Sirius XM Q3 2025 Earnings Report

Sirius XM EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.84
• Consensus EPS: $0.79
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.05
• One Year Ago EPS: -$8.74

Sirius XM Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $2.16 billion
• Expected Revenue: $2.14 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$16.14 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: -0.60%

Sirius XM Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q3 2025
• Date: 10/30/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, October 30, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 8:00AM ET

Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) is a leading audio entertainment company specializing in subscription-based satellite and streaming radio services. Formed in 2008 through the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, the company delivers a broad range of programming across music, sports, news, talk and comedy channels. Sirius XM’s offerings include exclusive live sports play-by-play, artist-curated music channels, news coverage from major networks and original talk and entertainment series.

Headquartered in New York City, Sirius XM serves listeners throughout the United States and Canada, reaching tens of millions of subscribers. Its services are distributed via satellite to specially-equipped receivers in vehicles and through mobile and desktop streaming apps, enabling seamless listening at home, on the road or online. The company also provides targeted advertising solutions for automotive manufacturers, advertisers and content partners, leveraging its audience data to deliver tailored ad campaigns.

Over its history, Sirius XM has established long-term relationships with automakers to integrate satellite radios as standard or optional equipment in new vehicles, while continuously expanding its digital streaming capabilities. The company maintains a roster of popular on-air personalities and exclusive content agreements with major sports leagues, music festivals and cultural events. Sirius XM’s platform offers subscribers a combination of curated and customizable listening experiences, supported by ongoing investments in content, technology and network capacity.

Sirius XM Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Raised full‑year 2025 guidance by $25 million across revenue, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, and reiterated progress toward a $1.5 billion free cash flow target by 2027.
• Positive Sentiment: Q3 showed stable results with $2.16B in revenue, $676M adjusted EBITDA (31% margin) and $257M free cash flow (vs. $93M prior year); the company cut $120M of debt, returned $111M to shareholders and hit its $200M cost‑savings target.
• Negative Sentiment: Subscriber momentum was mixed — self‑pay net adds were down ~40,000 and average subscribers dipped modestly, largely due to a deliberate pullback in streaming marketing that management expects to pressure Q4 net adds.
• Positive Sentiment: Advertising momentum was a bright spot with total ad revenue up ~1% and podcast revenue up nearly 50%, helped by expanded programmatic inventory and SiriusXM Media reaching over 170 million monthly listeners.
• Neutral Sentiment: Management is actively exploring ways to unlock value from its roughly 35 MHz of contiguous spectrum (including WCS licenses), evaluating partnerships and other options but provided no near‑term transaction plan.

Presentation

[Operator]

Greetings. Welcome to SiriusXM's third quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. The question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press Star zero from your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Hooper Stevens, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Finance. Thank you, Hooper. You may now begin.

[Hooper Stevens, SVP of Investor Relations and Finance at SiriusXM]

Thank you and good morning everyone. Welcome to SiriusXM's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Today we will have prepared remarks from Jennifer Witz, our Chief Executive Officer, and Tom Berry, our Chief Financial Officer. Scott Greenstein, our President and Chief Content Officer, and Wayne Thorsen, our Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, will join Jennifer and Tom to take questions during the Q&A portion of this call. I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made during the call might be forward-looking statements as the term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These and all forward-looking statements are based upon management's current beliefs and expectations and necessarily depend upon assumptions, data, or methods that may be incorrect or imprecise. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.

[Hooper Stevens, SVP of Investor Relations and Finance at SiriusXM]

For more information about those risks and uncertainties, please view SiriusXM's SEC filings and today's earnings release. We advise listeners to not rely unduly on forward-looking statements and disclaim any intent or obligation to update them. As we begin, I would like to remind our listeners that today's call will include discussions about both actual results and adjusted results. All discussion of adjusted operating results exclude the effects of stock-based compensation. Additionally, we have posted a supplementary presentation to our IR website for your convenience. With that, I'll hand the call over to Jennifer.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

