TORONTO – As a public company, Canadian Satellite Radio (XM Canada) has to issue quarterly reports and lay bare the bottom line of the new satellite radio service in Canada.
Today, it announced a $14.61 million loss in the first quarter of fiscal 2006 – the first three months of its public existence – ended November 30th 2005. Competitor Sirius Canada is privately held and needs to disclose no such information.
The company reported revenues of $46,010 for the nine day period from November 22 launch of service to the end of the quarter on November 30 from activations, subscriptions and sales of radios from the direct fulfillment channel.
"We are very happy with the launch and roll out of the XM Canada service and are pleased that our subscription sales are running ahead of management expectations," said John I. Bitove, the CEO of CSR and XM Canada. "CSR’s IPO (which raised $55 million) marked a milestone in our development and helped put us on a solid financial footing. Funds from the IPO have driven the build out of our repeater network and furthered construction of our broadcast studios in Montreal and Toronto."
Of course, given its immaturity, the company released no sales figures in this report, repeating only what it said at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, that it projected one million subscribers by August 2010 and 75,000 subscribers by August 2006.
