WASHINGTON – $125 million in Q2 revenues shows that XM Satellite Radio continues to grow rapidly Stateside. It ended the quarter (June 30th) with 4.4 million subscribers, adding 647,226 in three months, a 55% increase over the same period of 2004.
(All figures in U.S. dollars)
Thanks to those results, the company is dramatically increasing guidance for the balance of the year, saying it’ll likely have 6 million subs by the end of the year, up from its past prediction of 5.5 million.
But, even with all the new paying customers, XM’s net loss for the second quarter 2005 was $146.6 million, which is down a bit compared to $166.1 million in the second quarter 2004. XM reported an EBITDA loss of $89.9 million for the second quarter 2005 compared to $107.8 million for the second quarter 2004.
The company also pared its cost per subscriber addition, which fell to $98 in the quarter from $101 during Q2 2004.
XM’s service will launch in Canada in the fall, says Canadian partner Canadian Satellite Radio.
Live coverage of Major League Baseball, Indy League Racing, and the PGA Tour, have contributed to the subscriber additions, says the company. Twenty-three percent of new customers who signed on in the quarter said they did so because of the MLB package.
Also announced this week was the company’s partnership deal with (now-legal) music downloading service Napster.
While Samsung will manufacture MP3 players with satellite radio capability, XM and Napster launched the "XM + NAPSTER" integrated music service this week.
Samsung MP3 players with XM capability will be available in two storage capacity sizes and include an XM home accessory kit. The Samsung players incorporate XM’s "Connect and Play" technology and are expected to be available by year-end.
Napster and XM announced "XM + Napster", a service also scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2005. The new service represents an integration of XM’s satellite radio and Napster’s online music services for listening online and on a variety of MP3 players, including the new Samsung MP3 players. XM subscribers will be able to listen to XM programming, mark their favorite music, and purchase and manage content through Napster for future enjoyment and storage on MP3 devices.