Thank you, Hooper, and thank you all for joining us this morning. As we enter the final months of the year, we remain committed to enhancing the subscriber experience, growing our ad-supported offerings, and finding new opportunities to drive efficiencies and leverage our portfolio's strengths. In the third quarter, we made good progress in each of these areas, delivering solid financial results and positive early indicators of our focused approach. With this backdrop, we are increasing our full year 2025 guidance by $25 million across revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow. We are confident improvements in our business will drive continued growth in free cash flow towards our target of $1.5 billion by 2027 and beyond. In addition, we are actively exploring ways to unlock the long-term strategic value of our spectrum assets.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

We're seeing solid momentum in our new SiriusXM acquisition initiatives with ongoing expansion of our three-year automotive dealer subscription program and our podcast plus offering, as well as continued strength and retention as we provide more value to our subscribers. Subscribers for Q3 were in line with our expectations, with self-pay net ads down versus last year almost entirely due to our pullback on streaming marketing spend. Enhancing the subscriber experience begins with programming. We are consistently providing our core audience with new, relevant, and engaging content and leveraging our unique platform and longstanding relationships to do even more with the voices driving culture today. Within music, the heart of our service, we hosted a variety of live events alongside channel launches.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

This included the return of Channel 13 to celebrate Taylor Swift's new album, a pop-up channel and small stage concert with Ed Sheeran, and an exclusive Metallica event to launch their new full-time channel, Maximum Metallica. The latter was announced with a special appearance on Howard Stern, who consistently books A-list guests. Additionally, this quarter we celebrated 10 years of Radio Andy and extended our agreement with Andy Cohen to keep the channel as our definitive home for pop culture. Howard and Andy are just two examples of the talent creating impact at SiriusXM. Stephen A. Smith is making a splash with his new political and sports programs, as well as the launch of the digital destination Get Serious with Stephen A., which gives fans a fresh way to interact with the host.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

Earlier this month we also announced the renewal of our agreement with Megyn Kelly, which has expanded to include the soon to be launched Megyn Kelly Channel. With each of these personalities, we are able to utilize our platform to elevate their voices and deliver exclusive programming to our listeners. Our efforts to include more content across package tiers is providing even more value to our dedicated subscribers. We've seen more than a 50% increase in NFL and MLB play-by-play listeners and almost triple the usage of our artist-seeded stations, reflecting the expanded access to our programming introduced late last year. Initiatives such as these, which encourage our subscribers to engage with a wide range of content across devices and even introduce new members of the household to our service, not only result in higher satisfaction but also drive greater retention.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

Our programming is just one way we are delivering meaningful value to our subscribers. SiriusXM 360L penetration continues to expand, launching in Toyota's new RAV4 as we announced this month, and we are always rolling out new updates to enhance the in-car experience. Features such as extra channels, for example, deliver listeners more 24/7 music both in-car and in-app with significant increases in both usage and time spent listening. Streaming engagement has remained high across the board, showcasing how our service accompanies many subscribers throughout their day. In particular, subscribers with SiriusXM 360L who also stream listen almost daily, an average of 28 days a month. Beyond product enhancements, we remain focused on improving the overall customer experience. This quarter we began rolling out our new customer-based identity framework, which shifts subscriptions from vehicle-based to customer-based. This change eliminates friction when customers add, replace, or exchange vehicles.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

For example, subscribers no longer need to cancel and resubscribe at the end of a trial when replacing a vehicle. This framework also lays the foundation for future initiatives that will simplify the signup experience for new customers. Together, these improvements are expected to drive stronger customer acquisition, higher retention, and sustained revenue growth. We've also made progress within our pricing and packaging. While we have been thoughtful in the rollout of Play, our low-cost ad-supported subscription tier, we are seeing positive early indicators from the limited targeted marketing efforts we've rolled out in tandem with the launch. There's no evidence of cannibalization of our existing full-price population with the introduction of this new tier. In fact, within the test population, we are driving interest and subscriptions across all our packages, effectively widening the top of the funnel.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

This also gives us an additional solution to leverage as we gradually move away from unpublished discount offers in both acquisition and retention. While initial impacts are small, Play is an important part of our broadened pricing and packaging structure, which we believe, alongside improvement in our content-led marketing efforts, will help drive improvements in future subscription trends. Switching to the topic of advertising, we saw another positive milestone in the third quarter. SiriusXM Media now reaches more than 170 million listeners a month and our podcast network is now the largest in the nation, per Edison Research. Ad revenue grew 1% year-over-year and podcasting in particular continues to boom, once again up almost 50%, offsetting declines in music streaming.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

