SiriusXM posted its Q4 and full-year 2019 operating and financial results today (February 4), reporting revenue of $2.1 billion and $7.8bn, respectively, increasing 38% and 35% compared to the prior year periods.
Revenue was boosted, according to SiriusXM, by its acquisition of Pandora Media on February 1, 2019.
Pandora‘s Monthly Active Users (MAUs) are continuing to decline at a rapid rate however.
Pandora had 63.5m MAUs at the end of 2019, down 5.9m from 69.4m in the prior year, said Sirius today.
Total ad supported listener hours on Pandora were also down, from 14.8 billion in 2018 to 13.4bn in 2019.
Pandora added 251,000 net new self-pay subscribers to its Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium service in 2019 to end the year with nearly 6.2m self-pay subscribers.
The financials also reveal that Pandora’s paid promotional subscribers declined to 49,000 from 756,000 in 2018, which is pinned on a the expiration of an agreement with T-Mobile in Q3 2019.
Full-year ad revenue at Pandora reached a record $1.2bn, growing 10% over 2018.
Total revenue for Pandora grew 10% to $1.7bn for the year, aided in part, according to parent company SiriusXM, by a 10% increase in subscriber revenue to $527 million.
Meanwhile, SiriusXM added approximately 1.1 million net new self-pay subscribers for the full-year to end 2019 with nearly 30 million self-pay subscribers.
Total net subscriber additions were 870,000, resulting in more than 34.9m total SiriusXM subscribers at the end of the period.
Paid promotional subscribers decreased “due to declines in shipments from automakers offering paid promotional subscriptions”.
SiriusXM’s full-year 2019 revenue grew 7% to a record $6.2 billion. This growth was driven by a 3% increase in total SiriusXM subscribers and 4% growth in SiriusXM’s average revenue per user (ARPU) to $13.82.
Gross profit at SiriusXM in 2019 totaled $3.8bn, increasing 7% over 2018, and produced a gross margin of 62%, flat compared to the prior year.
“Not only did we achieve our 10th consecutive year of one million-plus self-pay net additions, but we successfully completed the acquisition of Pandora Media and drove each business to record-high financial performance.”
Jim Meyer, Chief Executive Officer, SiriusXM
Jim Meyer, Chief Executive Officer, SiriusXM, said: “I am so proud of SiriusXM’s milestone performance last year.
“Not only did we achieve our 10th consecutive year of one million-plus self-pay net additions, but we successfully completed the acquisition of Pandora Media and drove each business to record-high financial performance.
“Looking forward to 2020, we’re excited about a new decade of opportunity before us and confident in reiterating our guidance for the year.
Added Meyer: “In programming, our lifeblood, we continue to work with an increasing array of megastars and brands that have real value for SiriusXM subscribers and Pandora listeners.
“In the lead-up to the Super Bowl, The Chainsmokers and Lizzo played separate exclusive concerts on back-to-back nights in Miami Beach as part of our new Opening Drive Super Concert Series.
“Coldplay did a special stripped-down set at our new Hollywood studios for subscribers, and we announced the launch of a new SiriusXM channel and exclusive Pandora content from superstars U2, called U2X Radio, which will debut this year.”
“SiriusXM returned nearly $2.4 billion of capital to stockholders in 2019.
David Frear, SiriusXM
David Frear, Chief Financial Officer, SiriusXM, added: “SiriusXM returned nearly $2.4 billion of capital to stockholders in 2019.
“We repurchased more than 364 million shares last year and paid approximately $226 million in dividends to stockholders.
“At year-end, our debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio was 3.2 times and we had the entire $1.75 billion available on our revolving credit facility.
“This gives us ample liquidity to continue investing in our business while returning capital to stockholders.”Music Business Worldwide
