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In the belief that there is nothing new under the sun, in 1923, the earliest radio service was the sealed set system where the listener possessed a radio that was tuned to a particular station. The receivers could be hacked to receive other stations. The sealed-set system was a failure with only 1400 subscribers, ref https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/Media_ownership/1923-1938 .
A subscription to the four Bauer Media services cost AUD $7.16. Seems reasonable enough. In a similar vein to the sealed set system of 1923, will there be enough subscribers to break even, at least cover the cost of the wages of the presenters, power, administration, royalty fees?
Subcription radio in the US, is alive and well with over 34 million subscribers to the Sirius XM satellite services. https://www.statista.com/statistics/252812/number-of-sirius-xms-subscribers/. With monthly subscription rates ranging from US$10 to US$19, that would be an expected annual turnover of between US$4.2 billion to US$8 billion, source https://m.siriusxm.com/servlet/Satellite?c=SXM_PageDetail_C&childpagename=SXM/SXM_PageDetail_C/OpenContent&cid=1283879531775&p=1283872687292&pagename=SXM/Wrapper .
The range of channels is between 80 and 175 channels with the premium package offering online IP radio. Thats between $10/80 = US $0.125 per channel and $19/175 = US $0.11 per channel per month or AUD $0.15 and AUD $0.16 per month per channel.
For the British offering, that is $7.16/4 per month = $1.79 per channel per month, which is 10 times the price of the US offering.
Despite a slight drop in consumers for subscription radio in the US, the market is larger. Whether the market for subscription radio can be sustained in the smaller UK market, I doubt that subscription radio could be sustained in Australia.
There has to be a great reason to subscribe to paid radio. The pulling power of Foxtel/Kayo is the sports content. For general entertainment, Foxtel faces competition from streaming VOD services, whether paid or subscription. Paramount pictures is offering a VOD subscription service.
If sport is the 'pulling power' to attract subscribers to Foxtel/Kayo, then sport may be the pulling power for subscription radio.
But alas, the FTA services of ABC metro, Grandstand (DAB), Nine Radio (2GB, 3AW), 2SM, SEN, and MMM would make it hard to want to flick over to subscription radio, especially for sports offerings.
That's unless the subscription service does a larger deal greater than the accumulated offerings of the FTA broadcasters such that the only way to listen to sporting coverage is via subscription radio.
For Bauer Media's subscription service, time will tell whether there are enough subscribers to sustain its four musical channels. It would have to compete with the fourth largest commercial radio network in the UK, Classic FM, https://www.classicfm.com/contact/advertise-with-us/. By classic FM, it's music equivalent to ABC-Classic and 2MBS (Fine Music), NOT Classic Hits.
Thank you,
Anthony of exciting and analytical Belfield
Apple Music has real live presenters. Zane Lowe, Matt Wilkinson, Nadeska, Kelleigh Bannen, Estelle, and Hanuman Welch all present live shows. And their live country music station features weekly shows presented by a large number of country artists that I'm sure our friends in Bankstown would appreciate!