Report: SiriusXM Subs Listen To A Lot of AM/FM Radio

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Last week we told you about the impressive growth of SiriusXM’s paid subscriber base when the company reported Q4 2015 earnings. Tuesday afternoon, at the Country Radio Seminar, Edison Research made a presentation that broke down exactly what some of those subscribers actually listened to in their automobiles.

Edison’s Larry Rosin said more than one-third of the time spent listening to radio in the car among SiriusXM subscribers is spent listening to AM/FM. In video interviews with radio station listeners, here are just a few of the reasons why they were staying tuned to your local radio stations:

– “I don’t get that personal feeling (from SiriusXM), like what’s going on in my area.”
– “It’s about the DJs, they’re awesome.”
– “They (our local station) is local. Pandora is not. They (our local station) interact with the community.”
– “SiriusXM has never supported the local animal shelter.”
– “There are fewer commercials on SiriusXM, but there is no local information.”

Edison’s research showed that the reasons people are still listening to local country radio are:
– To hear their favorite songs
– To discover new songs
– News and information
– Major breaking news
– What popular songs people are talking about
– What’s going on in the community
– The local DJs

4 COMMENTS

  1. I cancelled my 12 year SiriusXM account last Friday and got Spotify Premium. I like it much better, because it is $10 cheaper a month and I can get 100% commercial free music, and download entire albums, all legal and high quality sound. Now before traveling, I can download all I want to my phone before traveling and not use any data, but even if I do use data, it is never that much at all. I just don’t see it (SiriusXM) feasible anymore. It was great at one time, but for the last 2 months I had it, I only turned the radio on twice. I could get it back at some point, but as of now, I don’t see it happen, and I honestly don’t miss it at all.

  2. I leave my Sirius radio tuned to a satellite channel all the time, but with the volume all the way down. I am actually listening to something else.

  3. When they were two separate satellite companies, they were so much better; XM was a radio/music-lover’s dream- live DJ’s in several dayparts on the decades channels that took instant feedback from listeners and wide playlists; since the merger, all but the 60’s channel have dumbed-down the playlist and went to voicetracking virtually everything, ruining the whole ‘live’ radio aspect for the 70’s and 80’s channels. Worst idea ever was the merger – it destroyed XM, and saved Sirius (who was smaller, yet took-over). I listen to just as much AM as I do XM- it’s probably 50/50 since the live DJ’s left the XM 70’s channel.

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