A reader writes:
Sirius XM is probably the best model of what happens when you start charging for what people are used to getting for free. It fails. Sirius has invested billions of dollars into amazing technology, but without a partnership that gives new car buyers a free subscription for a limited time, they would have failed years earlier. They make the same argument, that they've got exclusive content, but just like Times Select, walling off that content just made it less relevant. Howard Stern was going to be the man who made Sirius a must have for millions of fans, but when was the last time you heard anybody mention the man?
How did he go from a must-hear personality who was constantly in the news for his antics or his outrageousness to a "whatever happened to?" has been? Simply, he was put behind a pay wall. Oprah has her own channel, but I've never heard it mentioned. If the King of All Media and a woman who has enough influence to swing a national election can't get people to pay, why on earth does Murdoch think he can?