New York – Rising
new car sales, a subscription price increase, strong subscriber growth and
reduced churn helped raise SiriusXM first-quarter revenues by 11 percent to
$805 million and net income by 38 percent to $107.8 million, the company
reported.
SiriusXM also
announced that Chrysler would be the first automaker to roll out its 2.0
service in the summer, and that in the summer it will add on-demand service to
its Internet radio service, which is accessible through computers, smartphone
apps and web-connected CE in the home.
The broadcaster
didn’t mention which Chrysler vehicles would offer 2.0 radios.
Later in the year,
SiriusXM will add personalized music to its online service.
Yesterday,
other interactive features and an expanded lineup of
Internet-streamed content to its Android app.
In disclosing
other financial performance measures, SiriusXM said it added 405,000 net new
subscribers in the quarter, up from a year-ago 373,064, bringing its subscriber
base to a record 22.3 million. The gains were greater than in any first quarter
since the 2008 merger of Sirius and XM, CEO Mel Karmazin said.
Based on the
better-than-expected subscriber growth, the company raised its full-year net
new subscriber projections to 1.5 million from 1.3 million. In 2011, the
company gained 1.7 million net new subscribers, which was up from 2010’s 1.42
million.
CEO Mel Karmazin
said the first quarter marked the first time that quarterly revenues exceeded
$800 million in any quarter. He didn’t change the company’s full-year revenue
forecast of about $3.3 billion, yet he said he expects revenues to accelerate
as the increase in the base subscription price rolls out to additional
subscribers whose subscriptions need to be renewed.
In reporting other
financial measures, the company said adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter hit $208
million, up 15 percent from $181 million in the first quarter of 2011. Self-pay
net subscriber additions improved by 148 percent to 299,348, and strong auto
sales helped lift total paid and unpaid-trial inventory by more than 200,000
from the year’s end to 5.7 million.
The company said self-pay
monthly churn was 1.9 percent in the first quarter, an improvement from 2
percent in the first quarter of 2011. The new-vehicle conversion rate was 45
percent in the first quarter of 2012, in line with the first quarter of 2011.
