Even though I’m a Sirius shareholder and even though his departure would lead to a plummet in the stock price (from 2¢ to 1¢), I want him to leave because he will turn the internet into a credible, sustainable, mass entertainment medium. Apparently, he’s not listening to Howard, either.įine. Way back in 2005, I wrote an open letter to Sirius’ Mel Karmazin urging him to embrace the internet and see satellite as just as transitional delivery mechanism for his valuable content (ignore the fucking spam links on the post). Fellow Howard fan Doc Searls wrote about the potential here. I wrote about Howard’s potential internet empire here. There’s no need to pay for porn because there’s no scarcity of people who will strip and shtupp in front of a webcam. Arianna Huffington was wrong when she says that people will pay for business news and porn. There’s no end of potential competition for any news provider and its unique value expires in seconds.
Why the hell would I pay for Howard Stern and not pay for news? Because Howard is unique.
Stern is talking about charging $5 a month and for that we’d get his radio show plus his TV shows plus much more, even music - and no advertising (“why should I hire a sales force?” he asked). Today I pay $12 a month for Stern - more, actually, with my internet account and my wife’s and son’s cars. “You will make the internet.” For Stern is the one media entity who can absolutely, positively get people to pay online - even me, the alleged opponent of all things paid.
“The internet needs you,” I said to Howard Stern when I called into the show this morning as he was ranting about his contract negotiations with Sirius XM and the possibility that he could take his show and more to the net.
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