SIRIUS XM NEARS
30M SUBSCRIBERS

SiriusXM had more than 29.6 million self-pay subscribers at the end of the third quarter, adding 302k new subscribers in the July-September period.

The company pulled in $2b, a 37% rise year to year, boosted by the acquisition of Pandora Media on 2/1, they announced this morning. On a pro forma basis, revenue climbed 7% from $1.9b in the third quarter of 2018 and gross profit in the quarter totaled $970m, a 7% spike.

"SiriusXM's robust third quarter saw strong results across the board,” SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer said. “Total net additions benefited from continuing strength in the auto sector, and our adjusted EBITDA hit an all-time quarterly record of $657m. With two months left in the year, we are raising 2019 guidance for revenue, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow and we are confident in our expectations for self-pay subscriber growth."

At Pandora, ad revenue reached a record $315m, growing 8% over the third quarter of 2018. Strength in traditional audio advertising, boosted by video as well as the expansion of off-platform efforts and fees generated on the AdsWizz platform, drove revenue growth. Total revenue for Pandora grew 7% to $447m.

Pandora added 33,k net new self-pay subscribers in the third quarter to end with nearly 6.3m self-pay subscribers, including a paid promotional subscriber base of 45k. In the third quarter, a one-year paid promotional subscription trial with T-Mobile ended, resulting in approximately 700k paid promotional trials being dropped.