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Sirius XM Trying to Find More Savings in 2009

Expects to have 19.5 million subscribers by end of this year, though uptake is slowing.

Sirius XM Radio expects to post an adjusted loss of $350 million this year, and CEO Mel Karmazin told attendees at an investor conference this week the company is on track to earn $300 million for 2009.

The firm expects to post revenue of about $2.4 billion in 2008 and $2.7 billion for 2009.

The company has more $1.1 billion in debt that comes due in 2009.

Rather than seeing some $400 million in savings from merging, Karmazin said, the company has found $425 million. The savings come from cutting executive-level jobs and sales and marketing positions, as well as savings from merging programming, general and administrative costs, he told attendees of the Merrill Lynch event in Marina del Rey, Calif.

He said the company would end the year at 19.5 million subscribers and end 2009 with approximately 2 million more than that. This would be a slowdown from the 3.7 million subscribers Sirius and XM added last year and 4.4 million the previous year.

Sirius XM also announced that its “Best of Both” programming will be available to satellite radio consumers beginning Oct. 6, on most existing satellite radios for $16.99 a month.

The slate of new packages includes the opportunity to choose programming on an a la carte basis.

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