We are expanding our inventory to meet marketplace demand with a variety of new shows launched over the last few months from our partnership with SmartLess Media and a new agreement announced this week with Mr. Ballin. The latter deal, in particular with a video-first podcaster, underscores our ability to support creators by growing podcast monetization across all platforms. We're seeing significant year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter expansion of our Creator Connect social and video offering, where we are growing both our inventory and CPMs. We're also expanding monetization opportunities with new partnerships such as our integration of the Amazon DSP this quarter, which provides further runway for programmatic advertising, which was once again up year-over-year. Additionally, we are leveraging our broader network to take the podcasting tailwinds and help brands find their audiences across Pandora and SiriusXM, bringing more ad dollars to both platforms.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

We see even more opportunity to own the digital in-car ad experience across Pandora and SiriusXM through 360L as well as CarPlay and Android Auto, usage of which is up for both services this quarter. With our open ecosystem approach, we are utilizing our industry-leading strengths in selling and monetizing audio ads to expand our streaming and podcast networks across the company. We are exploring further options to do more with the valuable assets we have within the broader business, whether that is with spectrum or by leveraging our ad capabilities with additional third parties. As we continue to drive profitability, achieve our target leverage ratio, and move towards our free cash flow target of $1.5 billion in 2027, we expect to have expanded opportunities for capital returns to drive long-term value creation for shareholders. With that, I'll turn it over to Tom for more on this quarter's financial results.

[Tom Berry, CFO at SiriusXM]

Thank you, Jennifer, and good morning, everyone. In the third quarter, we executed with strong discipline, sustaining healthy margins, delivering operating efficiencies, and allocating capital to initiatives with clear returns. At the same time, we leaned into new content and distribution initiatives that reinforce our long-term competitive position. Looking at the financial results for the quarter, total revenue for the third quarter was $2.16 billion, essentially flat year-over-year, down less than 1%. Subscriber revenue declined by $16 million-$1.63 billion, while advertising revenue grew by $5 million-$455 million. Total cash operating expenses were $1.48 billion, also flat compared to the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA was $676 million, down 2% year-over-year with a 31% margin. Net income for the quarter was $297 million, and free cash flow was $257 million, up from $93 million in the third quarter of 2024.

[Tom Berry, CFO at SiriusXM]

The year-over-year improvement in free cash flow was primarily driven by the absence of Liberty Media transaction-related costs recorded in the prior year period, as well as lower cash taxes paid and reduced capital expenditures. Turning to the segments, Sirius XM total revenue finished the quarter at $1.61 billion, down 1% year-over-year, primarily driven by lower subscriber revenue due to a modest decline in the average subscriber base. Advertising revenue remained steady, down $2 million-$39 million for the quarter. Average revenue per user rose slightly to $15.19 from $15.16 in the prior year period, benefiting from the March rate increase. Segment gross profit was $958 million, down 1% year-over-year with a gross margin of 59%, a 1 point decline from the prior year.

[Tom Berry, CFO at SiriusXM]

Churn remained healthy in the third quarter at 1.6%, improving slightly year-over-year, driven by declines in vehicle-related voluntary churn. Self-pay net adds were -40,000, driven by consistently low churn, higher trial volumes, and continued progress in new acquisition initiatives. These were partially offset by lower conversion rates and softer streaming net additions. We continue to anticipate some headwinds in the fourth quarter from reduced streaming marketing and acquisition channels. Turning to the Pandora and off-platform segment, total revenue was $548 million, up $4 million or 1% year-over-year. Subscriber revenue declined 2% to $132 million on a smaller sub base, while advertising revenue grew 2% to $416 million. We saw encouraging signs of increased spending late in the quarter, with momentum building through September. Programmatic revenue continued to strengthen and podcast demand remained robust, driving nearly 50% year-over-year growth in podcast revenue.

[Tom Berry, CFO at SiriusXM]

During the quarter, we continued to see growth in advertisers buying across two or more of our platforms, reflecting the growing success of our multi-platform reach. As we roll out our unified buying capabilities next year, we expect this trend to strengthen further. Segment gross profit in the quarter decreased 9% to $170 million, reflecting a gross margin of 31%. Third quarter operating expenses reflect the ongoing benefits of our cost savings initiatives. Sales and Marketing expense declined 15% to $176 million, driven by reductions in brand and streaming marketing. Product and technology costs fell 5% to $54 million due to ongoing optimization efforts. G&A expenses increased 2% to $115 million, primarily due to higher software and telecom costs.

