8 Million Ears Ago
What do you make of XM Satellite Radio’s announcement yesterday that it landed its 4 millionth subscriber last week? That places the popular satellite radio service on track to close out the year with 5.5 million accounts. In a recent Motley Fool interview, CEO Hugh Panero projected that “XM could have well over 20 million subscribers by 2010,” and the favorable trends don’t seem to suggest that this optimism is misguided.
For those who may have wondered if the company could continue to gain new listeners after last month’s 30% price hike to $12.95 a month, XM has signed up just over 200,000 new listeners since the end of March.
The battle with Sirius will no doubt continue to intensify now that both services are offered at the same price point and the war has moved away from exclusive deals with car manufacturers to the retail battleground. This past quarter, XM revealed that 60% of the quarter’s new customers were aftermarket subscribers.