SiriusXM on Thursday saw earnings jump as the satellite radio firm posted a record 32 million total subscribers.
The company, home of Howard Stern, saw earnings rise 16 percent to $202 million on higher subscriber and advertising revenue as overall revenue was $1.34 billion, up 9 percent from a year-earlier $1.23 billion. The latest results follow SiriusXM unveiling a deal with Pandora to make a $480 million strategic cash investment in the personalized online radio service.
SiriusXM added 466,000 new self-pay subscribers during the latest quarter, ending with nearly 26.7 million subscribers in that category and 32 million subscribers overall.
"In the second quarter, SiriusXM continued its strong track record of execution, and demand for our premium content bundle pushed our listener base to an all-time high of more than 32 million paying subscribers," said CEO Jim Meyer in a statement.
During an analyst call, Meyer told analysts it's early days for the recently unveiled deal for a minority stake in Pandora, which awaits completion. "We really want to get under the hood of how the free [radio] business works," he said, without elaborating his latest thinking on how the deal would benefit SiriusXM. SiriusXM is mainly in the subscription radio business, while Pandora is an advertising-driven music service.
Asked about SiriusXM's video plans, Meyer said a planned video streaming service around Howard Stern's satellite radio show is still set to launch down the line and drive the initial video rollout. "Our strategy is not to offer video for the sake of video, or full-length movies. We intend to drive video ... as an extension of our core audio content," while focusing on in-house talent like Stern, he told investors.
SiriusXM slightly increased its 2017 revenue guidance to around $5.37 billion, from an earlier projection of $5.30 billion. The company also raised its forecast to 1.4 million self-pay net subscriber additions during the current fiscal year, up from 1.3 million.
John Malone's Liberty Media controls SiriusXM.