[Tom Berry, CFO at SiriusXM]

Overall for 2025, our cost savings program continues to outperform expectations, achieving our $200 million target in year, while we continue to reinvest selectively in areas that drive clear payback in engagement, ad monetization, and OEM distribution. Subscriber acquisition costs totaled $107 million for the quarter, up from $90 million in the same period last year. This increase was driven by the expansion of our OEM programs, including broader adoption of SiriusXM 360L and ongoing migration to the wideband chipset. These investments are expected to yield favorable economics and improved listener conversion over the life of the agreement. During the quarter, we increased and extended our revolving credit facility to $2 billion with just $30 million drawn as of September 30th, preserving significant liquidity and financial flexibility.

[Tom Berry, CFO at SiriusXM]

We ended the quarter with a net debt to Adjusted EBITDA ratio of 3.8x, slightly above our long-term target in the low to mid 3s. Our strong and consistent cash generation continues to support our ability to delever and enhance capital returns over time. During the quarter, we reduced total debt by $120 million and returned $111 million to shareholders, including $91 million in dividends and $20 million in share repurchases. As we work towards our leverage target by late next year, we remain committed to prudent investments in maintaining our dividend policy. We expect to have increased flexibility to enhance shareholder returns and pursue strategic opportunities. Finally, we are increasing our guidance on revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow by $25 million to approximately $8.525 billion in total revenue, $2.625 billion in Adjusted EBITDA, and $1.225 billion in free cash flow.

[Tom Berry, CFO at SiriusXM]

This is in addition to the $50 million free cash flow guidance increase we announced in September. These increases reflect the continued strength of our operations and our disciplined execution, and we remain confident in our ability to close this year strong. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator for Q and A.

[Operator]

Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press Star one on your telephone keypad and the confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press Star two to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Stephen Lasek with Goldman Sachs. Please receive your questions.

[Stephen Lasek, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Hey great. Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions first. Jennifer. Subscriber net adds continue to improve here in the third quarter. I know we've had some one-time impacts coming in and out of focus this year. You've had click to cancel, some streaming-only churn. I think Tom called out some factors in the fourth quarter to consider I was curious if you.ust spend some time talking about where we stand on each of these factors, each of these moving parts as we close out the year and as we begin to look into 2026 on the net add front as some of the underlying momentum in the business might start to come through.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

Sure. Thanks, Stephen. As we came into the year, we said that we expected self-pay net adds to be better year-over-year but for a few specific items. Mostly that's because of the streaming reduction as a result of the pullback in the marketing spend there and the performance this year so far. Our expectations for the fourth quarter have been consistent with our thoughts coming into the year. We discussed on our last call that we would expect about a 300,000 net add reduction because of the streaming adjustment. The biggest quarters of impact for that are the first quarter and then the fourth quarter of this year in terms of the year-over-year impacts.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

We still expect our in-car business to be better year-over-year as a result of many of these new acquisition programs that we've been talking about, including the three-year automotive dealer subscription program, better used car data, EV implementations, and we continue to see nice movement there. As we look at next year, of course, we'll provide better indications on the fourth quarter call, but a number of positives that we continue to believe that we'll see contributions from these new acquisition initiatives. We would be through the bulk, obviously, of the streaming net add reduction this year, and we really believe we're going to see continued progress as a result of the expanded pricing and packaging we put in place, better personalized and content-led marketing, leveraging SiriusXM 360L, other third-party data to really get the right content in front of the right customers.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

We talked a little bit about it in our prepared remarks. Continuous service should remove friction with our current subscribers transferring vehicles, and we've got future opportunities in bundles and partnerships. I'd say the one thing we're watching closely for next year is just what happens with auto sales in general, just because of the ever-evolving tariff situation and potential impacts if that were to affect consumer demand. Otherwise, we feel good about the trends.

