Photo Credit: SiriusXM
SiriusXM’s recently reworked subscription tiers paid off, boosting its Q1 earnings and subscriber numbers, including 124,000 new subscriptions during the first quarter.
On Wednesday, SiriusXM unveiled its Q1 financials, and the numbers look surprisingly healthy—especially on the heels of the satellite radio platform retooling its subscription tiers. These include increased family and companion bundling options, the latter of which drove 124,000 new subscriptions during the first quarter alone.
Overall, SiriusXM’s first-quarter sales grew 1% year-over-year, marking the best quarter on that front since 2022. Improved subscriber losses and positive pricing trends led the charge; off-platform ad revenue growth is also speeding up and contributing to these results.
SiriusXM introduced family and companion plans in a bid to improve customer loyalty and curb loss from self-paying subscribers. The plan changes also expanded access to SiriusXM’s service to more listeners in a single household, which enhanced the overall value of the subscription.
Meanwhile, churn rate among self-pay subscribers fell to a record low of 1.5%, even after the company raised the price of its Platinum/All Access tier by a dollar to $25.99 a month.
“We’re very pleased with our Q1 subscriber performance, especially after a strong Q4 last year, and the companion subscriptions clearly contributed to that,” said Sirius CEO Jennifer Witz. “Companion plans expand access to SiriusXM to more listeners across the household, and also enhance the value and improve retention of that subscription household. So we’re really pleased.”
Podcast ad revenue grew 37% year-over-year, an estimated growth of 24%, accounting for about 9% of total revenue during the quarter. Recent partnerships indicate that SiriusXM’s off-platform efforts can maintain this level of growth over the next couple of years.
Sirius’ recently announced exclusive partnership with YouTube to sell YouTube’s audio inventory on the platform in the U.S. kicks off in the fall. This is expected to further boost advertising growth, though such deals rest heavily on margins.
