• by Seana Mulcahy , November 22, 2004

I think you'd have to be living under a rock if you haven't heard about Sirius. The satellite radio company is creating quite a lot of buzz these days. About a month ago, Howard Stern said he was moving his show over to Sirius Satellite Radio. The deal totals $500 million and spans over five years.

Love him or hate him, the guy's got marketing appeal. Last week he appeared on "David Letterman." Sirius bought a 30-second prior to the show airing. The entire time Stern spoke he mentioned the benefits of satellite radio. The show was like one big product placement.

Satellite radio makes my wheels spin. We've finally met a newer media here. Thus far there are only two big players in the marketplace: Sirius and XM Radio. Will this be like the good old browser days of Internet Explorer and Netscape?

Both services deliver a range of music from news, sports, entertainment, Top 40, reggae, hip hop, jazz, classical, country, rock, soul, etc. News stations such as BBC World Service, Fox news, and CNN are offered. Live performances are taped in studio. DJs are called stream jockeys.

I assume in satellite land "content" is called programming like the traditional broadcast world. It's funny though; the mindset is like that of one giant Web site. The NFL put together an exclusive deal to run on Sirius. They've also got a show by none other than Pamela Anderson called "Club Pam." Adding to the line up is a show called "OutQ" for the gay and lesbian community. XM has a weird show called "Special X" and premium services such as Playboy for an extra $3 per month.

XM has more than 2.5 million subscribers paying for the service whereas Sirius has 700,000. Basic plans range with each company from $10 to $13 a month in addition to the cost of the radio.

So what's the appeal here? Well, it's customizable programming without commercials. Just as the TV world has been threatened by the likes of TiVo, radio has been threatened by satellite. I really think these folks can learn from those of us in the online space. Let's take a quick look. We have vertical content from mainstream to extreme. We have original editorial. Most people pay an ISP access fee versus a subscriber fee. Many great sites offer customizable interfaces. You get the drift.

Seems like all media is moving to a what-you-want-when-you-want-it approach. This puts even greater importance on behavioral targeting, contextual relevance, and captivating creative. Media people need to create a new form of math to create the proper mix. Ask anyone at a traditional shop about satellite. Who's planning and buying it?

When I was on that side of the fence, I had people coming to me saying, "Well Seana it is like the Internet... and well errr... it is new." Heck why not? Online people could plan and buy it. I'd look for input from broadcast folks though. What do you think? Does satellite have potential? Will there soon be a boom like we had? Post to the SPIN board and let me know.