Howard Stern's Retirement Could Cost SiriusXM Satellite Radio A Fortune After Their Financial Decline (2024)

When SiriusXM signed Howard Stern in 2004, the company watched its listenership increase exponentially. The millions of fans who listened to Stern on traditional radio were happy to follow him to satellite radio. Even those who accused Stern of being a sellout and Stern's admission of being a sellout did not stop fans from listening to his morning show. This led to Stern receiving contract after contract to keep him on SiriusXM. But with Stern considering retirement at the end of his latest contract, the future of SiriusXM could be in jeopardy.

Stern has helped to maintain constant listenership in the two decades that he has been with SiriusXM. Despite a continued decline of subscribers, Stern's popularity has waivered very little. This has helped the satellite radio company remain afloat. But, if Stern leaves, this may no longer be the case.

This article will reveal how Howard Stern's eventual departure from SiriusXM could cost the satellite radio company a fortune. Following that, we will highlight the struggles that SiriusXM is already facing and what the company is doing to help ensure they do not implode if Stern does indeed leave the airwaves.

Howard Stern's Contract With SiriusXM Expires In 2025

Stern signed a five-year contract with SiriusXM in 2020 that would extend his time with the satellite radio company through 2025. The terms of the contract were not disclosed. However, the presumption was that the terms were similar to the contract signed in 2015, which guaranteed Stern $80 million per year, and helped Stern to increase his $650 million fortune year after year.

SiriusXM quickly signed Stern to another five-year contract and even paid Stern's ostentatious hotel bill for himself and his wife because of the guaranteed listenership that he brought the company. While the listeners are not at the 20 million listener levels that terrestrial radio saw, Stern has managed to keep 10-plus million listeners over his two decades at SiriusXM. This has landed him the number one morning talk show year after year and third overall for all talk shows.

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The money that SiriusXM made from having Stern on its platform may be ending, however. This is because Stern has been talking about retiring after his contract expires in 2025. However, Stern's announcement of his retirement before a contract negotiation has also become a pattern. As such, sources are questioning if Stern will truly be retiring in the near future:

"Every time Howard's contract is up, there's rumors about him retiring or moving to a rival like Spotify, and most often this is a way to get him an even bigger deal."

The largest difference between the contract signed in 2020 and one that could be signed in 2025 is that the number of subscribers that SiriusXM has is in a decline. Because of this, Stern may see the writing on the wall and want to get out of the talk show game while the getting is good.

SiriusXM Has Lost A Record Number Of Subscribers

Over the last couple of decades, SiriusXM gained paid subscribers at lightning speed. Beginning in 2011, it was predicted that the satellite radio company would gain listeners quarter after quarter. Those predictions continued to be correct through 2019, when the company had its highest number of l in the history of SiriusXM

During the pandemic and the years that followed, SiriusXM was unable to regain the number of paid subscribers they had in years past. Be it because satellite radio was seen as an unnecessary expense or other streaming platforms were being used instead, the number of listeners declined.

The largest number of lost subscribers came in the first quarter of 2024. At that time, it was reported that SiriusXM lost 445,000 paid subscribers. During the first quarter of 2023, that number was 281,000.

SiriusXM has done a number of things to try to regain subscribers to their platform. This includes a relaunch of their platform and "product improvements." The company has also laid off employees in areas of the company that have been phased out to rebuild for the future.

What is interesting is that despite losing nearly 450,000 subscribers, SiriusXM still managed to increase its quarterly revenue from Q1 of 2023 to Q1 of 2024. These figures stood at $2.14 billion and $2.16 billion, respectively.

The projections show that subscriptions are likely to increase over Q2 to Q4 with new vehicle sales projected to increase during the same timeframe. If this does indeed happen, then not only will SiriusXM have withstood one of the biggest losses in paid subscribers in the history of the company but their revenue will only continue to increase as the satellite company continues to keep up with the trends of listenership across the streaming platforms.

However, the company is also aware that if Stern does retire after his contract expires in 2025, it will have to work to retain the subscribers who paid to listen to the shock jock. Because of this, SiriusXM has been quietly expanding its talk show platform over the last couple of years to encourage Stern listeners to remain with the platform.

How SiriusXM Has Been Slowly Increasing Talk Show Content To Fill Howard Stern's Void

The executives at SiriusXM have not begun talks with Stern yet for a new contract given that he still has to get through 2025 at his current presumed multi-million dollar rate per year. However, for the first time since his employment with SiriusXM, it may be that Stern is serious about giving up his talk show in its current format. If this is the case, then the executives at the satellite radio company feel that they are more prepared than ever if Stern's departure does, in fact, materialize.

"We love our bench," President and Chief Content Officer Scott Greenstein explained. "Whether it’s James Corden, Conan, Andy Cohen and many others. They’re not Howard replacements, they have their own distinct audience style, and demo that they go after. And so we feel pretty good where we stand on that front as we continue to evolve our content."

However, Greenstein was quick to point out that if Stern wanted to remain with the platform, SiriusXM was happy to have him. This is not only because he has become an anchor host with a popular show for SiriusXM, but because the audience is "growing younger" as well. This means that the potential for paid subscribers to rise is a very real thing. Greenstein stated the following:

However, in case Stern retires, Greenstein said that there are strategies in place to keep their "current demo" and "target audience." Whether this will have to be deployed or if the strategies are planned to be put into motion regardless of Stern retiring has not been disclosed.

What the future of SiriusXM looks like without Stern is uncertain. But, it appears by all accounts that for the first time in the history of the company that they are prepared for Stern's departure. Should that departure come in 2025 or beyond, it is anyone's guess.