Howard Stern has a new five-year contract with Sirius XM

Howard Stern has signed a new contract and will stay on satellite radio for five more years, he announced Thursday on his Sirius XM show.

Earlier in the week, he'd said -- using vocabulary satellite radio allows -- that he wouldn't take, um, any kind of pay cut to stay on the job. Sirius XM shares were up 20% in early trading Thursday, reports Company Town, which also notes that some analysts think Stern might cut down the number of shows he does each week from the current four. He started out on satellite doing five shows a week.

Though details of the contract weren't released, one analyst estimated it to be worth $400 million over five years, the Hollywood Reporter said. 

Laura Schlessinger, aka Dr. Laura, also recently signed a satellite radio contract. Stern bailed on terrestrial radio in 2006 after pushing the limits with the Federal Communications Commission for years.

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-- Christie D'Zurilla

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo: Howard Stern in New York on Dec. 1. Credit: Evan Agostini / Associated Press

 

Comments

[charles giarraputo]

This is the most outrages think I have ever seen in my life no one is worth that kind of money for anything. I feel sorry for the people who bought stock in this company, they will never see a dime of it come back. Everyone who has XM radio should stop buying it ASAP.

[Matt]

As A reply to Charles.. umm.. yeah, I bought stock in Sirius. Common Stock. There wouldnt be any dividend or money coming back to me. However, I bought it around 75 cents. It's not over $1.40... almost double what I bought it for... hmm I'd say that sort of return is a good one...

Also, just so you know, yes, they paid Stern $500million for 5 years. But that was the whole show. Not Stern. He had to spend money and get it up and running. About 80-90Million a year is spent on the show itself.. I definitely believe Stern is worth the $100million at most he received after show expenses.

[Rob]

Agree Matt. People don't do the simple math. Stern's show needs to generate $8.4 million per month to break even on the deal. That would mean Stern needs to bring or keep only 600,000 people (at $14 per month per subscriber). Certainly no one can argue that 1/20th of the 20 million subscribers are there for Howard. Frankly it's probably closer to half and at the end of the day that's quite a bargin.

[Christian]

My wife and I listen to Sat Radio and really like the service, I understand it's not everyones cup of tea.
Glad to hear they got the Stern deal done. Now I'd like to see a few improvemnts to their Android app.