XM Satellite Radio losing money, subscribers

The nitty gritty is here:

XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. reported a wider loss for its second quarter Thursday as it absorbed charges for restructuring its debt. The company again lowered its estimates for full-year subscriber counts...

The company said it now expects to end the year with a customer base between 7.7 million and 8.2 million, and that it would refine that range at the end of the third quarter. The company cited "current marketplace dynamics" and regulatory uncertainty regarding certain of its radio models for the change.

The news is sure to disappoint investors, who punished XM's stock in May when it lowered its previous forecast for year-end subscribers to 8.5 million from 9 million, blaming problems with product availability and soft retail sales...

Now, the sure-fire way for them to come back to profitability and increase subscribers is for them to pick up Air America.

What's that you say? AAR has been exclusively on XM for almost a year?

Oh.

OK, well, how about this. George Soros could offer people money for listening. The more AAR you consume, the more you earn.

Posted in Meta at July 27, 2006 10:12 AM

Comments

Well I have XM and I can tell you that Air America is one of their least listened to channels. I don't understand why they signed them exclusively. But then again that means Sirius doesn't get them anymore so they lose out on 3-4 million subscribers.

Posted by: Eddy at July 27, 2006 08:04 PM

does anyone buy t-shirts here?
at least comment!
please!!
anyone..
anyone.....

Posted by: mark at July 27, 2006 11:50 PM

Eddy, technically XM didn't "sign them exclusivly". AAR was originally on both Sirius and XM. Sirius just figured out quickly that the bandwidth devoted to AAR would be better used for Korean talk radio and the BBC in Spanish.

Posted by: SaveFarris at July 28, 2006 05:35 AM

Um, folks, better be careful what you wish for. XM is by far more conservative in nature than Sirius, with only token stations like Air America thrown in for "balance." It doesn't take much listening to find that out. Both XM and Sirius are losing money.

Posted by: Mark Hogendobler at August 2, 2006 02:32 PM