Money. There's no guarantee that advertisers or subscribers would go with them if they tried it on their own. How much would they need to bring in to match the amount that SiriusXM pays them?

Also, you need to remember that a lot of the successful podcasters have other things to fall back on.

absolutely, podcasting is mostly done by people who have at least one other massive source of income. all comics do it simply to fill seats in whatever city they tour through. it's more of a branding mechanism than an income stream though it seems corolla has done well for himself. if you look at the type of advertisers that are going to podcasts, they're only marginally better than that dolt Steven Singer. Seriously, his ads make the show look so gaudy and pathetic.

[deleted]

Yeah, there's just no money in podcasting. Leo Laporte was saying that the other day and financially his network seems to be one of the biggest.

If they went on their own and asked five of your finest american dollars per lunar month, I'd subscribe instead of listening via free means. I don't know how many listeners they have that would do that, but if they could get a 100,000 subscribers they would be quids in. Just make it really easy to subscribe and have a good listening client.

Not one show on the typical format, but also every podcast out there has the same model, also. If they did something with a visual element, you've got another level of programming there. Sell an all-access pass with a huge archive, live mics/cams during commercials along with content from all your talented friends for $10/mo, and you've got a stew going.

Greg Fitzsimmons has said openly that his podcast pays his kids' private school tuition & a piece of his mortgage, and that's a 1-hour show with two reads. That's not a huge amount of money, but if O&A push the format (which we know they can) it could be close to satellite cash. Nothing's coming close to free fm money, though.

They just don't seem that proactive... I get the impression the are slackers apart from Jim. O and a have got enough money to phone it in a bit these days

They aren't ambitious enough to book guest and all that shit... They just want to show up and make bank

Thats what they say on-air, but a show can't operate at their level by not trying. It's all about ease of use and content—it's not like they haven't learned those lessons at Sirius.

[deleted]

I dunno man, I haven't listened to anything else better than the show. I give them shit, but I can't think of any American radio show I'd rather listen to. The only thing that comes close is JRE.

Yeah I've been listener for 8 years and can't name anything better on the radio..or that impacts me as a person more than that show. They are always so dead on about 99% of what they talk about

[deleted]

It'd be a struggle for them to do it on their own and make the same amount they do now.

The only way I could see them making the same amount/similar would be somehow landing a new terrestrial gig that is nationwide, or a premium TV channel type or deal.(late night on show time or some shit)

Internet money is nice but it isn't close to what they're getting now.

Plus they'd have to shitcan a lot of the staff.

Without contractual obligation the podcast would be a disaster. It sounds great until Antonio oversleeps and can't be bothered to make it to the recording or Opie decides he'd rather go to the zoo with his son. Without a boss they will flake, norton will always be professional and try to push the show by being at every recording and o&a will be content with the money they have.

Money, given.

Location may also be an issue. Would Ant drive into the city still for a podcast? Opie ain't driving to LI each morning either.

Opie keeps wanting to move to Long Island. Maybe he can move into Anthony's neighborhood and they just fire up Live from the Compound a few times a wek.

I would much rather pay for an O&A podcast than put more cash in Sirius' pocket for 150 channels I'll never listen to.

There is significantly more competition in podcasts than in morning radio. A big portion of their audience listen in their car and I think they wouldn't switch to podcasts.

This is true, but I can promise you their audience would be wayyy bigger on a podcast. They're on a premium channel on premium radio right now. Hell, a lot of the diehards don't even listen legally.

If you have XM, you don't pay more for O&A. You only pay a premium if you have Sirius and want to listen to O&A.

Lack of vision and gumption. They used to mock the podcast world back when maron and the like started theirs. They didn't see beyond the big salaried regular gig. If they had the vision think how they would have dominated the podcast world by starting a network. It's not like nearly every big podcast may have been under their umbrella; bill burr, Rogan, all of riot casts, maron even.

I think if they did a subscriber paid type of thing like some e-sports guys are doing now they could make some cash. If you got everyone who pays premium for OnA to pay $5-10, they could make it worth it, but still nowhere near what SXM pays them.

Bubba Sponge tried the premium route. It got him an initial wave of cash, and dwindled to zero. If you're going to go Internet, you have to go the ad-supported, free route. Too much free competition otherwise for a single show vs a full service.

They'll always have Steven Singer

BTW how much is sirius paying them?

Money, logic, financial risk.

It's possible that the name "The Opie and Anthony Show" is owned by SiriusXM, so they could potentially quit and do something else, but they may not be able to take the name.