Sirius stock has defied the bad economy with its price rising from $.05 to $.70  over the last five months. Good news, right? Yes, but it is still a long way off from the $3 it was at two years ago.

According to dcsilver at the Motley Fool, Sirius has some crazy debt on its hands which makes it sound like we are talking about the nation’s deficit.   ”For the next 6 months [Sirius' cash obligations] are $749,000, and $871K in 2010, $1 billion in 2011, $900K in 2012, and an often overlooked $2+ billion in 2013.” That is a lot of money to back up with no a lot of hope in the future to pay for it.

I believe that more than half of Sirius subscribers are Howard Stern fans and with subscribers continually dropping every quarter (with no help from the poor auto sales minus the recent Cash for Clunkers), how many more subscribers will be canceling their subscription in December 2010. Eventhough Howard has yet to make a final decision on the future of his show after the current contract, it is increasingly sounding like he is packing it in and I think show itself these days is representative of that.

Bottom line: Sirius needs to either extend Howard’s contact, have some kind of spinoff show (which is still likely to not be a game saver), work out some better deals with car manufacturers/car owners or hire some new talent that can only be heard on Sirius. But is there enough talent out there to get people to pay $15 a month? Not very likely. Perhaps satellite radio’s future is in its other commodities, such as, music and sports. Sadly, that wasn’t the reason millions of people signed up around January 2006. Perhaps a new business plan is in place or maybe the government will bail them out too.

For those of you subscribers that could care less about the recent iPhone app hoopla, here is some news that you should be interested.

Sirius and XM just announced another rate hike effective July 29, 2009. So that means, we will be paying $1.98 for your subscription and $0.97 for those with additional subscriptions.

Didn’t we just have one? Yes, back in March we had our rates raised on us and don’t forget having to pay extra for Internet access when you previously didn’t. This time around Sirius XM is being nice enough to pass along copyright royalties on us. The US Copyright Royalty Board is increasing their fees paid by satellite radio a full percent over the next 3 years. While the royalty fees goes up only 8.3%, our subscription rates raise by 15.3%.

In case you forget, Sirius and XM agreed to a 3 year rate freeze when they got merger approval by the FCC. Thankfully for us, they are taking advantage one last time.

Sources:
- Sirius XM Passes on Royalty Fee Hikes to Subscribers
- Sirius XM raising rates
- Sirius XM Announces Yet Another Rate Hike

A Sirius Fail.

It’s been all over the tech news today, Sirius XM made a big blunder. At least that is what we thought. As of 7pm, there were nearly 1900 user ratings in the App Store for Sirius XM’s Premium Online iPhone application averaging out to 2 stars (out of 5). Most news articles I read today pointed out the most obvious things missing from the app, Howard Stern along with Nascar, MLB and other channels. Authors, Bloggers and Users were shell-shocked by limited channels and blasting the company. Even, 5 Sirius XM executives dropped shares after seeing the reaction to the app. But it seems we may have someone else to blame: Howard Stern.

Seems customer service has been telling subscribers that the reason Howard is not listed is due to contractual reasons and the company’s lack of “mobile performance rights” to the Howard Stern Show. I believe Howard’s channels weren’t available online either when the Internet service started. Bloomberg.com reported that a Sirius XM representative told them it was because of the “mature” nature of the show. Ok, but how come Playboy radio is on it.

Customer service says they are working to get Howard online iPhone soon, which means, Stern and Sirius XM are still negotiating. Did you think it was a coincidence that the show did not discuss the iPhone app today?

In the end, Howard is in a great position to make more money but how much money does Sirius have to give? You would think it would be in Howard’s best interest to allow for his channels to be on the iPhone app.

Whatever the case, Sterns fans should be calling in Monday and Howard better step up to the plate and tell us what the hell is going on.

The Sirius XM iPhone was FINALLY released today and it is a big FAIL. As expected, they continue to let down their subscribers. Remember when there was an iPhone app already built by NiceMac, Sirius XM got it scrapped and shut down the whole company? Right. So they get rid of a good application for an inferior one. Not listing all the channels and the most important one, Howard Stern.

Seriously, Howard Stern is the reason you have subscribers. Howard Stern is the reason you scrambled to make this app. Howard Stern will be the reason you go out of business (when he retires). Howard Stern is the only thing that keeps me subscribed. You have really let us down, again.

PS – I can’t wait for this news to hit the Show tomorrow. By the time Howard is done talking about it, Sirius will be scrambling to update the application with his channel.

- Updated -

I didn’t see this yesterday on the Sirius website. I think they added after the reviews started getting posted.

Some select programming, including MLB® Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play, SIRIUS NASCAR® Radio, and Howard Stern, will not be available on the iPhone and iPod touch. Listeners will continue to be able to access that programming through the platforms they are currently offered on.

The above can be found on here. And the text is in a smaller font size and a light text color.

It gives no reason why their is no Stern. In fact, there are other channels that ARE listed in the application and when I click on them, it tells me that I need to upgrade my service to include it. Such low-technology for such a hi-tech company.

Also, someone else pointed this out, on the loading screen, you see “Version 1.2.4″ in the upper left hand corner. So how many versions did they make that they couldn’t agree on?

- Updated -

Update As of 11:06 am, the Sirius XM iPhone App received a 2 star rating out of 421 users in the App Store

While it looks like Sirius XM is finally coming to the iPhone this summer, how much are you really going to enjoy it?

The word is that the app will be free, however, expect an added fee to your monthly subscription to use it. And if you think just because you don’t have an iPhone that you won’t be paying more, you are wrong. Rumor has it that, starting at the end of July, we will all be paying a couple extra bucks per month for royalty fees.

Correct me if I am wrong, but, I thought we were supposed to make out better when Sirius and XM merged. Somehow us Sirius users got screwed on the sports package and got our rates raised.

If it weren’t for Howard, I’d be canceling right now. And sadly, the show barely seems to keep me hanging on these days.

Sources:

iPhone Sirius XM App Finally Gets Outed

Sirius XM Set To Raise Prices

OK, I am seriously confused. 

Wasn’t it just the other week when Sirius was trying to get everyone to renew their subscriptions that will lock users into a lower rate package.

Well today I stumbled upon their A LA CARTE option which starts at $6.99 and allows you to pick 50 channels. Has this been available all along or did they offer this after they screwed everyone out of resigning?

Remember that iPhone app that Howard was discussing on the air. Last month it was denied by Apple. The company who made the app, and also made a desktop version of it, has been shut down and I think from Sirius XM directly. Here’s the way I see it:

uSirius iPhone App – What really happened

Liberty Media has agreed to loan Sirius XM Radio $530 million to help save the satellite radio provider from bankruptcy.

read full article here

Another article: Sirius XM Reaches Investment Deal With Liberty

Financially strapped Sirius XM Radio Inc. (SIRI) (SIRI) said Friday that it could file for bankruptcy as early as Tuesday if it cannot successfully negotiate with the holders of its debt.

read full article here

As previously mentioned on the show and here, iPhone users might finally be able to get Sirius XM on their phone. The App has now been submitted to Apple and is awaiting approval. Which is great because my Stiletto sucks!

The cost of the app is a one time fee of $12.99. Read more about the uSirius StarPlayr announcement here.