SiriusXM executives believe they’ll “get to the right place” with Howard Stern as contract negotiations heat up.
Speaking at a Bank of America conference Wednesday, Scott Greenstein, president and chief content officer and SiriusXM, pointed to the importance of Stern’s show for the company (Stern is seen as one of the big draws for satellite radio subscribers). The goal is to have him stay at SiriusXM, but Greenstein also cautioned that the deal would have to “make sense.”
“So Howard, for all these years and right up until now, is as important a content, single piece of content as we’ve had from the sense of being a lightning rod to get awareness for the service and publicity and all of that. He’s the best interviewer out there, period, bar none. And we’ve always had a series, as all of you know, of renewals. With any talent at that level, you’re always going to have an extended period of negotiations. We’ve been pretty lucky all these years. We’d love them to stay. It certainly has to make sense, but we feel pretty good that we’ve done this before, and we’ll see where it goes,” Greenstein said.
“I think he’s been core to our platform for over 20 years. So I’m confident we’ll get to the right place,” CEO and director Jennifer Witz added.
Rumors swirled this summer about SiriusXM not wanting to renew Stern’s contract, amid his high price tag and his less frequent broadcasting schedule. Stern, 71, has also been long-rumored to be retiring after his decades-long career as a talk show host. Stern’s current five-year deal is up at the end of 2025 and was estimated to be worth $100 million a year.
Stern had said he would address the rumors on his show Sept. 2, but he delayed his return and his comments on the rumors until Sept. 8.
When evaluating whether to sign on new talent or renew deals, Greenstein added that the company looks at factors such as hours listened, ad revenue, social media and publicity, as well as the broader idea of what that individual means to the service, or that particular genre.
Asked about Stephen A. Smith, who recently signed a deal with SiriusXM to launch a sports show and a current events and social commentary show, Greenstein said he while he’s “polarizing,” he’s one of the top commentators in sports and also has the ability to get anyone on his show, and he has the ability to bring in satellite radio subscribers in addition to bringing in podcast ad revenue.
“He’s emerged as probably the leading voice in sports. But much more importantly, Jennifer and I took a bet on where he was going to end up in his political commentary, and he’s become a factor. He can get almost anybody on the air. He’s the only person I’ve ever seen be on ‘Hannity’ at night and ‘The View’ in the morning, and he’s just uniquely suited where politicians and potential politicians want to be on a show,” Greenstein said.
While also pointing to metrics like cost per listener or cost per listening hour, Witz also spoke to the more intangible qualities they look for in hosts and new shows.
“Something like sports, you may not be listening every day. But the fact that you get into the car, you love the NFL and your team is playing and you know you can find it on SiriusXM has a lot of value for us. So there is value beyond the analytics, but having all this data has just been a game changer for us,” Witz said.