SiriusXM: Q2 revenues up 15%
July 28, 2021
By Chris Forrester
North American pay-radio broadcaster reported Q2 revenues of $2.16 billion (€1.7bn), up 15 per cent on the previous year.
SiriusXM recorded net income of $433 million in its Q2/2021, compared to $243 million in the prior year period. Second quarter 2021 net income included $140 million in insurance related to the company’s SXM-7 satellite which was declared a total loss during the period.
The broadcaster’s self-pay subs reached a record 31.4 million. Total subs for the period were 34.5 million, up 1 per cent.
“SiriusXM added an impressive 355,000 net new self-pay subscribers in the quarter, putting us on track to add 1.1 million self-pay subscribers this year – our best since 2018 – and we are increasing all of our financial guidance. The quarter was bolstered by record self-pay churn of just 1.5 per cent, and we achieved strong monetisation in our advertising business, with an increase in ad revenue of 82 per cent from the prior year period and 20 per cent from the second quarter of 2019,” said Jennifer Witz, CEO/SiriusXM.
“We have long been the leader in shaping the future of audio for listeners, and we continue doing so by providing curated and premium content in innovative formats. Earlier this month, we announced a new daily radio show hosted by Megyn Kelly which will air exclusively from noon to two on SiriusXM beginning on September 7th. In addition, video of the best moments from the show will be available in our app to subscribers and a podcast version of the show will be distributed broadly on SiriusXM, Pandora, Stitcher and other major platforms. We brought on Roman Mars and his podcast team at 99 per cent Invisible and announced Seth Rogen would do his first ever podcast with us starting in the fall. Our collaboration with TikTok is now live with Pandora playlists from the most dynamic creators on this massive social platform, and a new SiriusXM channel powered by TikTok is coming soon,” added Witz.
As to the rest of the year’s guidance, Witz said the broadcaster was expecting self-pay net subs growth of 1.1 million and total revenue for the year of about $8.55 billion.