Earnings: XM Posts Wider Than Expected Q1 Loss; Reaches 6.5 Million Subs

Analysts expected XM Satellite Radio Holdings to lose 55 cents per share in 1Q06 but the company reported a wider loss of $151 million, or 60 cents per share, before the market opened this morning. That compares to a net loss of $122 million in the same quarter last year. Revenue more than doubled to $208 million from $103 million On the subscriber side, XM added 568,902 thousand subscribers for a total of 6,501,859 thousand, well on its pace to a stated goal of 9 million by year’s end. CEO Hugh Panero also promises positive cash flow by that time. Acquiring those subs is getting less expensive per sub — the subscriber acquisition cost was $62 compared to $52 the previous year.
— Content and programming costs more than doubled from year to year, $35.8 million compared to $17.5 million in 1Q05. Earnings release | Financials | Webcast (replay)
— XM got some welcome news today when savvy USA Today reviewer Ed Baig called Pioneer’s new Inno XM2Go live satellite radio receiver/portable music player a winner and compared it favorably to iPods. Even so, at $400 a pop plus sub fees plus extras to make it work in the car, it’s not likely to be a huge seller. Ditto for the Sirius version.

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