[Via Business Filter ] Bill Trancer blogs about Howard Stern's brand equity, detailing the drop off in traffic to Stern's website (allegedly work safe -- depending where you work, I suppose).

While Trancer clearly shows that Sirius' acquisition of Howard Stern's radio show is responsible for that satellite radio service's dramatic increase in subscribe base in the past year -- what's known as the Stern effect -- he questions whether or not this move, at the same time, significantly diminished Stern's overall brand value.

Stern knew he would be reaching a much smaller audience after his move from FCC-regulated public airways, to the (at least for now), much smaller universe of subscription-service radio. Aside from the controversial financial deal, worth $500 million, that brought him to Sirius, Stern cited a desire to be away from government regulation as his motivation for the move. He claims he would have retired otherwise, and was prepared to do so, after the Janet Jackson/Superbowl incident in 2004.

I don't know if Stern or his fans are concerned over Stern's "brand value." Sirius is now an equal to XM in the satellite radio wars, and the Stern Effect, even if it has peaked, played a significant factor -- the most significant factor -- in that growth spurt. CEO Mel Karmazin should be happy.

Michael Canfield is a private investor, a business and media writer, living in Seattle. He doesn't own stock in Sirius or XM.

Sirius (SIRI) seems to be planning to sell an online-only version of its satellite radio service, according to a community website: siriusbackstage.com [via Cnet news]. The service will cost $12.99 per month as a stand-alone and will be called "Sirius Internet Radio Plus." That price is comparable to the monthly price of the traditional service. It will include some, but not all, of Sirius' satellite radio content, as well as some separate programming, evidently, as the service is also priced as an add-on the a conventional subscription for $2.99 a month, but Sirius will also continue to stream its existing content selections for free to satellite subscribers. Sirius appears committed to branding this as a distinct entity; they've registered the acronym "SIR" as a trademark.

One of the serious (sorry) stumbling blocks to adding new subscribers for both Sirius and its rival XM (XMSR) is the need for special equipment: a receiver and then something to plug the receiver into, like a boombox, or converter kit for an automobile. Sirius has long offered free three-day web-only access trial accounts.

Sirius internet radio music channels stream at 128kbps and talk channels (including the Howard Stern channels) stream at a rather tinny-sounding 48kbps.

A Sarah McBride AP article on whether or not satellite radio is here to stay has sparked a lively dialog in the comments under its digg link. Lots of anecdotes: "I hate my service 'cause they they don't play enough classics," versus "I love my service, they play lots of stuff new to me" and on and on but one comment in particular caught my attention: Topher06 can't stand the trend of everything moving to subscription. Hardly news anymore, but how many services can one consumer sign up for? And which service will be first to go once a little fiscal reassessment is undertaken? Need is certainly not a limiting factor -- but the ease at which a new service manages to integrate into the consumer's life and feel like a need might be.

Manufacturers of Sirius Radio (SIRI) receivers that previously had to stop production of several models because of signal emissions the violated FCC standards have resumed production of two models, the company said yesterday. The models were designed to allow users the capability to use receive FM radio as well as receiving the subscriber programming offered by Sirius. This brings over 90% of Sirius radio models back into production. XM has its own ongoing FCC concerns, noted below.

The news was met indifferently by investors and in late afternoon the stock is landing where it finished yesterday -- at $3.77 a share.
Michael Canfield is a private investor, a business and media writer, living in Seattle. He doesn't own stock in XM or Sirius.

Alltel Wireless is going into business with XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) in deal that will bring XM's commercial-free stations to mobile phones: 20 music channels to wear down your battery for $7.99 a month.

And, since you can't very far surfing for news about one satellite deal without quickly coming upon references of some previous deal involving a rival satellite radio service, I'll mention that this agreement is similar to one made by Sirius Satellite Radio and Sprint. Alltel's website does not have a service map, and punching up my zip code yielded no store locations in my area, so I have no idea in what regions they operate.

Programming differences between Sirius (SIRI) and XM (XMSR) remain a fierce area of debate for partisans of either satellite radio service. Libby Pelham has a good basic write up for those considering subscribing to one or the other. Those considering either stock as an investment for the first time will want to take a look. She makes one slight mistake however, say NPR is "only" on Sirius. I'm sure she means on only Sirius of the two services, because, of course, NPR is available on terrestrial radio throughout most of the U.S. XM also carries content available free over the airwaves, such as Air America, the liberal talk network broadcast terrestrially in (shall we say) select markets.

Carrying non-exclusive content on the subscription services is a huge value. With next-to-unlimited channels available, these offerings to not shunt aside original content, and the convenience, familiarity, and a consistent signal, mean that this type of programming enhances the brand value of the service -- whichever you may prefer to consider , whether as subscriber or investor.

Michael Canfield is a private investor, a business and media writer, living in Seattle. He doesn't own stock in Sirius or XM.

Volvo announced plans to offer factory-installed Sirius Satellite (SIRI) radios on many of its models beginning with the 2007 model year, including all of the new S80 models. That'll run Volvo buyers around $295, including a 6-month subscription. Sirius' biggest challenge to growth is the massive head-start competitor XM (XMSR) has in pre-installed automaker offerings, including General Motors, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan and Volkswagen/Audi.

Sirius has been adding new dealers as well, and soon consumers will have increased benefit of choice when seeking satellite music right off the dealer's lot.

In other satellite radio news: although XM Radio loses Nascar to Sirius in 2007, it maintains a valuable major-league baseball contract will broadcast the US Open.

Michael Canfield is a private investor, a business and media writer, living in Seattle. He doesn't own stock in XM or Sirius.

Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) subscriptions are up. XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) subscriptions have increased as well. But here's a statistic pointed out by Marc Gerstein, Reuters' director of investment research: cancellations are also up, and, while still low, are increasing for both satellite digital radio services. Check out his tables which show that XM' s deactivations for Q2 '06 (as percentage of new subscribers) is 57.03%, as compared to the same quarter last year with 31.58%. The total number of deactivations expressed as a percentage of new subscribers for all of 2004 was 27.49%

Sirius Radio subscriber deactivations show a similar trend (by the same measurement) for the past twelve months: 27.71% in Q2 '06 -- versus 15.43% for that quarter last year. The percentage for Q2 '04 was fairly close to 2005's, at 13.73%.

The reasons?

NME.com (try to pronounce that one as a single word), a Time Warner company, announced today that it has entered an agreement with Mercora, Inc. The partnership enables NME.com to develop a beta version of service called MyNME Radio -- even more unpronounceable -- which will pair Mercora's music search abilities with the legalized music sharing of NME.com.

The partnership would create the world's largest user-contributed digital radio network, whereby users could broadcast their own collection and enable others to browse and listen to their personal playlists.

Best of all, the price is right. The service will be free for all NME.com users starting in the second quarter.

But what does this mean to us consumers?

Well, for starters, it means that it will be easier than ever before to come to the conclusion that rest of the world has bad taste in music.