I am still a big fan of XM radio even with Pandora and internet radio taking off. Glad to see XM is still adding subscribers.

Satellite Radio subscribers grow to record levels
July 7, 2010

Satellite radio subscriber additions are growing at a rapid pace, reaching a record-high of 19.5 million subscribers and causing Sirius XM Radio Inc. to more than double its 2010 subscriber forecast.
"Our subscriber results mark the best quarter of gross additions, deactivations and net additions since the merger of Sirius and XM in July 2008," said CEO Mel Karmazin.

In the first half of this year, Sirius XM added 754,690 net subscribers and ended Q2 with a record-high of 19,527,448 subscribers. Compare that to a loss of 590,421 net subscribers in the first half of 2009.

But TheStreet.com points out that while the growth is significant, it's "half speed" of the pre-merger rate of 1.2 million net subscriber additions in the first half of 2008. Interestingly enough, TheStreet does not point out that this pre-merger growth was during better economic times.

The company also has increased its subscriber guidance for the third time this year and now expects net additions of approximately 1,100,000 in 2010 - that's up from May's projection of 750.000 subscribers.

Self-pay churn fell to 1.8% - an improvement from 2% for the second quarter of 2009. Meanwhile the conversion rate from vehicle trial subscriptions to a self-pay subscription grew to 46.7%, an improvement from 44.3% for the same period last year.

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