[Stephen Lasek, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Great, that's helpful. On the ARPU side, was curious if you could talk a little bit more about the receptivity you're seeing across the base to the rate increases earlier this year, and also to the pricing and packaging changes you made on the SiriusXM side earlier in the year as well. I think we've seen ARPU trends improve throughout the year. Just curious how much more opportunity you see for them to continue to improve as you look into 4Q, maybe into 2026, as we think about the balance of rate increases versus maybe some SiriusXM Play ad-supported tier subs coming into the base in a more meaningful way. Over the next couple of quarters. Thank you.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

Yeah, again we're on track on ARPU in terms of better year-over year comparisons, as we said as we go throughout this year. Yes, we talked about introducing lower priced packages like our $9.99 music only and ads on top of that and our low cost with ads or Play ad-supported tier subscription. We think what we're seeing in both of those cases is that there are great headline prices, but that customers are typically taking higher price packages even with those used for promotion. We do feel good about the mix on acquisition and I think we continue to have opportunities to add value to support future rate increases. I would expect, you know, that we have the opportunity to continue to improve ARPU over time. Of course it really is about revenue maximization and balancing rate and volume.

[Stephen Lasek, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Great, thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Cameron Mansson-Perrone with Morgan Stanley. Please receive your questions.

[Cameron Mansson-Perrone, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Thank you. Good morning. First, on a follow up on pricing, I was just wondering if we should still think about you deploying kind of an every other year philosophy, and then relatedly, how might pricing activity from peers influence those decisions around pricing near term?

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

Yes. Thanks, Cameron. I think we're open to looking at rate increases on different frequency perhaps. We had a very strong execution against the rate increase earlier this year. We've developed a good model for how we execute those by delivering more value for our subscribers ahead of those rate increases. We expect to continue to do that along a number of factors, right, with product features, with new content, and with things like service continuity, which just make it easier to transfer vehicles. There's a possibility that we'll do it maybe more frequently or on a slightly, maybe it's not exactly every other year, it's 18 months. Obviously, we're very, very watchful of the market in general. I think as you mentioned, with other services, whether they be audio or video, we're seeing pretty consistent rate increases there.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

I think that signals both an opportunity because we look well priced, but also, you know, we need to be monitoring for potential subscription fatigue. We haven't seen any of that yet. Of course, those factors are sort of the backdrop for how we'll make the decisions going forward.

[Cameron Mansson-Perrone, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

That's helpful, thanks. On advertising, you know, some good sequential improvement in ad trends this quarter. You highlighted the strength of podcasting. Was wondering if you could help provide any help in terms of thinking how podcasting has increased as a share of the overall ad business. As part of that, just helping us frame the opportunity maybe for that outperformance to come through in total ad growth over the next few years.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

Our podcasting performance has been very strong. Again, another quarter where ad revenue in podcasting was up about 50%. We're really pleased with the investments we've made here and the innovations that we've launched, including things like Creator Connect to sell across audio, video, and social. It is representing a larger portion of our overall ad revenue, and we would expect that to continue. We do have opportunities to improve on the streaming side and on the satellite side as we bring things like Tom mentioned in the prepared remarks, being able to sell better across our platforms. We're just launching now a unified buying process for salespeople and marketers so that it's much easier to buy across all three platforms. We'd expect to see some tailwinds there, and also as we launch ad replacement in the car.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

We've been talking about this for quite a while, but we are going to start that evolution early next year, and that will continue to progress to allow us really as the only provider of the ability to execute against addressable inventory in the car. There are opportunities for us to continue to expand across the other aspects of our portfolio, but we're really pleased with where we are in podcasting and expect to see continued tailwinds there.

[Cameron Mansson-Perrone, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Got it. That's all helpful. Thanks.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sebastiano Petti with Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your questions.

[Operator]

Great. Good morning and thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask about Spectrum and see if there's any more you could share on how you're viewing the portfolio and scope for monetization. You know, if you just take a look at recent market transactions, it certainly seems like this could be quite a significant opportunity for the company, even if you take a big haircut to recent comps. Relatedly, it might be premature to ask, but how should we think about how you could look to allocate any potential proceeds, particularly since you're not too far off from your target leverage?

