NEW YORK — Sirius Satellite Radio announced that on the one-year anniversary of Howard Stern’s first Sirius broadcast, the shock jock has brought in more than 2 million subscribers, compared with the pre-Howard subscriber forecasts.
As part of Sirius’ agreement with Stern, Sirius delivered to affiliates of Stern more than 22 million shares of Sirius common stock, valued at $82.9 million, for his delivery of more than 2 million subscribers to Sirius. At the time of the Stern agreement with Sirius in October 2004, analysts had predicted Sirius would reach only 3.5 million subscribers by Dec. 31, 2006; however, with the help of Stern, Sirius ended 2006 with approximately 6,024,000, it said.
“The decision to bring Howard Stern to Sirius required a very significant commitment, and we are very pleased that our investment has dramatically paid off,” said Mel Karmazin, Sirius CEO. “Sirius has significantly outperformed earlier subscriber expectations, now generating over $300 million more revenue than Wall Street expected at the time Howard agreed to join us,” he added.
