Siruus / Fox News

[netcommsj]

Well, I'll be ordering my XM radios tomorrow.

I gave Sirius until February 1st to get Fox News back. It doesn't look like that is going to happen. Only 6 days left. I'll be cancelling three subscriptions next Wednesday.

The only thing I will miss on Sirius will be The Jay Thomas Show. Music is music. The thing that differentiates the two services is the talk shows. Hell, Deep Tracks is much better than The Vault.

I want to show my new Sirius sign, but I don't know how to insert it into this post.

Any instructions on how to do this?

 

[charper1]

Now I am just asking to understand the logic, but did you REALLY buy a satellite radio with the express purpose of listening to talk news over music? I mean I would rater have FOX too, but I would NEVER base my satellite radio service on primarily that.

 

[netcommsj]

charper1

No, I didn't buy these radios just for Fox News.

I bought them for all of the choices – music, talk and news.

I enjoy a lot of the music channels and have 24 of 30 artists stored in my Starmate Replay (which is one damn good little box!). I travel quite a lot in my business and music is very important. And news is equally important. The thing that upsets me the most is that they (Sirius) just took it off. No explanation, no nothing. I e-mailed them and asked for some kind of logical explanation. I specifically ask that they not send me a "canned" response. Ten days later I received a canned response that didn't satisfy me. They implied that they "were working on it". I don't see any progress. Hell, they haven't given any explanation or even mentioned it on their website.

Everyone has their favorite channels. Most only have 4 or 5 favorite channels. Fox News just happens to be one of mine. It's that important to me. If I wanted it I just pressed my favorite 8 button, and it was there. Now it's CNN Headline News. That's not what I want.

You see, they could take all of the sports channels off and I wouldn't care. Hell, I probably wouldn't even know! But I guarantee you that it would matter to a LOT of subscribers. Same for Country or Rap. It's all about choice and they took my choice away without even a logical reason. They said it was about money. I can't believe that after spending 5 million on Howard. I like Howard as a businessman, but I can't listen to him for more than 15 minutes.

There's more to their story. Someday it will all come out. It will probably be interesting when it does.

I hope this answers your question.

 

[charper1]

Much like the "hoopla" between Lifetime and Dishnetwork, CNN is more at fault in the battle. It will all get worket out; this is the nature of the beast of pay radio with services that do not have any "must carry" control. On radio they also are not the bullies that they are on pay TV, as the vast majority of users are here for music or entertainment and news / talk can't get that.

Fox News pulled shows by two of its signature hosts -- lefty Alan Colmes and conservative Tony Snow -- Monday after Sirius allowed their contracts to expire.

Now, after six months of failed talks, the deal to carry Fox News Channel itself is set to expire Jan. 1, just as Sirius is hoping to move radios with the help of Howard Stern hypehype.

The situation has become so dire that Sirius toppertopper Mel Karmazin walked across West 48th Street from Sirius' headquarters to News Corp. HQHQ to meet with Fox topper Roger Ailes in person.

"It's causing them a great deal of grief at a time when they are trying to sell radios for Christmas," Fox Radio senior VP Kevin Magee said.

Fox has become one of the more popular offerings on pay radio, and Ailes is said to want a carriage fee that reflects that popularity. Fox also wants a deal with Sirius to include carriage of Fox News Talk, a channel with Bill O'Reilly, Neil Cavuto, Snow, Colmes and others, as well as news updates from Fox News Radio.

XM Satellite Radio inked a deal to carry both six months ago, and as if to tout their corporate harmony, the two have been taking out joint ads in the trades, as well as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News.

"Thinking of buying a satellite radio for Christmas?" an ad read. "XM is the only satellite radio provider committed to carrying Fox News Channel in '06."

But Karmazin said he's wary of paying a big license fee to Fox for content that's not exclusive.

"If we can do a deal at a price that makes good sense for us, we'd love to do it, and if we can't, then we have other news offerings that we will provide the listeners," Karmazin told anchor Bill Griffeth on CNBC's "Power Lunch" last week.

