Sirius Posts $157.4 Million Loss, Matches Forecasts

NEW YORK — Satellite-radio operator Sirius XM Radio Inc. said Thursday its second-quarter loss widened to $157.4 million as one-time charges offset growing revenue.

Sirius has been struggling to turn a profit amid the recession's disastrous effect on auto sales – a pivotal factor for the company because it signs up many of its new subscribers when they buy vehicles. It took a $530 million loan from Liberty Media Corp. in February in order to stave off a bankruptcy filing.

The downturn continued to hurt the company in the most-recent quarter. Sirius ended the April-June period with roughly 18.4 million customers, down about 1 percent from the year before. Its "churn," or customer turnover rate, climbed to 2 percent from 1.7 percent.

Sirius helped mitigate those declines by cutting $187 million from expenses. It also boosted the average revenue it got from each subscriber per month to $10.66 from $10.55.

The company now expects $400 million in adjusted income from operations this year, up from a May forecast of $350 million.

Sirius said its per share loss amounted to 4 cents for the three months ended June 30. It reported a loss of $83.9 million, or 6 cents per share, a year ago. But those results did not yet reflect its July 2008 acquisition of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. Sirius also had more shares outstanding in the second quarter of 2009.

The latest results included $108 million in charges related to paying off debt and other one-time costs. Before special items, the adjusted loss came to a penny per share, in line with analysts' expectations, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.

Sirius said its revenue more than doubled to $590.8 million, largely because of the XM acquisition. Assuming the acquisition had already been completed in the same quarter a year ago, revenue was up 1 percent to $607.8 million, matching expectations.

Comments

[Uosdwis]

That's about what they pay Stern a year. He doesn't seem to be pulling in the listeners to offset that loss, and you can bet I'm not the only one having this thought.

[drjasonmd]

Actually, it's not what they pay him per year. The reported $500M he received was mostly in stock options and their value has declined significantly. In addition, when Stern joined Sirius, they had half a million listeners, up to 2 million for his debut show, and up to 4 million by the end of his first year. That's at least 3.5 million subscribers directly attributable to him at an average of $10 per month. $35 million a month in hard cash x 5 years = $2.1 billion. His deal has already paid for itself 5 times over. Stern is the only reason they're still in business (and the only reason they were able to acquire XM).

You may not be the only one having this thought, but nobody at Sirius XM would agree with you.

[Onegianteye]

I don't understand why more people aren't subscribing to Sirius-XM. It is the cable television of radio. Can you imagine only having CBS, ABC, & NBC to choose from? That is what regular radio is today. Same corps own the same few stations and play the same crap.

Sirius has great talk stations, a great selection of music stations that play uninterrupted music.
For $12 a month???

I don't get why people are routing for it to fail. Makes no sense.

[Ranta]

No MSNBC though.

[GeorgeKaplan]

Yep, no MSNBC plus XM has the WORST customer service of any company I have ever dealt with... it took me days to get someone on the phone and at that point I canceled my service! I was afraid I would never get through to them again.

[WilliamProc]

Most of America is accustomed to paying for premium TV services, cable has been around since the 70's. It's a harder row to plow when it comes to paying for satelitte radio. Most don't know that there is a difference between HD-radio(I never understood why they would call it that except to get rubes to pay more for it; "Whare's th' piture?") and satelitte. They can't wrap their minds around paying for it.

[Teritt]

I've been a loyal XM subscriber since the beginning. My unemployment forced me not to renew a car subscription (and sold the car), but I'm paid up for another year on my other subscription. But XM programming was much MUCH better before the merge. Give me 'Lucy' over "Lithium" any day. Give me 'Soul Street" over "Soul Town" and give me "Ethel" over "Alt nation". Seriously, Sirius - your playlists have gotten a lot smaller, weaker or just plain boring and repetitive.

[TKDMike]

I cancelled my Sirus suscriptio­n....AND THEY WILL NOT STOP CALLING ME!

[smithr17]

The only way they will survive is if they resign Howard Stern. 60% of their listeners only listen to him.

[Elleagout]

I LOVE SiriusXm! I am sad to hear this. There is much less censorship and they have great news and political shows on Sirius Left (Thom Hartmann, ...) , NPR... I love it and listen to it all day at work. I like it so much I am advertising for them right now! I would be upset if they folded.

[aznurse]

Thom Hartmann is the only good one on.
Why is there only one "Left" type of station against how many "right" ones?

[smchp]

Apparently the previous 2 posters don't understand basic math. They know when they will become profitable with mathematical certainty. Just a matter of increasing their subscriber base. Only real question mark is if they can sustain their debt for long enough to become profitable and it looks like they will. They will probably be turning profit next year at this pace.

[lukebenward]

EPIC FAIL. Nuff said. :-) *moves on*

[Pol Junkie]

Just don't understand how this enterprise continues to remain afloat, and actually finds banks to loan it more money. Glad I'm not a shareholder.