Sirius reported revenue of $66.8 million for the third quarter, a 250% increase over the $19.1 million reported for the period a year ago; but it also posted a larger loss.
The satcaster had a net loss of $180.4 million for the quarter compared with a loss of $169.4 million a year ago.
Programming and content expenses went up by $4.8 million to $23.5 million. The company cited license fees associated with new content agreements; compensation-related costs; on-air talent costs as the programming lineup expanded; and broadcast royalties due to the increase in its subscriber base. Average monthly churn for the quarter and year-to-date were 1.8% and 1.5%, respectively.
The company reported subscriber acquisition costs per gross subscriber addition of $149 for Q3, a 35% improvement over $229 in the period a year ago.
As of Sept. 30, Sirius had 2.17 million subscribers. It added about 359,000 subscribers in the quarter, a 97% increase over the year-ago figure. The company says it is on track to reach 3 million by the end of the year.