Sirius: More Subscribers, More Losses

Like its competitor XM, Sirius is growing its subscriber base. But Sirius remains far behind in number of subscribers, and continues to lose money – $312 million so far this year.
Sirius said this week that it ended the third quarter with 149,612 subscribers, an increase of 42% in the quarter. XM just passed 1 million subscribers. (XM reports its third-quarter figures next week.)
Sirius company head Joseph Clayton said the upcoming holiday season is promising thanks to acceptance by consumers and the availability of three brands of transportable Plug-&-Play products. The company said its cash position is “the strongest in satellite radio.” It ended the quarter with $479 million in cash.
Among its achievements in the quarter, Sirius said it partnered with The Brix Group to introduce a portable unit for the trucking market, the Streamer. Yet to come are dedicated in-home receivers and a portable boombox.
The company reported revenue of $4.3 million, compared to $17,000 for the third quarter of 2002 and $2.1 million for the second quarter of 2003. It reported a loss of $103.5 million for the third quarter, compared to a loss from operations of $81.7 million for the third quarter of 2002.
Year to date, Sirius had revenue of $7.9 million and a loss of $312.4 million.