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Howard Stern signs a new five-year deal with SiriusXM

Howard Stern signs a new five-year deal with SiriusXM

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SiriusXM will launch a video venture with Stern as part of his new deal

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Howard Stern has renewed his deal with SiriusXM, keeping his immensely popular radio show on the service for five more years. Stern has been crucial to the success of SiriusXM since he joined the satellite radio service in 2004. Bloomberg estimated that losing The Howard Stern Show could cost SiriusXM $240 million in annual revenue.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but under his previous contract, Stern earned an estimated $80 million a year, according to Variety. As part of his new deal, SiriusXM will launch a video venture with Stern, which will likely manifest in an app as Stern alluded to on his show this morning.

Rumors of potential deals with Netflix and Apple didn't come to pass

Losing the notorious shock jock was a legitimate possibility for SiriusXM for the first time in years, with Stern's contract expiring at the end of the year and Netflix and Apple Music being floated as the top two potential landing spots by industry insiders publicly and privately. But despite a number of opportunities, Stern chose to stay with SiriusXM, the one company where his show is needed, and not an addition to an already robust lineup.

In 2004, the addition of The Howard Stern Show helped grow the user base of what was then known as Sirius, allowing it to catch up to and acquire its sole competitor, XM, and form SiriusXM. After announcing the deal on his show today, Stern extolled the benefits of his corporate boss in the only way he knows how: "If you are not listening to SiriusXM and The Howard Stern Show, then you are really more like a zombie, a rotting corpse monster, living half a life, deadened and blackened inside."

If that doesn't make you want to pay for satellite radio, I — or SiriusXM — don't know what will.


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