Sirius XM Radio

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Ryan Luckman

by RYAN LUCKMAN

Headquarters

1221 Avenue of the Americas

New York City, New York, U.S.

Key Executives

James E. Meyer- CEO

Scott Greenstein- President & CCO

History

SiriusXM was originally two separate companies, Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio. Sirius Satellite Radio was founded in 1990 by Martine Rothblatt, David Margolese, and Robert Briskman. XM Satellite Radio was founded in 1988 by Gary Parsons and Hugh Panero. Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio merged in 2008, to become SiriusXM Radio. They were the United States’ only two satellite radio services. The merger was being questioned for years because many people thought that it would make it a monopoly. To this date, that has been proven wrong, because it is not a monopoly and terrestrial radio is still doing fine.

About

SiriusXM is a subscription-based radio service, which currently has 27.3 million subscribers (1). SiriusXM is commercial-free, and creates and broadcasts over 175 channels. These channels range from live sports, entertainment, talk and news shows, to any genre of music imaginable (2). The company also has SiriusXM Traffic and NavWeather, along with other options to provide details on traffic and weather. SiriusXM can be listened to in a car, plane, or even on a boat, as well as on a smartphone and tablet. Click here to find out the vehicle availability of SiriusXM. SiriusXM likes to say of their service that “It’s wherever you are,” and, “It’s wherever you go.” SiriusXM’s main competitors are Clear Channel Communications, Cumulus Media, and WestwoodOne (3). These companies are competitors because of their involvement in radio, except they are terrestrial radio companies, not satellite.

Financials

SiriusXM is a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq. Its past 52-week range is 2.98-4.04 (4). SiriusXM repurchased 739 million shares in 2014, which returned $2.5 billion to the stockholders. The company also returned to the number one shorted Nasdaq stock (5). SiriusXM announced that they will be releasing the First Quarter results of 2015 on April 28th. As for 2014, their yearly revenue rose 10% to $4.18 billion. Their net income rose to $493 million, which was an increase of 31% from its net income of $377 million in 2013. Its fourth quarter net income was $143 million, compared to $65 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. These increases are staggering, but might come from the large amount of total new subscribers that SiriusXM received, 1,751,777, which completely exceeded their expectations of 1,250,000 (6).

Live Broadcasting

Recently, SiriusXM seems to have been attempting to make a huge splash with live broadcasting. The company has been and will continue to broadcast live sports and music festivals. In March, they announced that they would be offering live coverage of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Division I Championship (7). In April they announcedthat SiriusXM would be covering the 2015 NBA playoffs. With this coverage, they will include daily programming of the SiriusXM NBA Radio (8). Also in April, SiriusXM Canada announced that they will have live coverage of every single NHL Playoff game. To broadcast the NHL playoffs, they will be using SiriusXM NHL Network Radio, SiriusXM’s main station for hockey (9). In March, SiriusXM announced that they would be broadcasting live coverage from the 2015 PGA Masters. With this, they had a total of 24 hours of live coverage spread throughout the four day tournament, plus 80 hours of never before heard audio from the Augusta National archives (10).

In March, SiriusXM had a live coverage of DJ sets from Ultra Music Festival (11). This was major because they even made a temporary station solely for this purpose, titled UMF Radio. On this station, they had the live DJ sets as well as interviews. Also, for the first time ever, Coachella, the two weekend music and arts festival in Indio, California, was broadcasted live and exclusively on SiriusXM Radio. It was broadcasted over a variety of stations, some of which are BPM and Electric Area (12).

Recent News

SiriusXM just concluded their 2015 MLB Spring Training Tour. The hosts were Mike Ferrin, Casey Stern, former General Managers Jim Bowden, Jim Duquette, and Steve Phillips, as well as World Series Champion Todd Holandsworth (13). SiriusXM does this tour yearly to provide the most in-depth coverage of the MLB Spring Training available on any radio format. Also, SiriusXM is the only radio broadcaster that covers every game live, play-by-play for every single team in the league throughout the season.

SiriusXM announced in April 2015 that its subsidiary, Sirius XM Connected Vehicle Services, made a deal with Nissan. The services that they will offer are for convenience, safety and security (14). Sirius XM Connected Vehicle Services are in nine different car manufacturers, including Nissan. On the Nissan models, there will be three different packages, the NissanConnect Services, the NissanConnect Services Premium, and the NissanConnect Services Premium Plus (14). Also in the vehicle industry, Jaguar and Land Rover announced that they will use Sirius XM Connected Vehicle Services in a way where it can connect to the vehicle’s already made infotainment systems to provide call center support for safety and security reasons (15). SiriusXM and Jaguar and Land Rover have all been working together for over ten years now, so it is a good sign that they are beginning to use SiriusXM for more reasons other than just entertainment. SiriusXM is clearly trying to expand their horizons in the vehicle industry, so that they are not just a radio service.

