SiriusXM's shares surged more than 11% in early trading Thursday after the audio entertainment company reported a surprise gain in self-pay subscribers for the fourth quarter of 2025, reversing recent losses and highlighting the strength of its exclusive content strategy.
The Manhattan-based provider added approximately 110,000 self-pay subscribers in the quarter ended December 31, 2025, its first increase in this key segment after three straight quarters of declines. This beat analyst expectations from Visible Alpha, which had forecasted a loss of around 30,000 subscribers.
The rebound was fueled by strong demand for exclusive programming, including sports rights and popular hosts, as well as new initiatives like the "Continuous Service" feature (which prevents subscription lapses during vehicle changes) and an earlier-than-planned rollout of "Companion Subscriptions" (allowing full-price members to add free extra accounts for family or additional vehicles). The latter contributed roughly 80,000 incremental self-pay adds.
Recent high-profile moves bolstered the lineup:
- In December 2025, radio icon Howard Stern renewed his contract for three more years, and the company launched a new channel featuring journalist Megyn Kelly.
SiriusXM ended 2025 with about 33 million total paid subscribers (including 31.3 million self-pay), though the full year saw a net loss of 301,000 self-pay subscribers overall. Monthly churn improved modestly to 1.5% from 1.6% in 2024.
The company continues to benefit from partnerships with automakers that provide free trial subscriptions for in-car access, alongside a diversified distribution model via mobile apps, connected devices, and satellite radio.
For 2026, SiriusXM guided to revenue of approximately $8.5 billion—largely in line with analyst expectations of $8.55 billion—with a focus on stability, cost efficiencies, and continued free cash flow growth (targeting around $1.35 billion).
The results underscore SiriusXM's reliance on premium, exclusive content to differentiate itself in a competitive audio market dominated by streaming services. Investors appeared to prioritize the subscriber momentum and cash flow outlook over mixed elements like a reported EPS miss in some metrics.