Sirius And XM Announce New Subscriber Numbers
FMQB is reporting:
Sirius and XM Satellite Radio both announced their third quarter subscriber numbers today, and Sirius said it has passed the five million mark, ending the third quarter with 5,119,308 subscribers. Sirius added 441,101 net subscribers in the third quarter of 2006, which is a 23 percent increase over last year's third quarter net subscriber additions. The satcaster also reiterated its guidance of 6.3 million subscribers by the end of 2006.
Meanwhile, XM announced that it added more than 285,000 net subscribers in the third quarter, giving the rival satcaster more than 7.185 million subscribers in total. XM also noted that starting in the third quarter, it stopped including certain rental car fleets in its tally, amounting to about 20,000 subscriptions. This change is a result of a new marketing program that XM recently implemented with rental partners for 2007 model year vehicles in order to increase the number of rental cars equipped with XM Satellite Radio. The company believes that it will end the year with somewhere between 7.7 million and 8.2 million subscribers.