Sirius XM has signed a new five-year deal with infamous ’shock jock’ Howard Stern, one that will pay him somewhere between $80-$100 million per year.
Stern’s current 5-year $500 million deal expires at the end of the year.
As part of the new deal, the shock jock can also be streamed via mobile/Internet apps, such as those found on the Apple iPhone and Android smartphones, alongside satellite radio devices.
Stern’s first deal blocked the host from being on Internet sources.
Since Stern’s original contract was signed, Sirius’ subscriber base has jumped from 600,000 to 19 million.
Result for: subscriber base
Nearly a third of all Netflix subscribers with broadband internet connections stream video to their TVs using the company’s Watch Instantly service according to a new report from TDG.
That figure includes 24.6% who use both their computer and TV for Netflix streaming and 7.2% who watch exclusively on a TV. Another 30.7% only use their computer.
Even though the remaining 37.5% don’t use the service at all, the majority are at least familiar with it.
The increasing number of viewers streaming video to TVs is a reflection of the company’s long term thinking. In fact Netflix has taken a smart approach to the streaming business from the very beginning, when it was little more than a novelty.
Perhaps the most important detail of their strategy has been the understanding that some things are worth more when you give them away.
That’s not to say streaming video has no value. But its value hasn’t been in producing a unique revenue stream. Instead they’ve used it to promote their DVD by mail business and help them continue to increase their subscriber base.
The decision not to charge extra for streaming has allowed them to make other good decisions, such as avoiding overpriced content deals.
The number and variety of titles available initially through Watch Instantly was extremely limited. There were no big hit movies or TV shows when the service debuted in 2007.
Had they been charging extra to use the service that would probably have been the kiss of death. But they weren’t. As a result, anything they offered was a bonus.
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Result for: subscriber base
South Korea, the latest nation to begin offering the Apple iPhone, has seen about 60,000 units sold on launch day, a far cry from the 1 million sold in the US for the iPhone 3GS but a large bump from the estimated 5000 sold in the first week in China.
The phone is available through carrier KT Corp, and Korea has one of the largest mobile phone subscriber bases in Asia.
“We’re hoping that this iPhone will be a trigger point for the smartphone market in Korea,” says Yang Hyun-mi, KT’s chief strategy officer. Hyun-mi also offered that smartphones only control 1 percent of the mobile market in the nation.
Korean-based Samsung and LG dominate the market but have stayed away from smartphones due to government regulations.
