SiriusXM continues to report progress in its contract negotiations with star personality Howard Stern as the company revealed its third-quarter earnings, with revenue up 1% at $2.025 billion and income up 11% to $272 million. Stern’s contract expires at the end of the year and has been a constant topic of conversation in the company’s business in recent months.
“We are making significant progress in extending our relationship with Howard Stern,” said outgoing CEO Jim Meyer, “We reached a new agreement with Kevin Hart for more content, with LeBron James and Maverick Carter we launched Uninterrupted Radio from the NBA bubble on Pandora, and we debuted our fulltime channel with the members of U2 on SiriusXM.” Meyer added on an investor call. “Howard tells me he’s never been happier and our relationship with Howard has never been stronger… From my perspective we are very far along. But it is never done until it’s done. I am very confident we have an agreement to announce soon.”
Meyer has made similar comments in previous earnings calls.
In the earnings report, the company’s total adjusted EBITDA improved 12% to 657 million, an all-time high, while net income declined 28.2% to $246 million, which it cited to expenses from refinancing debt due 2024.
Advertising fell “only 6%” year-over-year, but that marks a 46% improvement from the second-quarter mark. Satellite subscriber revenue improved 1% to $1.6 billion year over year, while satellite gross profit grew 7% to $596 billion.
Pandora showed similarly mixed results, but an improvement over the pandemic-tormented. second quarter. Its advertising revenue dropped 3% to $306 million, a dramatic improvement from the 31% drop in Q2. Its self-pay net subscribers grew by 105,000.
SiriusXM’s net subscriber additions guidance was raised from approximately 700,000 to 800,000, while total revenue guidance rose from $7.7 billion to $7.85 billion, and adjusted EBITDA guidance raised from $2.4 billion to $2.475 billion.