[Wayne Thorsen, EVP and COO at SiriusXM]

Thanks. Thanks, Katka. I'll take that just to level set, our Spectrum holdings total about 35 MHz right now of contiguous spectrum, with 25 MHz being used for our core broadcast operations and 10 MHz of the recently acquired Spectrum that are positioned to either side of the 25 MHz, and those are the WCS licenses. You're right, that does give us a lot of flexibility to create value in multiple ways, whether that's expanding or enhancing our service or building on core strengths. In particular, in the car, it also includes opportunities for new partnerships or services built potentially in conjunction with partners. We are evaluating multiple approaches to creating value right now and we'll share more as our thinking and the opportunities evolve.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

Yeah, just to say on the last part of your question about proceeds. Yeah, obviously it's way too early to be thinking about that, but we have the usual approach in terms of capital returns. We want to make sure that first and foremost we're executing against opportunities. We have to invest in the business organically with high ROI. We've been very disciplined about that. There's, of course, an ongoing evaluation of M&A opportunities. We don't believe there's anything near term that we need for the portfolio, but we continue to be open to that. Clearly, the focus right now is on deleveraging. As we've said, we're consistently measuring against our long-term leverage target of low to middle 3x EBITDA and expect to get there late next year. Beyond that, of course, there's opportunities for other capital returns to shareholders, whether that's dividend or share repurchases.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

Very helpful.Thank you both.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Barton Crockett with Rosenblatt Securities. Please proceed with your questions.

[Barton Crockett, Senior Research Analyst at Rosenblatt Securities]

Okay, thanks for taking the question. I wanted to follow up a little.Bit on the spectrum question and just drill in a little bit. Which is part of the question was referring to the possibility of selling spectrum and the value that could come looking at comparable transactions. I was wondering if you could comment on whether selling spectrum is something that would even be considered, and if so, a little bit of color on how you could think about licensing given that your spectrum is licensed for a specific satellite radio use right now. I think there's a lot of interest in other uses like potentially satellite connectivity to cell phones that's been in the background of some of these other transactions. Whether that specific use case is something that could be applicable to your spectrum and whether there's any licensing steps that could be taken maybe would be best taken in this current FTC environment.

[Barton Crockett, Senior Research Analyst at Rosenblatt Securities]

If you could comment on that.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

Yeah, sure. Thanks, Barton. Wayne mentioned how we're really approaching the process, and I think there's a number of different use cases. I'm not sure that really is going to involve selling spectrum. We do believe the FCC has been more open to different types of uses and transactions. It's like what Wayne said: let's find the best opportunity for our business, given the strengths that we provide, particularly in automotive. Perhaps there's a partnership that would let us better execute there, but that's really the main focus.

[Barton Crockett, Senior Research Analyst at Rosenblatt Securities]

kay, that's helpful. If I could just switch to another topic on auto relationships. There have been some disclosures, I think, from automakers like GM of a desire to move to their own kind of interface versus CarPlay and Android Auto. I was just wondering in this environment, where GM might be doing that and others perhaps over time, if that potentially advantages those who are economic partners of the automakers who will have greater control over the interface if they do this versus those who don't. You guys are an economic partner. You pay them a split. Others, like Spotify, don't. Does that advantage you potentially in the interface?

[Wayne Thorsen, EVP and COO at SiriusXM]

Thanks, Barton. It's Wayne. I'll take that. I think that, as you probably know, over the course of the year, we've enhanced our abilities in CarPlay, which is why we're seeing some of the increased usage. That's where a lot of our users like to consume a service. We want to be wherever our users are. Of course, we do partner deeply with the OEMs, and we want to be as deeply embedded as we can in their IVIs and create the best experience that they want for their consumers. We feel like we're really well positioned in both directions. We've created a lot of deep relationships both for the consumers and with both platforms and with OEMs. We're going to continue to develop in both directions. We like both directions for us and for our consumers.

[Barton Crockett, Senior Research Analyst at Rosenblatt Securities]

Okay, thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Matthew Harrigan, Benchmark Company. Please proceed with your question.

[Matthew Harrigan, Equity Research Analyst at Benchmark Company]

Thank you. I couldn't frame an OEM question more articulately than Barton, so I'll leave that one alone. It's interesting on video, particularly with micro content on YouTube and other forums, it always feels to me like music video content has been under monetized. You have marquee content or podcast content, you know, really embracing the entire political spectrum. How significant an opportunity is that? How does the, and this is probably a little too early, but how does the potential, you know, ad tech on the video side, ad tech stack on the video side compare to what you're doing in audio? Clearly, you're a leader in audio. There's a lot of press on what just about everybody's doing on the video side these days in that regard.

