SiriusXM Holdings announced that it has finished 2019 with 34.9 million paid subscribers, which is a new high for the company.
While the company did not indicate how many Pandora subscribers they have, Zack Silver — who is an analyst for B Riley — told The Hollywood Reporter that there are currently 6.45 million paying Pandora subscribers.
Silver, who is maintaining his “buy” rating for the company, said of it: “Customer satisfaction remains high and a ramp of new exclusives (e.g. Marvel podcasts, Drake partnership) should bolster subscriber engagement.”
SiriusXM further indicated that it added more than a million self-pay subscribers in 2019 and is expecting to add an additional 900,000 in the coming year. They are also forecasting revenue of $8.1 billion.
Jim Meyer, who is the CEO of the company, issued a statement in conjunction with the announcement.
He said, “Last year was a milestone for SiriusXM. Not only did we achieve our tenth consecutive year of million-plus self-pay net additions, but we also completed our acquisition of Pandora Media and made significant investments in our business, all while returning more than $2 billion to our stockholders. And our new 2020 guidance points to what should be another excellent year of growth for SiriusXM.”
At the same time the company made the announcement, David Frear — who is its CFO — appeared at the Citi Global TMT Conference in Las Vegas. In response to a question as to whether SiriusXM would be interested in buying iHeartRadio, he said:
“For Sirius, Jim (Meyer) and the rest of the team are heads-down focused on Pandora. That’s got our plate full right now.”
Still, it has been long rumored that SiriusXM’s parent Liberty Media is interested in buying traditional radio stations.
Frear was further asked about how a possible recession could affect the company, and he said, “We do have an incredibly strong cash flow and we do have a good growth trajectory.”