Goodbye Chase?
Rumors are running around saying that DirecTV CEO Chase Carey is considering leaving DirecTV and headed back to News Corp to work for his old boss Rupert Murdoch.
If this is true, I would not be surprised after all I don’t think there is anything that Chase can do at DirecTV to make the service any better then it is today. Chase Carey has been there to watch DirecTV blossom into America’s most respected television service.
Take a look at last quarters number and look around at the economy we are in DirecTV sailed through the hard times without any issues and this speaks volumes about DirecTV under the management of DirecTV controlled by Chase Carey.
Without Chase and with all the changes going on that Liberty Media has been making it would not surprise me to see Chase leave and have Liberty Media put someone in the CEO’s seat who is good at transitions. It would not surprise me to see Liberty Media sell off DirecTV within the next 18 months.
And if it happens they got something good to sell, made possible by the leadership of Chase Carey.
This is going to be interesting to watch this one play out.
Invitation Only
Tomorrow night at 10PM ET Dish Network customers can enjoy an exclusive concert with Darius Rucker as Dish Network partners with CMT to present this special Invitation Only concert.
The concert will be rebroadcast throughout the month on Tuesday’s Thursdays and Sundays on Dish Network channel 101. This special concert series will be presented in full high definition.
For those not home when these special concerts air worry not as the concerts will be available for viewing via Dish On Demand.
I Thought About It
As Friday was coming to a close I got word about Sirius XM passing along the performance royalty fees to customers.
A number of folks from Sirius XM contacted me and warned me that this was not a price increase from Sirius XM, instead they were just passing on the costs of the royalties as allowed by law.
Now under the agreement with the FCC and DOJ Sirius XM is not allowed to raise the rates on its core service, but in thinking about things I do believe that this is indeed a price increase by Sirius XM.
On the internet the reported royalty rate for your first radio is going to be $1.98 per month. To make things easier to understand I am just going to say that the cost is $2 a month.
Now currently Sirius XM customer pay $12.95 a month for their first radio, now add in the $2 a month for the royalties and that makes the cost $14.95 a month for the first radio.
Up until this point in time Sirius XM has paid these royalty fees for the customer covered in the base price. But soon these costs will be passed along to the consumer directly. Now instead of Sirius XM cutting its monthly costs by $2 a month since they are no longer paying the royalty fees, Sirius XM is keeping the price the same. To me this is a $2 price increase from Sirius XM and it is my opinion that this should not be allowed under the deal Sirius XM made with the FCC / DOJ.
A number of math guys at XMFan.COM have figured out how much Sirius XM is paying per month for their royalty fees and it is about half of what they are charging the customers. Some folks want to know where the extra money is going and that’s a good question, and it’s a question that has yet to be answered.
A number of XMFan members are working with Sound Exchange to find out exactly how much Sirius XM is paying for its royalties. You can follow along with how they are making out at http://www.xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?t=103093.
The decision to change how royalties are paid comes at a bad time that could backfire on Sirius XM. This is one thing I am surprised more media has not picked up on yet.
Another question which remains to be answered is what about royalties for Sirius and XM listeners who listen to Sirius and XM on Dish Network and DirecTV. Could the free Sirius XM music free ride soon be over for satellite television fans?
I would love to hear your thoughts about these new royalty fees, please feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks for reading!
Screw DirtecTV and XM commented:
Chase better run..Obama's will have DirecTV in the cross hairs. I hate both of those S.O.B.s. but DirecTV going down will probably be justified. Worst customer service company I have ever had the displeasure of using. DirecTV are sneaky schiesters. Their quarter growth is because DirecTV has a track record of charging customer bank cards long after customers' relationship with DirecTV has ended. Usually under "early termination" penalties described in "contracts" most customers NEVER see or show up in the mail months later with very little clarity of the letter in microscopic print is.
Don't get me started on XM....bought XM STRICTLY because they were the exclusive carrier of NASCAR....5 months later they jumped to Sirius. That's misleading advertisement because it took a hell of a lot longer than 4 months for that to occur so XM/Sirius KNEW they were loosing Nascar and only to find out XM and Sirius were already in talks to merge???? WHAT THE F...... HAS HAPPENED TO THIS COUNTRY????
Goodbye Sirius commented:
First a two dollar increase for the second receiver this year and now another two dollar increase. I am afraid my days of enjoying Sirius in the car are coming to an end. What a sucker for supporting the merger.
john commented:
(2008) The rate currently stands at 6 percent and is set to increase by half a percentage point every year until 2012, when it will reach 8 percent. Neither SoundExchange — which collects those fees and distributes them on behalf of the music industry — nor Sirius XM will reveal exactly how much the company is paying in royalties. According to Sirius XM's quarterly reports, the company paid out a combined $92 million in revenue-sharing and royalty payments during the first half of 2008. That includes payments to SoundExchange and other partners, like equipment suppliers.
From MSNBC - ArticleID 27632590
Remember SoundExchange is just one player. There's BMI, ASCAP... Combined, the rates probably will increase further. Combine that with the headline of the story above (Satellite radio company faces $1 billion debt, hurt by lagging car sales) and its probably a miracle they're even still in business.
F D FCC commented:
Luckily I have a couple lifetime subs, but this is also likely to turn off some newcomers. Seems like shady wording for me. Typical corporate greed. (Too bad that greed hasn't kept me from losing 90% on my SIRI stock in the last 16 months.)
harshness commented:
"Passing through" strongly implies that the price is equal to the cost. If the royalty cost was, say, $1.50 per radio per month, the new price of the service should be $0.48 higher. Since the customer is being billed anyway, the cost of billing shouldn't be considered.
vastrightwing commented:
You are right. I won't cancel, I'm just not going to subscribe in the first place. I thought $12/mo. was too much. $14 is about $8/mo more than I'm willing to pay for audio only when I can use Pandora for free, yet I opt to pay $3/mo for the convenience of not having ads.
dickwad commented:
F^%#ck the FCC. Unless you think 2.5-3 million people will cancel their SIRI accounts because of this 1.95 fee, it is a smart (and justifiable) move for them to make.
nsxdan commented:
The FCC merger agree states the following:
After the first anniversary of the consummation of the merger, the combined company may pass through cost increases incurred since the filing of the combined company’s FCC merger application as a result of statutorily or contractually required payments to the music, recording and publishing industries for the performance of musical works and sound recordings or for device recording fees.â€
In December 2007, royalty rates increased and thus as of 8/1/09 Sirius XM can pass along these additional expenses.
