3-6-2015
The streaming wars are heating up, Google announced today that they are offering a Play Music account trial for three months at only $3 a month, the service would normally cost users $9.99 a month. The account gives users access to the library of over 30 million songs. Once the three-month trial ends, you'll have to cancel the service or fork over $9.99 a month. The discounted deal only applies to new subscribers.
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4-24-14
CFO Mike Herring made the announcement on the Thursday afternoon earnings call that 12 months of Pandora will now cost $4.99 per month (an increase from $3.99 per month). A Pandora One subscription allows a user to listen without commercials. At $59.88 for twelve months, that's nearly double the $36.00 annual price. Until now users could pay for one year at the $36.00 price. Pandora is eliminating the annual subscription and will now only offer the $4.99 per-month subscription. Anyone paying $3.99 will be grandfathered in.
2-17-14
These are the Pembrook Pines stations recently sold which also include having to pay off the bills owner Bob Pfuntner racked up, and did not pay, with ASCAP, BMI, SESAC. The upstate New York stations purchased by Bill Christian went for $950,000. In Elmira, that includes; WEHH-AM, WELM-AM, WOKN-FM, WLVY-FM plus four translators. Christian has to divest WCBA-AM in Corning. In Olean, Sound Communications gets WOEN-AM and WMXO-FM and in Salamanca, WGGO-AM and WQRS-FM for $250,000.
10/24/13
SiriusXM reported third-quarter record results of $962 million, up 11 percent from Q3 of 2012. The company also announced it will be raising its price by six dollars per year for basic packages starting in January. This is the second price increase since a government ban was lifted following the merger of Sirius and XM in 2008. CEO Jim Meyer said, ?While changing prices is a hard decision, especially in the competitive audio entertainment market, we are assured that our subscribers see substantial value in our service and that this modest change will not considerably impact retention next year.? In 2011 SiriusXM increased the cost of its basic package by 1.50 dollars.
Meyer said the company "had a great quarter," adding more than half a million subscribers. We also saw double-digit growth in revenue for the seventh consecutive quarter, a new quarterly record for adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin, and significant growth in free cash flow."
Adjusted EBITDA for Q3 was up 21 percent, to $296 million, with adjusted EBITDA margin at nearly 31 percent. Free cash flow was $245 million, up 26 percent from $195 million in Q3 of 2012.
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3-13-13
Barry Drake sold off his upstate New York cluster of seven stations for $3.6 million. It was a cluster he purchased as part of a bigger deal with Sabre Communications many years before that included Muncie (also recently sold off) and Williamsport (which he still owns). The New York stations are being purchased by Community Broadcasters headed by Bruce Mittman (pictured) and Jim Leven.
Read the purchase agreement HERE
The stations in this deal are: In Elmira-Corning, NY
* WNKI-FM-106.1-#1 Hit Music Station, Class B, 40 kW, 531?, COL Corning NY
* WNGZ-FM-104.9-Classic Rock, Class A, 1 kW, 479?, COL Montour Falls NY
* WPGI-FM-100.9-Country, Class A, 3.8 kW, 246?, COL Horseheads NY
* WWLZ-AM-820-News/Talk/Sports, Class B, 4.1 kW-D, 850 W-N, DAN, COL Horseheads NY
* WRCE-AM-1490-Simulcast WNGZ-880-Classic Rock, Class C, 880 W-U, ND, COL Watkins Glen NY
And in Olean, NY
* WPIG-FM-95.7-Country, Class B, 43 kW, 741?, COL Olean NY
* WHDL-AM-1450-Oldies, Class C, 1 kW-U, ND, COL Olean NY
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11-13-2012
The price Salem paid to Radio One for WJKR-FM in Columbus has finally been filed with the FCC (READ IT). For $320K down and a total cash payment of $4 Million, Radio One sold what it said was no longer a core asset. Salem began an LMA of the station on November 1st and flipped the format to its Conservative talk brand.
2-14-2012
Arbitron reported revenue of $120.1 million during the fourth quarter of 2011, an increase of 7.6 percent compared to revenue of $111.7 million during the fourth quarter of 2010. Revenue in the quarter benefited from the continued phase-in of contracted price increases for the Portable People Meter and increases in the sales of discretionary services.
Arbitron President and CEO Bill Kere said "In 2011, we made significant progress toward achieving the objectives we outlined during last year's call: growth in our core revenue, improved margins in the wake of the full commercialization of our PPM radio ratings service, and entry into new markets in the US and overseas. Importantly, we were able to expand our margins while making investments in both the quality of our core services and in our growth strategies such as digital radio, cross platform and mobile measurement."
"For 2012 and beyond, we see our basic strategies as unchanged. We will pursue opportunities to improve performance and deliver compelling returns by leveraging our existing PPM and diary platforms, by continuing to seek out cost efficiencies and by deploying our financial and other resources to cultivate new markets. We will pursue these strategies with the goal of building long-term value for our customers, our employees and our shareholders."
Costs and expenses for the fourth quarter increased 7.3 percent, from $92.7 million in 2010 to $99.5 million in 2011. The increase was primarily due to increased cost of revenue associated with providing PPM and Diary services, operating costs incurred by Arbitron Mobile, as well as year-over-year increases in performance and share-based compensation.
Net income for the fourth quarter of 2011 was reduced by a $3.5 million pre-tax, non-cash impairment charge associated with the Company's minority stake in a privately-held media research firm as well as a $2.1 million pre-tax operating loss for Arbitron Mobile Oy (previously known as Zokem Oy), which was acquired in July 2011. Net income for the full year 2011 increased 19.8 percent to $53.3 million compared with $44.5 million in 2010. GAAP earnings per share (diluted) for the full year 2011 were $1.93 compared with $1.64 per share (diluted) in 2010.
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September 14, 2011: Sirius XM offers financial guidance for 2012, predicting revenue growth of 10 percent, to approximately $3.3 billion for the year. The satcaster is also looking for adjusted EBITDA growth of 20 percent, to about $860 million, and 75 percent growth in free cash flow, to approximately $700 million.
"Our new guidance for 2012 demonstrates our expectation of robust growth next year," Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin said. "Sirius XM's outstanding financial performance in the midst of considerable economic uncertainty will continue in 2012 as we grow our subscriber base and free cash flow and anticipate that our revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth will accelerate."
Sirius XM also affirmed its 2011 guidance, looking for about 1.6 million net new subscribers, revenue of approximately $3 billion, adjusted EBITDA of about $715 million, and free cash flow "approaching $400 million."
Price Hike On The Way
Sirius XM's prices will be going up next year: Karmazin announced that on January 1, the base price for Sirius and XM Select will rise to $14.49 a month from $12.95, and the company will also "adjust prices on man of our other programming packages."
Karmazin said, "This is the first price increase on our basic service packages since the addition of the NFL, NASCAR, Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, and many college sports to our programming lineup. Through continued investments in technology, the best and most diverse programming in radio is available to our subscribers in cars, homes, offices, business establishments, on the Internet and smartphones. We will expand our programming and technology further with the launch of Sirius XM 2.0 in the coming months."
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