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Re: [Swprograms] Getting Way OT: For whom the bell tolls
Excellent analysis, Joe. I agree that the financial benefit is in keeping the
services going. You have a subscriber base and some growth even in a down auto
market, what they don't have is profit. Wipe out the debt and high cost talent
and you have the makings of a profitable service even with the loss of the
Stern/Stewart fan bases (or raise prices on that segment). You can also enter
other markets (as you noted) with specialized customers. This is exactly what
the current owners of Iridium have done.
If you were smart enough you might sell off the satellites you don't need
(perhaps the Sirius set), migrate those customers to the other set, and sell off
or repurpose the excess satellites for a new market. Without detailed info on
the subscriber locations and channel by channel listener numbers, contracts with
the Canadian companies, satellite lifetimes, etc. it's hard to know which option
is the best one. I'd guess both satellite constellations are about half way
through their expected lifetime (mean time to failure).
--
-Rob de Santos
Columbus, OH
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Buch [mailto:josephbuch@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 9:30 AM
To: Shortwave programming discussion
Subject: Re: [Swprograms] Getting Way OT: For whom the bell tolls
Yes, the Echostar satellites are geostationary. But I see no real synergy
between current Echostar businesses and the XM/Sirius satellite capabilities.
The DISH Network satellites all use frequencies above 10 GHz. The Sirius/XM
birds are in the 2 GHz region and have much more limited bandwidth. Ergen
probably wants to continue the current services and after the debt is wiped out
by the bankruptcy, and Karmizan and Howard Stern and their inflated contracts
are voided, the company can make a nice profit.
<clipped>
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