By Amy Gilroy
Sirius XM subscribers inched to almost to 19 million, as the company reported a sold profit and growing sales for its first quarter ended March 31, 2010.
The satellite radio company also said today it will offer additional services in the coming months, to join its current data services such as traffic, weather, gas and movie listings.
Sirius XM said its profits swung to $41.6 million compared with a loss of $52.6 million a year ago. And sales increased 13 percent to $663.8 million (GAAP).
Net subscriber additions for the quarter were 171,441—almost all from new cars as the company continued to shed retail subscribers.
Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin, reported, “We’re now back to growing subscribers at record levels…we’re making great strides in used car sales; levels are still low but its showing growth.” Used car sales will be important in the future, he reiterated.
Karmazin also said Sirius XM is more valuable in market cap than 92 percent of the companies listed on the NASDAQ and it is one of the most liquid securities. In the first quarter of 2010, Sirius XM was the most heavily traded stock on NASDAQ, he said. Last week, the satellite radio company said it successfully avoided delisting.
It also provided an interesting overview of the radio market in a conference call today as follows:
Although Sirius XM has close to 19 million subscribers, it claims about 35 million listeners and it makes $70 per listener for $2.7 billion in revenues. Terrestrial radio makes about $10 to $20 percent listener for revenues of $17 to $18 billion, while internet radio makes about $2 per listener for revenues under $1 billion. This puts total radio at about $21 billion in revenues with Sirius XM owning a 13 percent share, which is likely to increase in coming years, it said.
Howard Stern fans were told they must continue to listen to Stern’s show on Sirius if they want any news on extending his contract with satellite radio.
Other reports: Sirius XM improved its conversion rate (from trial to paid subscribers) from 44.6 percent for the quarter last year to 45.2 percent for the recent quarter, and churn fell to 2.0 percent from 2.2 percent. At retail, the company shed about 306,000 subscribers and added over 460,000 OEM subscribers plus about 16,000 rental subscribers for total net additions of 171,441 for the quarter.
Sirius said its car partners are expecting 11.5 to 12 million vehicles to sell this year. Based on more conservative numbers than that, Sirius XM expects to add 500,000 subscribers for the year with $2.7 billion of pro forma revenue and $550 million of adjust income from operations.
Source: Sirius XM
Sirius XM: Strong Sales, Profits; New Service Expected
