Sirius & XM Satellite Radio Post Financial Results
Sirius Satellite Radio revealed its fourth quarter and annual results, a mix of good and bad. Sirius showed strong subscriber and revenue gains for the quarter and year, though net losses remained substantial. XM Satellite Radio also revealed financial results for the fourth quarter, a period defined by heavy losses. The company did add more revenues and subscribers, though spending easily outweighed gains.
Sirius surpassed the 6 million subscriber mark for the year, a nice milestone that represents an 82 percent jump from year-ago totals. Revenues also moved upward, landing at $193.4 million for the quarter, a jump of 142 percent over the comparable period last year. Annual revenues also gained significantly, moving upward 163 percent to $637.2 million.
XM’s fourth quarter revenues topped $257.1 million, a jump of 45 percent year-over-year, while annual revenues hit $933.4 million, a jump of 67 percent. As previously revealed, subscribers surpassed 7.6 million, a gain of nearly 1.7 million for the year. Meanwhile, net losses topped -$256.7 million, largely level will year-ago figures of -$268.3 million. Full year losses reached -$718.9 million, wider than a deficit of -$666.7 million experienced in 2005.
Sirius’ net losses narrowed for the fourth quarter, moving to -$245.6 million from -$311.4 million during the same period of 2005. However, for the entire year, the story was a bit different, as losses expanded to -$1.1 billion, wider than a year-earlier loss of -$863 million. The smaller fourth quarter dip beat expectations, though the larger picture remains worrisome. Like Sirius, XM also recently revealed heavy losses, and bleeding within both camps is driving the planned Sirius buyout. Meanwhile, programming and content expenses ballooned at Sirius, expanding $131.6 million to $230.2 million, largely because of costs related to Howard Stern.
