Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Liberty Media to the rescue

xm-sirius-merger

Sirius XM satellite radio got a reprieve yesterday when Liberty Media agreed to lend the faltering company $530 million to pay debts and stave off bankruptcy.

That's good news for me, since I depend on satellite radio to entertain me on long motorcycle rides and trips in my del Sol.

Liberty Media, headquartered in Englewood, Colo., owns DirectTV and Discovery Channel.

I've been an XM subscriber for several years now and am not particularly impressed with what Sirius brought to the system when the two satellite radio companies merged last year.

Part of the problem is that the company pays insanely large fees for talent like Howard Stern ($100 million a year). Also, the collapse of the new car market resulted in fewer subscriptions sold to buyers of cars equipped with satellite radios.

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