partly this is because the alternative is free! Unlike broadcast television, broadcast radio reaches the majority of American homes free of noise and clutter. Oh yeah, and if you think you are going to convince people that your product is worth that investment, time is running short.
"The primary challenges for Sirius and XM are price and competition with other portable media players and music services, such as iPods and iTunes, respectively," David Schatsky, senior vice president of research at Jupiter Research.
Right... and guess what, it only gets worse once Apple drops the next generation of cellular capability into the iPod and it becomes 100% connected to iTunes. That means not just music purchases, but podcasts and internet radio streams. So, who needs that satellite radio?
Patrick bemoaned the crapulence of the sat radio business model last month.
posted by Patrick at
7:39 PM
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