WITH 35M SUBS, SIRIUS XM DIALS IN A SOLID Q1

SiriusXM beat analysts’ expectations in the first quarter of 2020 as revenue rose 12% to $1.95b and profit hit $293m vs. $162m in 2019.

The satellite-radio company had 34.8m subscribers, more than 30m of which are self-pay users.

Pandora, meanwhile, had more than 6.2m paying subscribers at the end of March, adding 51,000 net new self-pay subscribers to its Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium service in the first quarter. Ad revenue at Pandora was up 4% from last year, hitting $241m in the 1/1-3/31 period.

Due to the pandemic and its unknown effects on the business, Chef Executive Jim Meyer said the company would not be providing guidance on the rest of 2020 at this time.

“In the face of the economy hitting the brakes hard in March, SiriusXM’s first-quarter results were very strong,” Meyer said. “Auto sales, advertising and customer responses to marketing campaigns all fell swiftly in the second half of March.”

The company is bracing for a decline due to the decreases in automobile sales and the amount of time users spend in their cars. Meyer said it would “not significantly affect our programming and content expenses, as we expect to continue to honor our agreements to acquire, create, promote and produce content.

"We are streaming SiriusXM for free, and we have been in overdrive introducing new shows, channels and special virtual moments.”