Sirius Shares Slide on Subscriber Data

Karmazin also noted that Sirius had $108.8 million in first-quarter pro forma adjusted income from operations, as compared with first-quarter 2008 pro forma adjusted loss from operations of $70.2 million.

The subscriber data apparently didn't sit well with investors, who drove the stock down 13.4% to 46 cents in recent trading.

Several key metrics weakened for Sirius XM in the first quarter. The conversion rate, which measures the number of subscribers who receive the service after a promotion period ends, fell to 44.9% from 51% a year ago.

Average monthly churn, which measures how many subscribers left the service, inched higher to 2.2% from 2.1% in the previous quarter and 1.8% in the year-ago quarter. Additionally, the average revenue per subscriber slipped to $10.43 from $10.48 a year earlier.

On the positive side, cost per subscriber acquisition shrank to $61 from $82 in the year-ago quarter. Negative free cash flow dropped to $3.6 million from $311.1 million in the year-ago quarter.

Additionally, the company saw costs decline almost across the board. Satellite and transmission costs decreased 23%, programming and content costs decreased 10%, cost of equipment decreased by 50%, general and administrative costs decreased 32% and sales and marketing costs decreased 35%.

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