[Matthew Harrigan, Equity Research Analyst at Benchmark Company]

It does feel like you've got a lot of room to roam in terms of monetizing on the video side to complement your audio leadership in the car. Thank you.

[Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer at SiriusXM]

Great. It's Scott. Thank you. A couple of things. As you pointed out, we're the number one podcast network now in terms of reach in audio in the U.S. That lane is vibrant and growing, and we continue to be the leader there in video. Our YouTube partners that we have on there, whether it's Unwell and Alex Cooper or SmartLess or anything else, we're seeing enormous growth there. As many of you read, you saw the Spotify announcement with Netflix and other things. With our lineup of content, there's no shortage of opportunity where we'll go in video. Right now, we like the way we're monetizing. We're flexible. We can have video behind the paywall. We can have video with YouTube or any distribution partner.

[Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer at SiriusXM]

With 11 of the top 25 podcasts, it feels like we're in a good position to see what's out there, field some offers, and decide what's best for the company.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

Yeah, I'd just add on to that. I think we are, most of our engagement, of course, is in the car, right. We believe we still have lots of opportunity with audio in the car. Video is a great complement. To the extent we can work, like Scott said, with other partners, especially where we've seen success with YouTube, it gives us a real opportunity to build complementary engagement outside of the car and even promote back to SiriusXM content in audio in the car.

[Matthew Harrigan, Equity Research Analyst at Benchmark Company]

Great.Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. At this time, our next and final question is from the line of Steve Cahill with Wells Fargo. Please receive your question.

[Operator]

Good morning and thanks for the question. This is Omar on for Steve. One quick one for me. Cost cuts have been a major opportunity for SiriusXM over the last couple years. Recently you talked to an improving outlook for non-satellite CapEx, and obviously you guys have hit your targets for the year. Just curious, what inning are you in for cost reductions and where have you been able to find the most efficiency in the operating model? Thank you.

[Tom Berry, CFO at SiriusXM]

Good morning, Omar, it's Tom. Hey. Just addressing that, you know, when you look at our financials this year, we've had a lot of progress on sales and marketing and optimization, and we've worked our way through cutting back. Obviously, some of the streaming marketing and some of the other direct marketing. We've optimized more of the marketing side this year.

[Tom Berry, CFO at SiriusXM]

We've had impact on product and tech, but we continue to look at all our initiatives and we're continuing to look across the company. We've had success to date. We had also a lot of success on reducing CapEx, which we've talked about, you noted earlier. I think we're looking at across the board, we've hit our target for the year of being in excess of $200 million and we're not stopping there. A lot of these are structural changes, but a lot of them are also ongoing projects that we continue to work through in our overall cost structure.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

Can I just add on, we made great progress on the cost side, but really it's about. We're doing what we set out to do when we focused our strategy last December, and we're really pleased with our progress across the board. We have been enhancing the in car experience, super serving our core audiences. We are driving our ad business, particularly within podcasting, but even more broader, and we're driving profitability. Ultimately, we're focused on increasing free cash flow and driving future value creation for our shareholders. I'm confident we're on the right path.

[Jennifer Witz, CEO at SiriusXM]

Thank you. I appreciate it.

[Hooper Stevens, SVP of Investor Relations and Finance at SiriusXM]

Thank you, everybody, for participating today. We'll look forward to speaking to you offline and next quarter. Thank you.

Participants

Executives

• Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer
• Jennifer Witz, CEO

Analysts

• Barton Crockett, Senior Research Analyst at Rosenblatt Securities
• Analyst at Evercore ISI
• Matthew Harrigan, Equity Research Analyst at Benchmark Company
• Cameron Mansson-Perrone, Analyst at Morgan Stanley
• Tom Berry, CFO at SiriusXM
• Analyst at Wells Fargo
• Wayne Thorsen, EVP and COO at SiriusXM
• Hooper Stevens, SVP of Investor Relations and Finance at SiriusXM
• Stephen Lasek, Analyst at Goldman Sachs