SiriusXM disclosed a drop in paid subscribers for the third quarter in a row during its Tuesday morning earnings call as revenue for the satellite radio giant held flat in Q3 2023. The news comes as no surprise – CEO Jennifer Witz forecasted a user dip amid economic churn earlier this year.
The company lost 96,000 paid subscribers in Q3 2023, compared to a gain of 187,000 for the same period last year. This follows declines of 132,000 and 347,000 in the second and first quarters, respectively. SiriusXM’s total self-pay subscribers now stand at 31.8 million, with overall users slightly under 34 million, including a quarterly increase of 2,000 promotional subscribers.
SiriusXM posted total revenues of $2.27 billion, a minor decline from $2.28 billion last year. Despite the revenue plateau, the company benefited from reduced operating expenses, which went down to $1.71 billion from $1.81 billion and profits surged to $363 million, or 9 cents per share, a growth from last year’s $247 million.
Pandora, SiriusXM’s streaming service, faced a loss of 112,000 subscribers this quarter. Cumulatively over the year, the number of lost users stands at around 150,000, concluding September with 6.1 million total self-pay customers. Yet, there’s a silver lining: advertising revenue for its Pandora and Off-Platform segment rose by 3% year-on-year, reaching $418 million despite losing 2.3 million active users.
As for the future, Witz anticipates an ad market recovery by 2024. She also used the call to tease major moves for SiriusXM, including a big announcement set for next week. The brand highlighted its TikTok Radio channel, targeted to cater to younger, diverse listeners. The collaboration is an interesting move considering the rumblings of TikTok soon debuting its own streaming service in the US.
Of course, in probably the largest news for the company’s future, SiriusXM CFO Thomas Barry did take time to mention the consideration of a proposal to merge the Liberty SiriusXM tracking stock group with SiriusXM, forming a new publicly traded entity, which could happen as soon as next week with a Liberty investor meeting set for November 9.
