Combined XM-Sirius Will Start with Nearly 19 Million Subscribers

[Satellite Today 07-28-08] Sirius Satellite Radio reported 8.9 million total subscribers at the end of the 2008 second quarter, up 25 percent from the same period a year ago, the company announced July 28.
Sirius released its preliminary second quarter results three days after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the proposed merger between Sirius and XM Satellite Radio by a vote of 3-2. XM announced July 21 that its total subscriber base has reached 9.7 million.
    Commissioner Deborah Tate cast the deciding vote after the two companies agreed to pay $19.7 million in finesy for violating FCC rules as well as adhering to a three-year cap on prices, setting aside 8 percent of their channel capacity for minority and non-commercial programming as well as manufacture consumers radios that receive both Sirius and XM signals.
    Sirius expects its 2008 second quarter revenues to be $283 million, an increase of 25 percent, while the companies expects its loss from operations to decline from $79 million in the 2007 second quarter to $24 million in the most recent three months.