E se Stern lasciasse Sirius per iPhone?

Sempre attraverso Podcasting News (grazie ancora una volta a Francesco) arriva una curiosa analisi statistica effettuata da Chris Bulger, della società specializzata in "Web analytics" (misurazione dell'audience dei siti Web) Compete. Bulger dice di essere riuscito a contare gli ascoltatori che accedono ai contenuti della radio satellitare Sirius XM attraverso Internet, aspettandosi di trovare una popolazione piuttosto variegata, con tanti canali ascoltati da piccoli gruppi. E invece no. Anche su Internet la parte del leone nel bouquet offerto da Sirius la fa il famoso e irriverente DJ Howard Stern, lo "shock jock" (come dire il dj-choc) più famoso d'America. Quasi il 30 % dell'audience di Sirius su Internet si sintonizza sui suoi programmi. A questo punto Bulger si chiede che cosa succederà a Sirius qualora Stern dovesse davvero decidere di andarsene, come si va dicendo da mesi. Per farlo restare, l'operatore guidato da Mel Karmazin dovrebbe sborsare un sacco di soldi che non ha. Ma se lo lascia andare, rischia di perdere preziosi abbonati.
Bulger si spinge a ipotizzare che Stern potrebbe anche decidere di mettersi in proprio su Internet, con una Web radio o un podcast. «E se nel 2011 - si chiede l'analista - l'applicazione per iPhone più gettonata fosse proprio un Howard Stern for iPhone?". Podcasting News segnala per esempio che alcuni conduttori radiofonici famosi stanno già optando per il podcast. Uno di loro si chiama Adam Carolla e avrebbe raggiunto in pochi mesi una audience di un quarto di milione di navigatori che scaricano i programmi di Carolla Radio http://carollaradio.com/. Fino a febbraio e negli ultimi tre anni Carolla aveva uno show mattutino su CBS Radio. Qui trovate uno degli ultimi podcast, Carolla and Mike Tyson.

The ‘King of All Internet Radio’
Written by Chris Bulger April 20th, 2009

For the past few years, I have not only been a Sirius Satellite Radio subscriber, but also one of its biggest fans. Sirius replaced the unmanageable amount of mix CD’s that littered my car and put all the music and entertainment in one small piece of equipment. Sirius has also changed the way I listen to music at work. On in the background all day, Sirius Internet Radio provides me with the soundtrack to my daily life. While some days call for an upbeat tempo with Sirius Hits 1 and some days require a more mellow choice like Cinemagic, my channel of choice is Howard 100. And who can blame me - the home of chaotic entertainment that is amusing day after day, providing everything from the ‘Wack Pack’ to Robin’s News. I wanted to know if others shared in my loyalty to Howard 100 when listening to Sirius Internet Radio, and if not, what are the subscribers listening to?

To do this, I looked at the population of Sirius Internet Radio listeners and then analyzed what channels they are tuning into during a month. Keep in mind that one listener can fall into multiple buckets throughout the month. Here’s what I found:

• Howard is King: 28.4% and 16.1% of Sirius Internet Listeners tune in to Howard 100 and Howard 101, respectively. Just like in his days of old on terrestrial radio, Howard Stern continues to be the most listened to channel.
• Rock and Pop lead in the music categories: Sirius Hits 1 commands the top music channel with 10% of Listeners heading to this channel. However, while people are tuning in to hear the latest pop hits, just as many people are tuning in to listen to the two classic rock channels (Classic Rewind and Classic Vinyl).
• While not on the list here, Sirius NFL Radio does break into the Top 10 listened to channels during the NFL season. 9.3% of Sirius Internet Unique Listeners listened to Sirius NFL Radio in September ‘08. This was #4 overall!
• Online listeners love their caroling: Sirius XM Pops and Cinemagic, two channel dedicated to Holiday music, were in the Top 10 listened to channels in December ‘08. Cinemagic was the 2nd most listened to channel in December ‘08 with 14.2% of Sirius Internet Listeners listening to Holiday music. The top channel was still Howard 100.

With a large percentage of listeners tuning into Howard 100 and Howard 101 on SIRIUS Internet Radio, what will happen to Sirius XM Radio if Stern were to leave at the end of his contract in 2010? Howard Stern commands a large audience, many of which might cancel their service if Stern were to leave at the end of his contract. As Internet Radio continues to grow, Stern’s next move could be to bring his own channel to the World Wide Web. I can see it now, the Stern Internet Radio iPhone app being the biggest app of 2011.