A Beat for Sirius, But No Stern Deal–Yet
Another strong set of financials for Sirius XM Radio. Posting third-quarter earnings this morning, the company reported a profit of 2 cents a share, besting analyst estimates for a break-even quarter. Revenue rose to $717.5 million from $618.7 million. Sirius ended the quarter with 19.8 million subscribers, thanks to the net addition of 334,727 subscribers, more than triple the 102,295 it gained in the quarter a year earlier. “Today, we are stronger than ever,” CEO Mel Karmazin said during a call with analysts. “We are in a position to soon surpass 20 million subscribers.”
That should be an easy thing to pull off, particularly if the company manages to renew its deal with Howard Stern, whose contract expires at the end of the year. But it hasn’t done that yet, according to Karmazin. “We had hoped that prior to this call we would have an update on the status of Howard Stern with Sirius XM,” he said this morning. “We do not have any update today, other than to say discussions continue.”