SiriusXM Returns To Profit; No Spotify Spillover As Streaming Audio Player Posts Solid Q4 Numbers

Satellite ratio and podcasting streamer SiriusXM returned to profit in the fourth quarter, posting net income of 8 cents a share, compared with a loss of 16 cents in the year-earlier period.

Revenue increased 4% to almost $2.3 billion. Both revenue and income beat Wall Street analysts’ expectations. The fourth quarter and full year 2020 was impacted by a $976 million non-cash impairment charge associated with Pandora.

On the company’s 45-minute earnings call with Wall Street analysts, there was no mention of the controversy facing the podcast and streaming audio sector more broadly. After objecting to Covid misinformation on Joe Rogan’s top-rated Spotify podcast, musical artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell and a number of others have pulled their music from the service. A day after Young’s catalog left Spotify, SiriusXM relaunched its all-Young channel for a limited run, saying it  “will provide fans access to the entire musical world” of the artist.

While SiriusXM has expanded its podcast offerings via its Stitcher unit and developed a small app-based subscriber base, the bulk of its overall business is in vehicles. The company said its hardware was incorporated into about 82% of new vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2021, up from 78% in 2020.

Issuing guidance for 2022, SiriusXM said it expects to add about 500,000 self-pay net new subscribers and bring in total revenue of about $9 billion. The company ended 2021 with 32 million subscribers.

CEO Jennifer Witz said digital subscribers — aka those paying to listen to SiriusXM without being in a vehicle — are not currently a “meaningful part of our subscriber base.” But she said that share is expected to grow.