Thursday, June 4, 2020

SiriusXM CEO Expects Self-Pay Subscriber Gains

Jim Meyer
SiriusXM expects to grow its self-pay subscriber base in the current second quarter despite headwinds from the novel coronavirus pandemic, CEO Jim Meyer said on Thursday during the audio entertainment giant's virtual annual shareholder meeting.

According The Hollywood Reporter, Meyer expects self-pay subscriber additions for the quarter to be "positive," while analysts have recently estimated self-pay subscriber losses of around 200,000 for the period. B. Riley FBR analyst Zack Silver in a Thursday report, which was published before the meeting, forecast SiriusXM would lose 148,000 self-pay subscribers in the second quarters and 458,000 paid promotional subscribers.

In the first quarter of the year, with the second half of March hit by the pandemic, SiriusXM added 69,000 self-pay customers, down from 131,000 in the year-ago period, while losing 212,000 promotional subs. That meant it ended March with more than 34.8 million subscribers, including more than 30 million self-pay users.

Meyer in his prepared remarks said the company has "maintained a very strong" level of liquidity, "and I have no concerns here." He cited SiriusXM's strong free cash flow and reductions on spending in such areas as hiring, highlighting that the firm plans to continue paying its dividend and restarted stock buybacks after its first-quarter earnings call.

Hit hardest and earliest by the pandemic was digital audio advertising, Meyer said, calling April "difficult," while May was "certainly better than April" thanks to "some more stability." While his team was encouraged by how June is looking, he said visibility remains limited and ad cancellations higher than usual. "Every media company has been hit in the ad sales area," he said. "We were no exception."

No comments:

Post a Comment