In March, it was announced that comedians Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy will launch their own channel exclusively with SiriusXM. The two comedians will produce the channel and have live comedy shows that can only be heard on their channel with SiriusXM, and nowhere else (16). Another new channel that was announced in March will be executive produced by Andy Cohen, the talk show host of “Watch What Happens Live.” All that is known is that he will personally select what is spoken about on the show when the time comes (17).

Overall

SiriusXM had a great year in 2014, which can be proven by the incredible amount of new subscribers and also by the revenue and net income comparisons to 2013. Hopefully these ecstatic numbers continue and SiriusXM continues to be a dominant force in the radio industry in the years to come.

Sources

1- Corporate Overview, SiriusXM Radio Website, Retrieved 17 April 2015

2- SiriusXM, SiriusXM Website, Retrieved 17 April 2015

3- Competitors, Yahoo Finance, Retrieved 17 April 2015

4- SiriusXM Stock, Yahoo Finance, Retrieved 17 April 2015

5- Shorted Nasdaq Stock, 24/7 Wall Street, Retrieved 17 April 2015

6- Investor Relations, SiriusXM Website, Retrieved 17 April 2015

7- Men’s Basketball, SiriusXM Website, Retrieved 17 April 2015

8- NBA Playoffs, Yahoo Finance, Retrieved 17 April 2015

9- NHL Playoffs, Yahoo Finance, Retrieved 17 April 2015

10- PGA Masters, SiriusXM Website, Retrieved 17 April 2015

11- UMF Radio, SiriusXM Website, Retrieved 17 April 2015

12- Coachella, SiriusXM Electric Area Website, Retrieved 17 April 2015

13- MLB Spring Training, SiriusXM Website, Retrieved 17 April 2015

14- Nissan, SiriusXM Website, Retrieved 17 April 2015

15- Jaguar and Land Rover, SiriusXM Website, 17 April 2015

16- Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy, SiriusXM Website, 17 April 2015

17- Andy Cohen, SiriusXM Website, 17 April 2015

SiriusXM Radio

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Trevor Gill

by Trevor Gill

Courtesy of SiriusXM.com

The Basics

Website: www.SiriusXm.com

Address

221 Avenue of the Americas #36

New York, NY 10020

Phone Number: (212) 584-5100

Social Media: Twitter Facebook Instagram Youtube

What is it?

Sirius XM Radio is one of the largest subscription media companies in the United States, providing commercial free satellite radio to subscribers who pay anywhere from $14.49 to $17.99 per month (depending on the package they choose).

Courtesy of IMDB.com

Sirius XM has 23.9 million subscribers. The service offers over 140 channels with content ranging from Howard Stern talk radio, to hits from Jimmy Buffett, to NASCAR and beyond. Subscribers can access content either built into their vehicles via satellite, on Sirius XM’s website, or on mobile applications available for Apple and Android powered devices. (1)

A visual of what Sirius XM is all about, courtesy of their website.

Courtesy of SiriusXM.com

James E. Meyer, Courtesy of satelliteradioplayground.com

Key People

James E. Meyer, Chief Executive Officer

James Meyer joined Sirius XM radio in May of 2004, and after former CEO Mel Karmazin stepped down from the position, Meyer took over as CEO on December 18^th, 2012. Before becoming CEO, Meyer held the position of President of Operations and Sales. Said Meyer, “Sirius XM is a great business and I look forward to working with our talented management team to continue to deliver the best content and service to our subscribers, while enhancing value to our shareholders.” (2)

Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer

Scott Greenstein is in charge of programming and marketing for Sirius XM. Greenstein previously was a consultant to the company on contractual agreements negotiated with the National Football League. (3)

Dara Altman, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer

Altman was previously the Executive Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for XM Satellite Radio, prior to the merger between Sirius and XM. (4)

What’s Going On Today?

Financial News

On February 5^th Sirius XM released its annual financial report from 2012. The company reported that 2012 revenue was $3.4 billion, a 13% increase from 2011 revenue, which was $3.0 billion. Another positive for Sirius XM was that Net Income for 2012 was $3.5 billion, compared to $427 million in 2011. Net Income was higher than revenue for 2012 because of a $3 billion income tax benefit, and thanks to $130 million due to a loss on extinguishment of debt.

Sirius XM was also happy to announce that it added 2 million subscribers in 2012. That is the largest amount of added subscriptions since 2007 (before Sirius and XM merged).

