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10/25: Satellite radio listening stats
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There are a lot of satellite radio fans who post on this blog. So this is for you!
For the first time, Arbitron has released national ratings for Sirius and XM satellite radio and its individual channels.
In the spring, Sirius drew an estimated 6,595,000 listeners in a given week while XM had 10,332,900. That reflects XM’s larger subscriber base though it’s a bigger gap than I would have anticipated.
Not surprisingly, Howard Stern is the king of all satellite radio, bringing in 1,225,100 listeners a week. That’s a small fraction of the 10 million-plus listeners he commanded on free FM radio back in the day. But it’s still an impressive figure given the modest size of the Sirius audience.
Here are the top 10 non-music stations for Sirius in terms of cume with average no. of listeners at a given moment in parentheticals
1- Howard 100 (the primary Stern channel) 1.225 million (96,700)
2- Howard 101 (Bubba, Scott Ferrall, west coast Howard feed) 502,000 (30,700)
3- Blue Collar Comedy (Foxworthy, Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy, et. al) 311,200 (6,400) Notably, that’s by far the most popular of the four comedy channels on Sirius
4- Sirius NASCAR 177,600 (8,600)
5- ESPN Radio 147,100 (5,300)
- Fox News 133,300 (4,000) Yes, Fox beats CNN even on the radio! 7. Sirius NFL Radio 112,100 (4,300) 8. CNN 84,200 (2,100) 9. Sirius Left 59,100 (3,000) 10. Sirius Patriot (conservative talk) 46,800 (1,700)
NPR’s two stations only cumed 82,600 total nationwide, not even a quarter of what WABE-FM draws locally. Playboy Channel gets 1,400 listeners at any one time with a total of 51,200 a week.
The top 10 XM non-music stations
1- Fox News 485,400 (15,500)
2- XM Comedy 422,200 (9,300)
3- ESPN Radio 262,600 (9,100)
4- The Virus (Opie & Anthony) 216,800 (20,800)
5- CNN 211,800 (5,200)
6- Laugh USA 174,700 (3,000) 7. Radio Classics 155,700 (5,800) 8. Talk Radio (Glenn Beck, Dave Ramsey, et al) 154,800 (8,700) 9. America Right 132,400 (5,000) 10. Oprah & Friends 115,800 (3,200). Air America comes in at No. 11 at 109,600 with 7,200 listeners at any one time.
The top 10 music stations on Sirius based on avg. listeners at any particular moment (total week listeners in parentheticals) Sorry, I changed the rankings in midstream but this seems to make more sense than ranking by cume and I didn’t feel like starting all over again above.
1- New Country 20,400 (455,900)
2- Sirius Hits (top 40) 17,700 (653,200)
3- Octane (active rock) 17,600 (357,600) This station, which is kind of like Project 9-6-1, does far better than Alt Nation, the alternative rock station.
4- The Pulse (pop music, 90s and today) 14,300 (405,000)
5- Big 80s 12,300 (450,000) I love this station! 6. Sirius Gold (40s, 50s and early 60s) 12,100 (295,800) 7. Hair Nation (80s hair metal) 12,000 (337,700) Wow! Ratt lives on! 8. 60s Vibrations 10,700 (322,100) 9. Classic Vinyl (60s/70s rock) 10,400 (325,400) 10. The Roadhouse (classic country) 10,000 (239,800)
’70s was the least popular decade channel (8,600). The Elvis Channel (4,600) did only slightly worse than 80s alternative First Wave (4,200), one of my personal favs.
