SIRIUSXM PULLS IN $2B IN Q2

Second quarter revenue at SiriusXM rose to $2b as its subscriber count rose to 34.3m, while Pandora had 7m on its paid tier.

The company’s adjusted EBITDA grew 22% to $618m in the quarter, driven primarily by revenue growth across the combined businesses and cost efficiencies in subscriber acquisition costs and revenue share and royalties. The satellite radio division’s revenue rose 7% to $1.5b in the quarter. While Pandora’s net income of $263m was down 10%, gross profit at streaming serviced was up 40% over Q2 2018 to $157m.

“I'm pleased by the quick progress we've made in integrating Pandora,” said SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer. “Revenues and adjusted EBITDA each reached records in the period. We are raising 2019 guidance for revenue and adjusted EBITDA and reiterating our guidance for net subscriber additions and free cash flow."

The company predicts that SiriusXM self-pay net subscriber additions in 2019 will approach 1m, adjusted EBITDA could hit $2.35b and the company will have free cash flow of approximately $1.6b.

In Q2, SiriusXM added 290,000 net new self-pay subscribers while Pandora added 64,000. Pandora had 64.9m Monthly Active Users in the period while total ad-supported listener hours reached 3.49b.

The results beat analysts' expectations and revenue topped forecasts.