The Internet hasn’t killed the radio star. On Tuesday, the satellite radio company SiriusXM announced that it had renewed its contract with the popular and puckish radio host Howard Stern.
The survival of SiriusXM somewhat flies in the face of conventional wisdom from a decade ago, when Mr. Stern first signed up to do satellite radio. The Internet, it was widely thought then, would reduce any incentive people might have to pay for satellite radio. SiriusXM now has 29 million listeners, the vast majority of whom are paying a monthly subscription fee; the company itself is profitable.
The deal announced on Tuesday also came with at least one new tech touch. As Ben Sisario reported, Mr. Stern’s new deal includes video programming that will be distributed by SiriusXM through an app.
Subscribers to SiriusXM may also listen online, meaning the radio star is also now an Internet star.