SIRIUS to become a Premium Service? - NO

[Scott Greczkowski]

Today I woke up to a few PM's from members asking me if it is true that Dish Network will soon charging $3 a month extra for the SIRIUS Audio Channels.

I honestly have no idea if this true or not. It is the first time I have heard this.

With that being said I was able to breifly talk with new Sirius CES Mel Karmizan at CES and he mentioned that he was not exectly thrilled in giving away their service for free on Dish Network.

If you also remember I talked with XM CEO Hugh Penero who basically said he did not want to do a deal with DirecTV because the business model of giving your programming for free is not a good one.


With this said, IF this news is true I would not be surprised at all, however as a Sirius subscriber I would NOT subscribe to the channels on Dish Network even though the Audio quality is better.

 

[BobMurdoch]

Sure, I'll pay for the service......... IF you give me the rest of the channels E* doesn't carry as well.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Bob that is the only way I would pay for it as well...

(Or at least if they added RAW DOG and the Stern Show)

Raw Dog Comedy is the best channel on Sirius!

 

[StevenD]

The only reason I subscribed to Sirius is because I really liked liestening to it at home. I would never have paid to listen to it, and therefore, I would never have become hooked on it.

 

[Bruce]

Since E* added Sirius, have not their subs go up since that time period, faster then before, but since I dropped E*, I have not missed them.
I also would want it for the talk/sports channels, but now a days we have all these extra monthly things we pay for that we have to have, I just will not pay anymore for another service.

 

[yellowdragon]

I have the AT120 only to receive Sirius, as the service is not available here in Puerto Rico. If they change it to premium, I'd drop to AT60 and pay the extra $3 for the music in a heartbeat... If you need AT120 to be able to subscribe to the premium Sirius, I'd still drop to AT60... And return to P2P...

 

[BFG]

I like listening to Sirius on dish when I'm bored, but I'd never pay extra for it. It is one of the things keeping me at AT120, so If it was extra I'd drop to AT60 for sure.

 

[uhlesses]

I would also pay the three dollars, provided that we recieve all the Sirius programing.

 

[BobMurdoch]

I can't see them only charging $3 for what they charge everyone else $12 (assuming all of the missing channels were added....).

I think Sirius's old CEO was desperate for listeners (at the time of the deal Sirius had the NFL deal signed but it wasn't on the service yet.... XM seemed to be running away with the market share while Sirius was stuck in the low six figures subscriber wise). Howie's sidekick Karmazin never gave away anything free without money coming in to support it (ie. broadcast radio), and the signing of Howard, NASCAR, the NFL, and several other properties have convinced him that the company's long term health is assured and they don't need to give away freebies anymore.

I'm guessing that E* hasn't brought them as many new subscribers as they originally hoped so they are trying to find new ways to extract money from us to justify the relationship....

 

[breathe]

I would be pissed if i had to pay a premium to listen to sirius on dish, as i already pay for it in my car. Guess ill go back to online streaming of sirius if this is the case.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have contacted Dish Networks "Official Channels" to confirm or deny this story. So far I have not heard anything back.

I will post more when I know it.

 

[dfergie]

I do not listen to it when in the house, only in the Truck... so it would not matter even if they put Raw Dog on the E* version...

 

[DWS44]

... and the signing of Howard, NASCAR, the NFL, and several other properties have convinced him that the company's long term health is assured and they don't need to give away freebies anymore.

either that, or they NEED more money to PAY for all those new additions!

 

[mikew]

At the time of the last price increase, the fact they added Sirius was mentioned as a reason for the increase. I sure hope the nickel and diming doesn't continue!

 

[Bruce]

At the time of the last price increase, the fact they added Sirius was mentioned as a reason for the increase. I sure hope the nickel and diming doesn't continue!

And Sirius is giving E* the prpgraming for free, they should re-do that statment about the price increase.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Here is the reply from Dish about these rumors...

Unfortunately, our policy is not to comment on rumor or speculation.

 

[chaddux]

Here is the reply from Dish about these rumors...

And then they followed with:

Unfortunately, our policy is to replace 'Yes' with 'Unfortunately, our policy is not to comment on rumor or speculation.'

 

[jmd102354]

Since I own three XM Radio's and never listen to Sirius. I hope they take it off my Dish channels. It would save me time from manually deleting the Sirius channels from my favorites list...How many music channels do we need ? Siri, Aud, CD... enough already...

 

[John W]

Since I own three XM Radio's and never listen to Sirius. I hope they take it off my Dish channels. It would save me time from manually deleting the Sirius channels from my favorites list...How many music channels do we need ? Siri, Aud, CD... enough already...

you should see FTA - you get a crapload of audio channel there. I rarely listen to them because I only have so much time just to scan the TV channels.

As far as charging for Sirius I can see why they would. I hope that it starts from Sirius' side though and that E* is not still getting them for free. I personally will not sub to them. My wife may feel differently, she listens all the time.

 

[carload]

It occurs to me that, long ago, part of the fun of being a Dish sub was anticipating and discussing what new channels and features were coming. Nowadays, we're at least as likely to be talking about stuff going away.

About Sirius, I really wonder (a) how many potential subs does Sirius lose because of the "free" home-only, music-only listeners, and (b) how many subs does Sirius attract because of the additional exposure and promotion Dish gives them? My uninformed guess would be that b is greater than a.