Howard Stern Show to Be SiriusXM's First Paid Video Content

East End radio star Howard Stern has been heard, not seen since 2013, when his on-demand television service Howard TV ended. Now SiriusXM is planning to get Stern back on screen, as the harbinger for exciting, new content to come.

The satellite radio giant reported increased earnings in the fourth-quarter of 2017, with subscriber counts at an all-time high of 32.74 million in the United States. In light of their success in audio, they have decided to begin dabbling in video content as well, as Spotify has also done recently, starting with 30 years worth of interviews from The Howard Stern Show.

The self-proclaimed “King of All Media” has been a massive hit on satellite radio since 2006, with estimates claiming he now has about nine million listeners each week, although SiriusXM has never officially released ratings for individual channels. The immense amount of video content recorded for his show alone will be enough to launch SiriusXM’s new genre of content this summer, with more talk show hosts, comedians and musicians expected to follow.

The list of the company’s radio personalities is long and star-studded including Kenny Smith of Saturday Night Live, Vincent Pastore of The Sopranos and pro-skater Tony Hawk. Musicians are even more numerous with channels devoted to icons like Billy Joel, Frank Sinatra and The Beatles. While SiriusXM already has a wealth of content to release, CEO Jim Meyer has made it clear that the company is not looking to expand its video services to the point of becoming a Netflix competitor.

The video content will be added to the SiriusXM All Access package, currently $20.99 a month, which consists of over 150 radio channels and live-streaming on computers and phones with the company’s app. When the package changes this summer, it will be interesting to see what will become of the SiriusXM YouTube channel, which has hundreds of exclusive videos viewable for free.