NEW YORK – Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (SIRI) posted a larger second-quarter loss on Tuesday but beat Wall Street's expectations and raised full-year forecasts for revenue and subscribers.
Sirius' loss widened to $177.5 million, or 13 cents per share, from $136.8 million, or 11 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson financial had expected a loss of 15 cents.
Revenue surged to $52.2 million from $13.2 million last year. Average monthly churn — the percentage of customers who cancel subscriptions — during the second quarter of 2005 was 1.4 percent versus 1.6 percent a year ago.
The New York-based company reported costs of $160 for each customer added for the second quarter of 2005, a 32 percent improvement from the same period last year.
As of June 30, Sirius had 1.8 million subscribers, including second-quarter net additions of 365,931 subscribers, more than double last year's 128,678 net additions.
For the third time this year, the company raised its 2005 year-end subscriber guidance to 3 million subscribers, up from its previous estimate of about 2.7 million subscribers.
The company attributed the revised outlook to continued momentum in the retail and automotive distribution channels, and expectations of strong consumer demand for Sirius' exclusive programming, including the NFL, Martha Stewart (search) Living Radio and Howard Stern (search). Sirius will launch its second season of NFL coverage and introduce Martha Stewart's radio channel this month. It expects Stern to join its lineup in January 2006.
Sirius expects to $225 million in total revenue in 2005, up from previous guidance of $215 million. The company also expects to report an adjusted loss from operations of about $540 million in 2005, wider than prior estimates of $510 million.
Even though it beat Wall Street's estimates, Sirius's shares fell 2 cents to $6.93 on the Nasdaq Stock Market (search). Investors had bid up the shares over the past three months, off their recent low of $4.67 reached in late April.