by Demian Russian
A recent Arbitron study of Satellite Radio subscribers, which was conducted in October and November of last year, shows that Sirius XM (Nasdaq: SIRI) Satellite Radio has over 35 Million “premium” listeners. The results of the study, which were released Thursday, clearly show that Satellite Radio listeners are smarter, richer and more receptive than those that listen to AM/FM.
The Arbitron study found that 32 million of the over 35 million total listeners to Satellite Radio were weekly listeners. Sirius XM listeners were shown to spend an average of almost 3 hours in their cars daily. While in their cars, they overwhelmingly chose Sirius XM 71% of the time. The study found only 17% of 'time was spent listening to AM/FM radio and only 5% of listeners' time was spent listening to mobile devices, such as cell phones and iPods.
Satellite Radio listeners were shown to be highly educated. 56% of Sirius XM’s listeners are college graduates or have advanced degrees compared to only 24% of AM/FM listeners. Does this mean that you have to be stupid to listen to AM/FM? Not quite, but close. Based on the study’s results, I guess you could say that Satellite Radio listeners are over twice as smart as those who choose to listen to AM/FM radio.
The Arbitron study found that Satellite Radio listeners are rich. 24% have household incomes of $150,000 and over. This compares to only 9% of AM/FM listeners having incomes of that level. According to the study, these rich Satellite Radio listeners are more receptive to commercials too. Sirius XM listeners were 61% more likely to stay with a commercial and not change the channel than AM/FM radio listeners. This clearly creates more value for advertisers who choose Sirius XM.
Interestingly, the Arbitron study excluded all of Sirius XM’s commercial-free music channels. The study only included Sirius XM’s news, talk, entertainment, sports, and other commercial programming channels. That doesn’t sound fair to Sirius XM. How can that be considered a fair study if you take away all of Sirius XM’s commercial-free music channels? What would the Arbitron study’s results look like if all of Sirius XM’s commercial-free music channels had been included? Game Over.
Position: Long SIRI
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