As SiriusXM begins a full-force push to attract younger listeners to its streaming offerings, the company ended 2023 with a slight dip in subscribers. However, the broadcaster’s Q4 and full-year earnings proved enough to beat market expectations posting a net income gain from 2022.
SiriusXM released its financial outcomes for the fourth quarter and the entirety of 2023 before the opening bell on February 1. The most recent Q4 results showed consistency, at $2.287 billion compared to $2.283 billion in 2022. Yearly income had a minor fall, from $9.003 billion in 2022 to $8.953 billion.
The satellite radio giant noted an increase in yearly net income, reaching $1.25 billion annually, a modest uptick from 2022’s earnings of $1.21 billion. Quarterly net income dropped $13 million year-over-year to $352 million.
The company finished at an income of $.09 per share, beating the average of Wall Street analyst estimates placed at $.07.
In 2023, SiriusXM reported a total of 34 million subscribers, with an addition of approximately 131,000 new self-pay subscribers in the fourth quarter. Despite this growth, the overall number of self-pay subscribers decreased by 445,000 throughout the year. The self-pay monthly churn rate ended at 1.6%.
For SXM’s Pandora streaming radio, the number of self-pay subscribers for its Plus and Premium services saw a 3% decrease, ending the year with 6.0 million users, down from 6.2 million at the end of 2022.
Chief Financial Officer Tom Barry gave an optimistic outlook on the company’s future focus on cost efficiencies and business optimization, especially with the upcoming consolidation of SiriusXM and Liberty Media’s tracking stock group – expected to close in the third quarter of 2024.
All this comes while SXM faces a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General in federal court over “persistent fraud and illegality” over its lengthy subscription cancellation process.
CEO Jennifer Witz commented, “In 2023, SiriusXM laid the groundwork for future growth through the successful launch of our next-generation platform and the new SiriusXM app. Our commitment to growth was also demonstrated by strategic content investments that expanded our reach to new listeners and by staying true to our identity as a hub for curated, live and on-demand audio experiences. As we look to 2024, our guidance reflects substantial efforts and investments to enhance the value proposition of our subscription and advertising businesses, which we believe will strengthen our long-term growth profile.”
