How Serious are You on Keeping Sirius after the Rate Hike?
Sirius, originally uploaded by destikon
We’re a little bit late here, as this news dropped on listeners a few days ago, but better late than never is what we always say… and we can pretty much guarantee that is what Sirius executives are saying (or should we rather say praying) at the moment!
For those of you who have been enjoying Sirius satellite radio is your vehicle over the past few years, there are going to be a few changes in store for you which could be both a good or bad thing for both you and Sirius.
If you who have been on the fence as to whether or not you are going to keep your service subscription with Sirius, this may be the final insult to knock you right off. Sirius has announced that they will be kicking up their subscriptions up $2 starting March 11th, plus an additional $2.99 for online Internet radio (128 k).
Their plan is to either get people to lock in the lower rate before March 11th, or if that doesn’t happen, to at least enjoy the increased funds of those who are planning to stay aboard, and those who will join after the deadline. This is of course a last ditch effort to save them from the fire (debt).
Heck, all they’d have to do is skim a little off the top of Howard sterns several million a year paycheck and they would be back in the green again. But that would just be too easy! No, instead they plan on the help of their loyal listeners to see the sense of locking-in a 3-year subscription of the current rate while they still can.
The problem with this plan, is just how many loyal listeners do they have left. There has been talk of a lot of unhappy listeners after XM merged with Sirius and a lot of popular themed stations were axed. Back in November, their stocks were at $0.25 a share, and today their last trade is sitting at just a little over $0.10.
They have received the coveted prize for worst stock for 2009 by MSNBC, who reminds us that satellite radio may be a siriusly (pun intended) endangered species on the auto forefront. At this moment in time Sirius has a lot weighing against them, such as Apple’s iPod, Ford’s Sync, and Internet radio.
So the “techno-geek” question of the day, is will Sirius be around long enough for you to get the full use out of that 3-year locked-in low rate? Well, lock in and find out if you dare…
Source: Sirius buzz
