Pay-radio broadcaster Sirius-XM says it now sells its service into 72 per cent of new vehicles in the US, up from 69 per cent a year ago. CEO James Meyer says he sees this long-term penetration rate settling down “with growing confidence” to about 75 per cent of vehicles.

Meyer told analysts that more US vehicle suppliers were seeing the automatic supply of Sirius-XM as being the clearest statement that satellite radio is a ‘must have’ feature for the car market.

Key to Sirius-XM’s future success is then holding onto subscribers when the car is sold into the pre-owned ‘second-hand’ car market. Meyer said Sirius-XM now had more than 17,000 car dealerships looking after sales.

“Used car conversions once again set a record in the second quarter. And record high trial starts, up 33 per cent from the last year’s second quarter bode well for future growth and conversions as well, Meyer said.

Meyer advised analysts that the broadcaster had already achieved 94 percent of the full year’s sales target, and consequently was significantly raising its full year subs target from 1.2 million net new subs to 1.8 million.

Meyer also talked about new services: “Our connected vehicle business, which adds a strategically important vertical of safety, security and convenience services for the automakers and their customers, is also seeing increased traction. Our Q2 launch of NissanConnect Services powered by SiriusXM has gone off without a hitch and we look forward to working with Nissan and rolling out these services to more and more vehicles. We also continued to work with other significant global automakers on several new enhanced deals and we expect to have more to say on this in the coming months, again stay-tuned.”

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