Sirius Loss Narrows

Updated from 7:41 a.m. EDT with new stock price

Sirius (SIRI) posted a mixed second-quarter report, as its bottom line beat Wall Street's expectations but the top line was light.

The New York-based pay radio broadcaster lost $134 million, or 9 cents a share, for the quarter ended June 30, compared with the year-ago loss of $238 million, or 17 cents a share. On an adjusted basis, excluding stock compensation expense, the loss narrowed to 8 cents from 11 cents a year ago.

Revenue rose 51% from a year ago to $226 million, as Sirius added 561,493 net new users.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were looking for a dime-a-share loss on revenue of $228 million.

The news comes as the company tries to sell regulators and legislators in Washington on a merger with rival XM (XMSR).

"Momentum for the pending merger with XM continues to build," said CEO Mel Karmazin. "Support from our customers, suppliers and other groups representing a diverse cross-section of Americans clearly demonstrates the public interest benefits and enhanced competition that will come from the merger. We continue to work with the [Federal Communications Commission] and the [Department of Justice] to make the case that the merger offers more choices, including a la carte offerings, and lower prices for subscribers, and we continue to expect that the merger will be completed by year-end."

Sirius added 129,843 net additions from retail and aftermarket channels and 431,650 from the automaker partnership channel. It ended the quarter with 7.14 million subscribers. The company said churn for the quarter was 2.1%.

Sirius reaffirmed its full-year guidance for revenue approaching $1 billion, year-end subscribers topping 8 million and monthly subscriber loss, or churn, of 2.2% to 2.4%. But the company raised its guidance for subscriber acquisition costs to "approaching $100" per gross subscriber from the previous $95. That figure was $114 last year and $139 in 2005.

The company's stock was recently trading up 11 cents, or 3.70%, to $3.08.

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