The top 10 music stations on XM
1- The Blend (soft rock) 27,100 (548,000)
2- Flight 26 (modern adult hits) 25,100 (713,700)
3- Willie’s Place (traditional country) 24,900 (437,000)
4- Top Tracks (early classic rock) 22,900 (607,900)
5- Top 20 at 20 (top 40) 21,800 (1,055,300)
6- The 60s on 6 21,700 (619,600) 7- Watercolors (smooth jazz) 19,500 (364,400) 8- The Heart (love songs/soft pop) 19,100 (489,200) 9- HIghway 16 (new country) 18,600 (554,100) 10- Escape (beautiful music) 18,000 (268,600)
The 90s channel (6400) was by far the weakest decades channel. 90s alternative Lucy (11,300) beat new alternative Ethel (5,900) and classic alternative Fred (3,600). XM seems to skew a bit older than Sirius based on the lister base. I mean, beautiful music in the top 10????
For more stats, check this out. Tom Taylor of radio-info.com first posted this info.
I’ve been unable to extract local figures from Arbitron or the respective satellite companies, but if you extrapolate 1.5 percent of listening to Atlanta (based on our population vs. the entire U.S.), those numbers get mighty small. Atlanta, under this estimation, has about 250,000 satellite radio subscribers. That’s about how many people listen to 99X or WGST-AM in a typical week and would rank satellite radio at No. 20 overall in listening if you aggregate all 200-plus stations. And given that Stern wasn’t ever in Atlanta, the percentage of those 1.2 million listeners from here is probably fewer than 18,000 listeners while a station such as XM’s the Blend draws maybe 8,400 listeners from Atlanta.
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Bud
October 25, 2007 8:52 AM | Link to this
The FCC should go ahead and approve the merger ASAP…the sooner they merge, the sooner we can go from terrestrial radio (which Clear Channel has ruined) to the $6.99/month a-la-carte plan.
By Thrash
October 25, 2007 9:13 AM | Link to this
Terrestrial radio Bud? OH YEAH! That crappy, commercial laden swill often sent out over-compressed to the car radio.
By Eric the Midget
October 25, 2007 9:20 AM | Link to this
Why get Sirius or XM when you could listen to the genius of alternative rock guru Chris Williams and the Giant Brian Show. Now THAT is radio gold.
By Gman
October 25, 2007 12:25 PM | Link to this
I am a sirius subscriber and been so for over a year and a half. I almost think those numbers are still low for both XM and Sirius, b/c I talk to more and more people who are switching over to sattelite.
With many of the new cars that are being bought now that have satelite installed and the marketing both of these companies are doing, I think there are more listeners out there in this Atlanta market than you think.
Since I went over to Sirius, I have never dialed over to terristrial radio again, b/c of the variety of music, talk radio, etc.
The merger between XM and Sirius, I am convinced will be a good thing, but it is being held up b/c Congress, the FCC and the Justice Dept are being lobbied heavily by the large radio ownership who will don’t want to compete against a unified Satelite Network as they are losing listeners everyday and advertisers everyday. Think about it: their target audience, the 25-45 year olds, w/ disposable income, are the ones who are paying the subscription services and switching over to satelite radio.
I think this is why Atlanata Terristrial Radio is in such dissaray as it is now, b/c their target audience is dissapearing and no longer listens but has either switched to sattelite.
By matt
October 25, 2007 2:37 PM | Link to this
Sirius here…have been since Jan…LOVE IT…I’ve listened 1 time to terrestrial since having it and that was for the braves pre-game show while on my way to the ballpark…
Terrestrial radio has made their bed, now they must lie in it…I didn’t leave them, they left me first…
By Critic
October 25, 2007 3:29 PM | Link to this
Corporate, commercial radio has always sucked. I’ve always been a fan of WREK, WCLK and WRAS. But even in recent years they’ve slipped. I don’t know whether to chalk that up to my tastes changing, or their formats being tweaked. I bought a new car 2 years ago with XM. Before I got it, I was figuring it was an option I did not need. But by the end of the day I bought the car, I signed up for 3 years. A few months later, I bought a receiver for the house. Now it’s not perfect, but it sure is a damn site better than the crap on terrestrial radio. And the crystal clear reception and audio quality is far superior. Whether or not XM and Sirius merge is not a concern. If they do, then that’s great. If not and there’s nothing on XM I like at that particular moment, I can always slip in a CD. Like Matt says above, terrestrial must sleep in the mire they made.
