SiriusXM is looking to bump up its investment in live sports rights to attract and retain premium subscribers.
“Trial subscribers that listen to sports channels convert to a paid tier at a higher rate than those who don’t,” SiriusXM president and chief content officer Scott Greenstein told Axios.
The Liberty Media-owned company holds exclusive audio rights to regular-season and postseason games for the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB. Sirius XM wants to add more sports-focused listeners as it continues to build a subscription-driven company — despite a recent flurry of off-platform deals for ad revenue.
- Nearly a quarter of its ads sales are sports-related, per CEO Jennifer Witz.
- Live sports rights have helped increase its digital streaming subscriptions.
- Roughly 80% of revenue comes from subscriptions.
- As of October 2022, SiriusXM has about 34 million subscribers.
Partners since 2004, SiriusXM and the NFL extended their broadcast agreement for an additional five years in July. As part of the deal, SiriusXM will continue to carry every NFL game as the official third-party audio provider in North America, as well as deliver more content on the SXM App.
Financial Results
Liberty Media — which also owns Formula 1 and the Atlanta Braves — generated $2.25 billion in revenue from SiriusXM in Q2 2022, a 4% increase compared to the same period last year.
SiriusXM reported an Adjusted EBITDA of $679 million, compared to $699 million in Q2 2021.