Sirius XM predicts that 2013 revenues will exceed $3.7 billion. Also predicted is a total net subscriber addition of 1.4 million. (5)

On the negative side for Sirius XM, on Friday April 5th its stock (SIRI), dipped below $3 for the first time since late February. The stock dropped to $2.95, the lowest price so far in 2013. However on Monday, April 8^th the stock closed at $3.04 per share, up from what was a down last week. (6)

The Competition

On April 2^nd, A new study by The NPD Group suggest that streaming music is quickly gaining ground on traditional terrestrial radio, especially with the younger demographics (ages 13-35). The report, which looks at the fourth quarter of 2012, shows that in this 13-35 demographic, 23% of music is being heard on Internet radio, while 24% is still heard on traditional AM/FM radio. The report shows that just 5% of listeners in this age group listen to music via satellite radio.

Courtesy of NPD.com

Breaking down the 23% of Internet “streaming” radio usage, Pandora leads the way, taking up 39% of users time. In second is iHeartRadio, which accounts for 11% of usage amongst ages 13 and 35 in the 4^th quarter of 2012. (7)

Courtesy of NPD.com

Apple

According to Paul Sloan of CNET.com Apple is in the works of signing deals with both Warner Music and Universal Music Group to allow Apple and iTunes to offer streaming content, similar to what Pandora offers. The new product is rumored to be called iRadio. This would add another huge source of competition for Sirius XM, especially if the Apple product is free (or cheaper than Sirius XM’s monthly rate). (8)

Courtesy of CNET.com

Current Programing

Super Bowl Coverage

Courtesy of twitter.com

Sirius XM Radio offered in-depth coverage of Superbowl 47, which included broadcasting the game in eight foreign languages, and airing Beyonce’s halftime performance live. In addition, they offered coverage all Superbowl week long with specials from SiriusXM NFL Radio, Mad Dog Radio, Maurice Jones-Drew, Jeff Foxworthy and more. Sirius XM also aired a limited-run, special New Orleans jazz Channel called “Radio New Orleans” from February 1^st – 3^rd. (9)

Town Hall Exclusive with Al Gore

Courtesy of biography.com

On Thursday, February 28^th Sirius XM’s “Town Hall” series sat down with former Vice President Al Gore to discuss his new book “The Future: Six drivers of Social Change”. The special was hosted by Ari Rabin-Havt, who hosts The Agenda on Sirius XM, and allowed for audience members to ask Gore about a wide variety of topics. (10)

New 24/7 Entertainment Weekly Channel

On March 1^st, Sirius XM announced that Entertainment Weekly would launch an all-new channel, Entertainment Weekly Radio, offering 24/7 coverage of all the latest news in the world of entertainment. The channel will offer shows hosted by Entertainment Weekly and EW.com editors, featuring news, interviews, opinions and more. (11)

New Addition to Mad Dog Radio

Courtesy of twitter.com

On March 4^th, Sirius XM announced that Adam Schein has joined its all-sports Mad Dog Radio channel. Schein will host his own show, Schein on Sports. Schein previously worked for Sirius XM in 2004. He also currently works for SportsNet New York (SNY) and the CBS Sports Network. Prior to that Schein had worked at WFAN Radio in New York, and Fox Sports Radio.

Schein graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1999. (12)

More Live Coverage

NCAA Final 4

Sirius XM provided an array of live broadcasts from The NCAA Final Four in Atlanta, including coverage of the National Championship game. Shows such as Inside College Basketball, Tim Brando Show, and SiriusXM’s Final Four Roundtable all provided live coverage from Atlanta, from Thursday April 4^th, to Tuesday April 9^th. (13)

The Masters

Courtesy of espn.go.com

Sirius XM will offer live hole-by-hole coverage of the 2013 Masters on the PGA TOUR Radio Channel from the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. The Masters coverage will last the length of the tournament from Thursday April 11^th, to Sunday April 14^th. The channel will also offer a two-hour pre-Masters show before each day of the event, and Masters Review recapping each round. (14)

Sources

1. Sirius XM Corporate Website

2. James Meyer Corporate Bio

3. Seth Greenstein Corporate Bio

4. Dara Altman Corporate Bio

5. Sirius XM 2012 Report

6. This Week in Sirius XM Radio – The Motley Fool

7. NPD report on Radio Streaming Usage

8. CNET.com article by Paul Sloan

9. Sirius XM Press Release (on Superbowl coverage)

10. Sirius XM Press Release on Town Hall Event

11. Sirius XM Press Release on Entertainment Weekly Announcement