Rumor: Howard Stern About To Sign $600MM Deal With Apple

http://www.cultofmac.com/rumor-howard-stern-about-to-sign-600mm-deal-with-apple/72025

Rumor: Howard Stern About To Sign $600MM Deal With Apple

Could Apple be planning on signing a deal with legendary radio shock jock Howard Stern to exclusively host a new iTunes show? That’s the rumor amongst Sirius investors, and it’s food for thought, if not terribly likely.

Here's what the pontificators are missing:

1.) In 2004, Sirius had only 600 thousand subscribers. They met with Howard stern and asked him how many subscribers he could bring with him.
2.) Sirius signed Howard to a 5 year contract where his pay was / is tied to their number of subscribers.
3.) Sirius issued 56.3 million shares of stock to Stern in 2006 and 2007 based on those subscriber numbers.
4.) In 2008, Sirius was able to buy XM.
5.) Today Sirius XM has more than 20 million subscribers.

So, I would say it's proven that Stern can deliver subscribers.

Not only that, that makes him the first one able to transform the Free landscape of pod casting to a successful subscription model. And THAT is what interests Apple.

If even 15% percent of those subscribers followed stern to iTunes at $6 per month, Apple would collect $18 Million dollars a month, or $216 Million dollars a year, for doing what? Hosting his mp3 files on their servers?

And doesn't iTunes host explicit pod-casts now? I know they do because almost all the podcast I listen to every week have at least certain episodes listed as explicit right on iTunes.