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SiriusXM Posts Record Revenues In Q3

New York — SiriusXM generated record revenues for any quarter in its fiscal third quarter and the highest increase in the number of third-quarter net new subscribers since the July 2009 merger of the two satellite services.

Net income, however, fell 28.5 percent to $75 million from the year-ago $104 million, but net income would have exceeded the year-ago figure had it not been for a one-time charge of $107 million for the early payment of $868 million in debt to reduce future interest payments. The satellite- and Internet-radio provider has less debt than at any time since the merger, the company said

For the year to date, net income was up 833 percent to $3.32 billion because of a one-time second-quarter $3 billion income-tax benefit that resulted from previous years of net operating losses.

In commenting on product plans, operations and sales president James said Chrysler is “moving along in production” to offer satellite-radio 2.0 tuners to select vehicles, and three more automakers will roll out 2.0 in calendar 2013. Previously, SiriusXM said Chrysler would roll out 2.0 in the summer of 2012.

The company still didn’t offer a timeline for Nissan to launch SiriusXM’s first telematics service, which was announced in September and would offer OnStar-like services.

SiriusXM continued to say it is on target to launch by year’s end a personalized radio service over the Internet to the home and to smartphones. The service would let users tailor channels to their tastes.

The company earlier this year added on-demand service to its Internet radio service to homes and smartphones, enabling users to access a catalog of SiriusXM shows.

For the quarter, revenues were up 14 percent because of gains in new-car sales, the rollout of a Jan. 1 price hike to more subscribers, and an increase in average revenues per subscriber to $12.14 from a year-ago $11.66. A total of 60 percent of self-pay subscribers are now paying the higher monthly fee.

Third-quarter revenues hit $867 million to achieve a new high for any quarter in satellite-radio history, breaking the previous record of $837.5 million posted in the second quarter of this year. The 14 percent third-quarter revenue gain was up from first- and second-quarter revenue gains of 11 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

Year-to-date revenues were up 12.5 percent to $2.51 billion.

For the quarter, the number of net new subscribers grew 34 percent over the year-ago period to 446,000, bringing the subscriber base to a record 23.37 million. That follows a first-quarter gain of 8.6 percent to 405,000 net new subscribers and a 38 percent gain in the second quarter to 622,000.

For the year to date, the number of net new subscribers was up 27 percent to 1.47 million.

In revealing other statistics, the company said:

  •  By year’s end, 49.2 million vehicles with OEM satellite-radio capability will be on the road, up 22 percent from the end of 2011. The number is forecast to rise to 59 million vehicles by the end of 2013 and 100 million in 2017.
  • One million gross subscriber additions in 2012 are forecast to come from activating OEM satellite radio in used cars, thanks to a used-car marketing program available through more than 7,000 car-dealer outlets out of a total of about 18,000 in the U.S.
  • The percentage of new-car trial subscriptions converted to self-pay subscriptions remained the same at 44 percent for the quarter and 45 percent for the year to date.

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