From Inside Radio:
Oprah’s actual voice-time commitment to satellite radio — just 30 minutes a week. That’s it. That’s all the airtime Oprah Winfrey will personally be filling on XM’s new “Oprah and Friends” channel. So look past all the hype to see the reality.
This is nonsense. Here’s the reality:
Oprah is a guru, an opinion-leader of massive proportions. Whatever she touches turns to gold. She mentions a book, its sales skyrocket. She launches a magazine, it’s a hit. The fact that she will only occasionally be on the channel which bears her name is irrelevant to the marketing impact of that channel. This is not “hype,” it’s marketing.
The primary obstacle for Satellite Radio is that you can’t try it without subscribing to it first. Oprah is a recognized brand name, a “good housekeeping seal of approval” for a channel’s worth of content. You don’t need to “try” this channel to know that it’s Oprah-approved any more than you need to read an Oprah-approved book before buying it.
Oprah is not promising she’ll be on this channel from dawn to dusk. The fan is under no illusions. She doesn’t appear on Dr. Phil’s show and that hasn’t slowed him down in the least. Oprah is clearly Dr. Phil’s Godmother.
Attracting subscribers to audio content which costs requires familiar brand names.
Do you get it, Inside Radio?