XM Claims 80 Percent Market Share …

Lots of new information to digest about satellite, with the release of the latest financial numbers from XM.
President/CEO Hugh Panero is feeling pretty good about the coming quarter. Subscriber momentum, new programming and products like the Roady2, Delphi SkyFi2 and the MyFi, have the company well prepared as it enters the holiday selling season for electronics products, he says.
“We’re entering our eighth holiday season as a management team,” he said in announcing the company’s third quarter financial results.
The satcaster added 415,671 subscribers in the quarter to reach 2,516,023 subscribers as of Sept. 30. That represents 80% of the market share for all satellite radio subscribers, says Panero.
“Two out of three subscribers chose XM during the quarter,” he said. The company expects to exceed 3.1 million by the end of the year. By comparison, Sirius recently said it had passed 700,000 subscribers after the conclusion of its quarter.
XM’s subscription churn rate remains steady at 1.2%, executives said. Retail sales remain evenly split between OEM and aftermarket.
The company intends to release year-end subscriber numbers at CES in January.