During an analyst call, SiriusXM revealed it lost nearly half a million paying subscribers to its satellite radio offering during the first three months of 2024.
359,000 self-pay subscribers departed the company, with an additional 86,000 promotional subscribers leaving, marking 445,000 customers no longer subscribing to the service.
In comparison, SiriusXM claims it lost 281,000 subscribers in the same quarter last year. The service gained 66,000 promotional customers during that time period, compared to the loss of 86,000 in 2024.
Also, Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium lost 64,000 subscribers in the quarter, compared to a 7,000 subscriber loss during the same quarter in 2023.
The company admitted the launch of its new mobile app was “disruptive” but said reaching younger audiences has been achieved through its implementation.
“Our early engagement metrics and other consumer signals we are following from the new SiriusXM app are improving,” CEO Jennifer Witz told analysts. “We are confident that our app platform relaunch and the product improvements coming in the car are putting us on the right path.”
Despite the subscriber loss, the company’s quarterly revenue actually rose 1% to $2.16 billion, up from $2.14 billion compared to the same quarter last year.
A portion of the call was spent on the future of Howard Stern, who inked a five-year contract to remain with the company in 2020. Questions about his future came up, with the company admitting that while it doesn’t want to operate without “The King of All Media,” it feels better prepared to weather that storm should it be forced to do so.
“You never want to be a company without Howard and if he decides to retire, or do whatever he does, then that’s his choice,” said SiriusXM President and Chief Content Officer Scott Greenstein. “You don’t replace someone, you come up with a strategy of what is your current demo and your target audience and you look at what would be best suited for that at any given time. And we love our bench.”
