US Satellite radio giant Sirius XM has reported its fiscal earnings in the three months to end of June – boasting 30.6m subscribers in the period.
The company added 587,000 net new subscribers quarter-on-quarter, but actually increased its subscriber base by 8% – or 2.2m – on the 28.4 million subscribers reported at the end of the second quarter of 2015.
Self-pay net additions were 507,000 during the second quarter, resulting in self-pay subscribers of 25.1 million, up 7% versus the prior year period.
Revenue at Sirius – whose star DJs include Howard Stern (pictured) – climbed 10% to $1.2 billion, a record high for any single quarter.
The increase was driven by an 8% increase in subscribers and a 3% increase in monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) to $12.78 – around double that of the average Spotify subscriber.
Net income totaled $173 million in the second quarter of 2016, up 68% from $103 million in the second quarter of 2015.
Adjusted EBITDA in the three months was $468 million – a record quarterly high and a 13% increase from $415 million in the prior year period.
“SiriusXM‘s second quarter results demonstrated continued strong demand for our content bundle and solid execution by our entire team. We grew net new subscribers by 587,000 in the second quarter, and our subscriber base, revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow have never been higher. We are pleased to once again raise our key guidance metrics for the full year,” said Jim Meyer (pictured inset), Chief Executive Officer, SiriusXM.
“Our programming team has been hard at work developing new and exclusive content to power our unique service. From Town Hall specials with the cast of Broadway’s Hamilton to a pop-up channel dedicated to the legendary Prince to full coverage of music festivals like Coachella, SiriusXM has something for everyone.
“For two weeks we have been providing ‘gavel to gavel’ coverage of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, and we will follow the political action all the way to November. And stay tuned, because we are always working on exciting new content initiatives to please our subscribers.”
Sirius XM is majority controlled by Liberty Media, which reportedly made a recent $3bn-plus bid to acquire Pandora.
Pandora’s active user base actually fell in Q2, down
Sirius says it now expects to add 1.6 million net new self-pay subscribers and 1.7 million total net new subscribers in 2016, an increase from prior guidance of 1.4 million and 1.6 million, respectively.
It also expects to record revenue approaching $5 billion in 2016, an increase from prior guidance of approximately $4.9 billion.