By Erik from Atlanta
October 25, 2007 3:54 PM | Link to this
I got Sirius in Aug 2006. I love it & will not go back to terrestrial radio. Way too much variety on Sirius.
By Randall Bloomquist
October 25, 2007 10:10 PM | Link to this
I wonder if XM or Sirius will hire me when WGST finally kicks me out of the Building of Death. It’s only a matter of time before I’m fired.
I have some real good programming ideas!
By Chuck Deskins
October 26, 2007 8:32 AM | Link to this
Bloomquist - you blooming idiot. We wanted to hire a monkey for the WGST PD job, but the monkey wanted more money. Can’t blame the monkey for turning down the position as the monkey was a lot more qualified than you.
By gttim
October 26, 2007 9:33 AM | Link to this
I had XM for a few years and switched to Sirius, which I prefer. Sadly my two favorite channels, The Underground Garage and Punk are getting pretty poor ratings. Punk is pretty new I believe, so hopefully that will pick up. Underground seems to have tweaked their playlist a while back and I don’t like it quite as much. Still, without satellite I would not hear anything like their playlists on the radio.
No merger! Competition is good! When they quite paying out outrageous sums of money to Howard and for sports, both can make money. If they do merge, the need to be forced to give up one of their satellite licenses- only two exist. Otherwise we end up with another Comcast (or insert name of crappy cable company that has the monopoly in your neighborhood.)
I still don’t see how the merger makes them more profitable. Most costs associated with satellite are capital costs that have already been spent- such as multi-million dollar satellites. The only costs they are really paying now is production costs, which can be managed.
By Big Al
October 26, 2007 12:37 PM | Link to this
Don’t believe a thing Karmazin says about a Sirius-XM merger. He’ll say anything, but will never deliver….
By Bud
October 26, 2007 1:35 PM | Link to this
Al…Karmazin will honor the $6.99/month deal…if the FCC requires it as part of the deal to allow the merger to occur.
With the exception of electricity and roads, the government shouldn’t be in the business of telling corporations if they may or may not merge…this decision should be made by the shareholders. If XM & Sirius merge and charge too high a price, a competitor will come along and take their market share. The barriers for a competitor to come in via wireless LAN would be quite low, in fact.
By jungleland
October 31, 2007 10:38 AM | Link to this
As an Opie & Anthony fan (pest) I am concerned that they will be gone the day that the merger starts or they will be on after Bubba The %^#& Towel. They have the best show on the radio right now (FM and XM)
If they can actually include ALL of the specialty programing (Howard and O&A, Petty and Underground Garage, Springsteen Channel and Snoop’s show, then it would be worthwhile AND I would pay $20 a month for this.
By laurie g
November 4, 2007 1:16 PM | Link to this
I’ve been in XM’er for nearly 5 years now and I love it. I can listen to what I want, when I want. The clock radio at my bedside is on a terrestrial station, and I can tell by what is playing what time it is. (oh! the Beatles’ A Day in A Life? Must be 6:42 on Wednesday…)
The tightly controlled playlists make me nearly as crazy as the tightly rotated commercials. My dad said you only heard about 3 songs on the radio during the Payola scandal; I can’t imagine that someone’s not getting a kickback here considering how tight the rotation of music is here.
By Vince
November 4, 2007 7:44 PM | Link to this
Those that are against the merger are not thinking clearly. Neither company can survive alone. Statistics such as the ones mentioned in the article about Atlanta’s satellite listeners being such a small group is the reason that the FCC and NAB have no business saying this is not good for business. If Sat. radio is not a threat to terrestrial radio, then why are they (FCC/NAB) fighting it so hard? Sat. radio is the same as having cable or satellite television. Some people just don’t get that. You let AT&T buy back Bellsouth within months and Rupert Murdoch is buying up media outlet after media outlet and no one cares. But we better spend all our time paying attention to these two companies whose stock price COMBINED is less than $25/sh. Ridiculous.