Photo Credit: SiriusXM
SiriusXM (NASDAQ: SIRI) suffered advertising and subscriber revenue declines during Q1 2023 but achieved $233 million in net income for the quarter, according to a new earnings report.
The satellite-radio company and Pandora owner just recently posted its financials for this year’s initial three months, when total revenue is said to have topped $2.14 billion (down about 2% year over year). Within the sum, higher-ups identified about $1.69 billion in subscriber revenue (down 1.3% YoY), $375 million from advertising (down 2.1% YoY), $46 million from equipment (down 13.2% YoY), and $32 million in other revenue (down 13.5% YoY).
As usual, the lion’s share of the revenue total ($1.68 billion) resulted from SiriusXM itself, which execs relayed had parted with about 347,000 self-pay subscribers (to hit 32.04 million overall) from the same period in 2022. Meanwhile, amid continued competition from Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and others yet, Pandora (which is still charging $9.99 per month for individual plans in the States) during Q1 experienced an approximately 8% YoY dip in monthly active users (MAUs), to 46.66 million total when the period ended, per the resource.
The streaming service’s self-pay subscribers (6.22 million as of Q1’s end) declined by about 106,000 YoY, SiriusXM reported – a loss that was more pronounced (153,000) when calculated based upon the quarter’s weighted average number of subscribers.
Furthermore, in addition to these usership shifts for January, February, and March of 2023, the satellite-radio offering’s average revenue per user dipped from $15.53 in Q1 2022 to $15.29, the resource shows.
In keeping with an advertising slowdown that other streaming services have likewise reported, Pandora’s advert revenue per thousand listening hours fell from $89.77 to $85.09 on the quarter, according to the document. Pandora’s ad-supported listener hours also fell, this time from 2.68 billion in Q1 2022 to 2.59 billion.
Finally, despite reducing sales and marketing expenses by $45 million YoY to $214 million, SiriusXM – which laid off almost 500 team members in March and formally upped Tom Barry to CFO today – disclosed $1.02 billion in service costs (up $36 million YoY) for the quarter. Net income fell from $309 million in Q1 2022 to $233 million, whereas adjusted EBITDA came in at $625 million (down from $690 million), according to the performance analysis.
When trading ended on Friday, SiriusXM stock was worth $3.80 per share – up 2.7% from Thursday’s close but down over 34% since 2023’s beginning as well as 37% from the same point in 2022. As of January 31st, Liberty Media owned 82.4% of the business, which is plotting a major streaming reboot for later in 2023 (and reportedly the fourth quarter, more specifically) to reach internet-enabled vehicles.