Howard Stern Responsible For More Than Half Of New Sirius Subscribers

Sirius Satellite Radio announced a subscriber increase of 1,142,000 during the fourth quarter of 2005, and according to a new study from Bridge Ratings, 22 percent of Sirius' sign-ups during the week of October 3 alone were due directly to Howard Stern joining the satcaster. Bridge Ratings conducted surveys at retail outlets throughout the fourth quarter, and as Sirius marketing, awareness and the holiday season progressed, subscribers who signed on for Stern reached 58 percent in the week prior to Christmas. They topped 60 percent in the final three shopping days of the holiday season. The other reasons most commonly given for signing up for Sirius were "programming variety" and "no commercials."

Bridge Ratings projects that 715,000 of Sirius' fourth quarter sign-ups were due directly to Stern, and they also predict that during the month of January 2006, an additional 390,000 new subscribers will sign up to hear Howard. Bridge plans to continue monitoring the progress of Stern listeners on Sirius and will provide weekly trending and quarterly updates through 2006.