Advanced Television

Sirius adds subs as investigation looms

October 13, 2010

Sirius XM continued to add subs in Q3, tripling the net adds over the same quarter last year to 334,727 against 102,295 in Q309. That helped the satellite radio company hit 1,089,417 for the first nine months—a considerable turnaround from the loss of 488,126 in the same period last year.

The final Q3 subscriber tally was a record 19,862,175 and the company is on track to break 20 million this year.

However, in an SEC filing, the company said it is being investigated by a multi-state “working group” led by Ohio AG Richard Cordray; the group includes Arizona, Connecticut, Tennessee, Vermont and the District of Columbia. The investigation covers “our practices relating to the cancellation of subscriptions; automatic renewal of subscriptions; charging, billing, collecting, and refunding or crediting of payments from consumers; and soliciting customers.”

Despite the merger, Sirius XM continues to operate two distinct services with a variety of subscription offerings. XM added fewer but it also lost fewer in the first three quarters of 2009: 469,165 net adds so far in 2010 compared to a net loss of 145,855 subs. Sirius has brought in the bulk of the net adds for 2010: 620,252 compared with a loss of 342,271 in the same period last year. XM continues to lead with 10,218,265, up more than 513,000 from Q309, while Sirius ended Q3 with 9,643,910, up more than 833,000 from Q309.

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