SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (SIRI) reported third quarter 2009 financial results. Quarterly revenue of $618.7 million is a huge improvement of 26.7% year-over-year and better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $609 million. This was primarily due to the sale of “Best of” programming, rate increases to the company’s multi-subscription and Internet packages, and the U.S. Music Royalty Fee introduced in the reported quarter. 

Quarterly net loss was $149.2 million or 4 cents per share compared to a net loss of $4.9 billion or $1.93 per share in the prior-year quarter. Costs related to satellite & transmissions, programming & content, customer service & billing, sales and marketing and equipment decreased year-over-year. However, net loss of 4 cents per share in the reported quarter was above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 2 cents per share. 

During the quarter, SIRIUS XM generated $116.3 million of cash from operations compared to a cash consumption of $102 million for operations in the year-ago quarter. Free cash flow (cash flow from operations less capital expenditures) in the reported quarter was $26.7 million compared to a negative $97.6 million in the year-ago quarter. At the end of the same quarter, the company had $380.4 million cash & cash equivalents and approximately $3 billion of outstanding debt. 

Segment Results 

Quarterly subscriber revenue was $578.3 million, up 26.2% year-over-year. Advertising revenue was $12.4 million, down 15.4% year-over-year. Equipment revenue was $10.5 million, down 6.8% year-over-year. Other revenue was $17.4 million, up 309% year-over-year. 

Subscriber Statistics 

SIRIUS XM ended the quarter with 18,515,730 total subscribers, a decrease of 2% year-over-year and an increase of 102,295 subscribers from the previous quarter. Self-pay subscribers were 15,456,748, up 266,160 year-over-year and up 35,405 sequentially. The self-pay monthly customer churn rate was 2.0% in the quarter, in line with the previous quarter and up from a 1.7% churn rate in the third quarter 2008. Ending promotional subscribers were 3,058,982 in the quarter.
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