ADVERTISEMENT

Peter Bart The Backlot
It May Be Hip to Cut TV Cord,
but in Radio, the Bundle Is Boss
With a captive listenership, SiriusXM drives a bargain with its mix of politics, music and talk
Some seven of
every 10 new
vehicles come
equipped with a
trial SiriusXM
subscription,
and roughly
40% of the
buyers pay $15
to $18 a month
to maintain
the service.”
@mrpeterbart
It’s become abundantly clear to me lately
that my tastes are veering away from the
mainstream (wherever that is). For example,
I still peer at my TV screen, even
though 57% of the young demo now disdains
that device as a source of entertainment.
I still use my smart phone to call
people, but the 18-24 set absorbs 40 plus hours a
month of entertainment on their phones, making
chats irrelevant. I still watch sports on ESPN, but 3
million subscribers dumped it this year alone. And
while every media pundit is predicting the end of
TV bundling, I have not only renewed my TV bundle,
but even added a radio one.
Yes, radio. I signed up for SiriusXM last
week, thus inflicting upon myself a 150-channel
blast of music, politics, comedy and random
noise, again realizing that my interest in radio
was counter-cultural. Further, I did so mindful
that Howard Stern, the king of all yakkers, who’d
signed a widely heralded $500 million deal with
SiriusXM a decade ago, had not yet renewed (a
silent Stern?). On the other hand, a range of new
talkers like Andy Cohen, Jenny McCarthy and Sandra
Bernhard are now holding forth at the Sirius
stable, and it’s also about to add a real-time radio
news service, updated at 10- minute intervals (news
also is said to be out of the mainstream for the
young demo).
The savvy talent impresario energizing this
radio bundle is Scott Greenstein, who once ran
indie film companies like October and USA Films.
At any given moment, the corridors of SiriusXM
rumble with the shouts and murmurs of sports
gurus like Stephen A. Smith, preachers like Joel
Osteen and a range of vintage disc jockeys like
Downtown Julie Brown and Cousin Brucie, who
curates ’60s music and prattles about his John Lennon
interviews. Also holding forth is a full spectrum
of political advocates ranging from far left
to far right, from Progressive to Patriot (the list
includes Variety’s Ted Johnson).
Greenstein’s mission is to generate more
energy and controversy than commercial radio
does , and thus satisfy the cravings of his 29 million
subscribers, most of whom are locked in their cars
during traffic jams. His major advantage:
Some seven of every 10 new vehicles come equipped
with a trial SiriusXM subscription, and roughly
40% of the buyers pay $15 to $18 a month to
maintain the service. The upshot of this , according
to analytical firm Gabelli Research, is consistent
growth of 10% annually , yielding revenues of
$4.5 billion last year. By subscribing, listeners can
side-step much of the blizzard of advertising on
commercial radio, as well as the narrow ideological
cacophony of Limbaugh land.
All of this has fueled my proclivity toward bundles,
both of radio and TV networks. While I don’t
like the cost, I like the choice. And the chaos. But
then I also prefer to phone people rather than texting
them. And there’s that damn TV habit.
BRATISLAV MILENKOVIC
26
Voices