Q3 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

If we assume that a typical quarter brings in 1,500,000 new OEM subscribers, what would all of this mean?

"This was a difficult but necessary decision that will provide us with greater financial flexibility in these uncertain economic times," said chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. in the announcement. "Most industries are feeling the need to conserve cash and ours is as well, particularly given the secular challenges we face.....We expect that this steep cut in the dividend, coupled with our other actions, will help us decrease debt and improve the liquidity of the Company, a prudent measure in this operating environment."

Q3 2008 Earnings Call

Sure, there are a few folks that subscribe to their music. And Microsoft has signed agreements with EMI Music, Sony BMG Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group in addition to a bunch of independent labels (Techmeme, statement). The deal: You pay $14.99 a month, you keep 10 tracks a month for your permanent collection and Zune customers keep the DRM free music.

F2Q09 Earnings Call

Q3 2008 Earnings Call

The article in question asks whether Warren Buffett has lost his touch. It recounts what it calls three of Buffett's mistakes.

We’ve written a lot about the death of the recorded music business, but in a keynote address to a music industry conference a couple weeks ago Topspin CEO Ian Rogers sketches out a different future. Rogers, the former head of Yahoo Music, correctly points out, as others have before him, that it is not the music industry that is dying. It is the CD business.

RuTube is the YouTube of Russia. Or, rather, it wants to be. According to comScore, Google's YouTube is actually the YouTube of Russia. In September, RuTube attracted 2 million unique visitors in Russia, versus 2.9 million Russian uniques for YouTube. RuTube is seeing some nice growth, though. It has doubled its audience since June. (All caveats about comScore estimates apply here. Their numbers for Russia should be looked at as indicative of the trend rather than as absolutes).

I'm interested by the presence of a couple of blogospheric luminaries at Abrams Research: Rachel Sklar and Lockhart Steele are both smart picks for anybody wanting the firm to be ahead of the curve when it comes to new media. If I were in their shoes, I'd be agitating strongly for Abrams to dispel charges of conflicts of interest wherever possible through the use of complete transparency. Consider one of the things Abrams says his company is likely to end up doing:

Analyst Jeffrey Fan looked back to 2001-2004 when the sector saw a 10% staff reduction. During the same period, Thomson Reuters Corp.’s (TRI) Markets unit saw an 18% decline in revenues from peak to trough.

One place we're seeing cuts is development costs: expect the networks to buy fewer scripts and make safer bets. We're now towards the end of the window where networks buy scripts for the following fall, which usually starts in the summer and goes until November. Now there's no longer a strict fall TV season, with many of the networks including CNBC's parent NBC shifting to a 65 or 52 week schedule.

A stock price that was beyond comprehension only three months ago is now edging ever closer to actually happening. As of this writing, Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) is in danger of dipping into the teens. This will place the equity at a new all time low, as well as bring it further away from the $1 billion market cap that would allow the company to access a $100 million credit facility through Loral (LORL).

The company has expressed that they are active in trying to negotiate financing for the $200 million due in February of 2009, but as yet there has been no indication that acceptable terms have been reached. The debt issue and frozen credit markets have taken their toll on many companies, and Sirius XM has not been immune.