 

[netcommsj]

charper1

Thanks for your responce. I still think that there is more to this. It will all come out in the future. In the mean time, there will be a lot of Sirius subscribers cancel after next week. I bet that will get some attention.

 

[techdood]

Hmmm. Something to ponder. Fox News, Fox Network, MLB, XM. Rupert Murdoch have something to do with all of them? I guess everyone likes to go down, down under.

 

[charper1]

there will be a lot of Sirius subscribers cancel after next week

Based of the factual numbers they are still growing their sub rate and I doubt the cancelations will number more than 1,000; so that statement is pure wishful thinking. It is nothing more than petty squabbling because of the DirecTV/XM/Rubert deals and it will be setteled. For those that PAY FOR NEW HARDWARE and do switch they will lose money if they decide to come back thanks to hardware costs. That can be offset by selling your Sirius to me!

 

[jeslevine]

I left Sirius for XM when they got rid of AAR, and it became an XM exclusive

I sold my Sirius stock when Fox left Sirius to become an XM exclusive

They are putting all their hopes on stern. I prefer companies that have a more diversified view, and try to appeal to all sides of the spectrum

 

[charper1]

People reality please. Stern is NOT a view, he is a form of entertainment. News is news, there is no more than 2% seperating any of them from another. These sat radio services are banking of the music, comedy and a few sports,; news and weather and trafic are not main issues with them.

 

[joedekock]

Now I am just asking to understand the logic, but did you REALLY buy a satellite radio with the express purpose of listening to talk news over music? I mean I would rater have FOX too, but I would NEVER base my satellite radio service on primarily that.

I bought XM not for music at all. I bought it for the fact that I could get Fox News, ABC News and Talk, ESPN, Fox Sports Talk, Baseball, and Big Ten College sports on it. Now that XM carries Fox News Talk, I love it even more. I do listen to music, but its only the 40's and Franks Place. After I got XM, most of my family got it for the same reason... so some people do base it on talk radio more than music.

I didn't realize that Sirius was not carrying Fox News at all. When did this happen? When I was deciding between the two last summer, I swore they had it then.

 

[elephant98]

A friend of mine is leaving Sirius and going to XM because of the lack of Fox News Channel.

As for my subscription, I was interested in possibly switching to Sirius so I could listen to Howard Stern, but my wife won't even consider making the move at this time. Why? Because Sirius no longer carries the Fox News Channel.

Its not all about the music. Talk radio and news channels are popular too. Besides, after spending $500 million on Stern, and countless millions on other exclusive programming, you'd think that Sirius would be willing to overpay a little to keep the Fox News Channel (which I believe is the top rated news channel, at least on television).

 

[BFG]

FNC are dirty cheap bastards. They pulled out to go to XM and bash Sirius. Sirius didn't even know FNC was leaving until they read about it on the drudge report. There's really nothing Sirius can do to get those cheapskates back

 

[charper1]

I not saying it ALL about the music, but the VAST MAJORITY are about the music and entertainment. You can get talk news everywhere.

 

[*mad_professor*]

Hmmm. Something to ponder. Fox News, Fox Network, MLB, XM. Rupert Murdoch have something to do with all of them? I guess everyone likes to go down, down under.

Don't forget XM is now on DirecTV, a Murdoch company.

 

[onapartyrock]

I bought my first XM around the time of Sept. 11th, I was on the road that day and didn't hear about anything until I got to a hotel that night. I didn't want to be in that position again, I didn't have the radio on since I get sick of the no talent hacks on the radio in Central Texas and New Mexico (where I was driving). I still can't figure out why not one person called me, I guess everyone was in shock.

I don't think Sirius is going to feel a "major" exodus due to the Fox News situation, even with their recent rapid acceleration of growth more than likely going to turn back to its much slower rise; it will continue to grow in subscriptions - that is just the nature of the beast.

*Mad_Professor* : You are correct, Murdoch is very friendly with a certain XM higher-up.