# Karmazin Predicts Sirius Subs Will Double This Year



## xcel (Sep 13, 2004)

Mel Karmazin predicted Jan. 5 that Sirius Satellite Radio will “at least double” its subscriber base by the end of this year and stressed that a good portion of that growth will come from a newly-formed partnership with Ford.

“Our Ford announcement was a huge, huge announcement,” the Sirius CEO told an audience convened to hear him and other Sirius execs at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Ford and Lincoln Mercury will offer Sirius as a factory-installed option beginning this summer on four 2006 model year vehicle lines. The automaker is targeting up to 17 additional vehicle lines for the Sirius factory-installed option and expects to generate “up to one million” new subscribers during the 2006 and 2007 model year periods.

Sirius currently has just over 1.1 million subscribers.

Karmazin also predicted that Sirius will take market share away from category leader XM this year. Sirius will become “a profitable company, one day," he declared, and the satcaster “will be bigger than most analysts think we will be.”

The one-hour press conference also included new-product announcements by Sirius senior VP of product management Larry Pesce, highlights of the current programming lineup by entertainment and sports president Scott Greenstein, and an overview of the marketing accomplishments and current position, brand awareness and customer satisfaction levels of the company by Mary Pat Ryan, executive VP of marketing.

In terms of new-product development, Karmazin stressed that in-car installations, both by car manufacturers and by after-market suppliers, “is
where we’re going to demonstrate our capability.” He vowed that Sirius would be “very aggressive in our marketing in 2005.”

Karmazin and the other execs highlighted and reiterated several points made by Sirius chairman Joe Clayton at the start of the conference: that Sirius
is now available in more than 25,000 retail stores, that subscribership has surpassed 1.1 million and that the satcaster’s brand awareness is equal to, or better than, that of competitor XM.

“We are No. 1 in music, No. 1 in news and entertainment and we’re No. 1 in the ‘oh, wow’ programming," Karmazin said. "It is the position we’re going to hold onto, of that I assure you.”

The impending arrival of Howard Stern was the biggest buzz for the company's programming presentation. At one point, Greenstein told the audience that Stern would be arriving “at the latest in 2006” — a phrase that caught the ears of several audience members and that was later brought up during the Q&A session. When asked if Stern might arrive during 2005, Karmazin said it’s a question better asked of Viacom, to see if that firm has an interest in releasing a “profitable, money-making talent” early from his contract.

While Karmazin said there are “no discussions” and “no plans” to have Stern start in 2005, he did mention that Sirius was “aggressively putting together a studio” for Stern in preparation for his arrival.

Clayton has a vision that transforms Sirius into an entertainment company rather than a satellite-radio broadcaster. “We’re technologically agnostic,” he told the CES audience, and says Sirius’ programming “should be offered over any new technologies, so we don’t exclude any partnership.” Indicative of this vision is his emphasis on the relationship Sirius has with the satellite-TV Dish network. With Sirius delivered via Dish, Clayton claims 10 million Dish Network subscribers and dubs his company “the most listened to satellite service.”


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

I can see the numbers doubling, 4Q05 will be a record breaking quarter for the company and industry.


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