Audio entertainment giant SiriusXM, home of Howard Stern, said Tuesday it lost 25,000 paid subscribers to its satellite radio unit in the first quarter, while paid advertising subscribers dropped by 54,000.
A year ago, it added 126,000 paid users and lost 341,000 paid ad users. The total loss was 79,000 recently, compared to 215,000 in the previous period.
“The continued impact of new vehicle testing structures at some automakers contributed to a string of negative pricing announcements in the quarter,” the company explained. Its total number of subscribers as of March 31 was approximately 34.0 million, including 32.0 million paying users.
In Pandora’s streaming business, the company added 4,000 net self-paying subscribers, ending the first quarter with about 6.3 million, but lost 69,000 paid advertising users. Total users dropped by 65,000 a year ago after an increase of 115,000.
First-quarter ad revenue in the Pandora segment and off-platform, which includes the company’s podcast business, grew 8% to $336 million, a record for the first quarter. “Advertising revenue in the off-platform business grew 43% year-over-year to nearly $95 million in the first quarter,” said SiriusXM. “Advertising revenue also benefited from strong monetization of $89.77 per thousand hours by Pandora, compared to $85.69 a year ago.”
First-quarter revenue rose 6% to $2.19 billion, while revenue rose 219 million to $309 million.
“Overall, the first quarter marked a great start to the year, despite SiriusXM’s customer growth being constrained by limited supply to the automotive industry,” said Wits. “We are making significant investments to grow our advertising platform through new podcast deals and grow SiriusXM by enhancing its digital branding and marketing performance.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
