Sirius Satellite Radio’s hiring of Howard Stern is adding to the company’s $458.5 million quarterly loss.
According to its quarterly report issued Tuesday, New York-based Sirius more than doubled its $193.6 million loss during the same period last year. Of its current loss, about $225 million went to Stern and his agent, the company said.
Altogether, Sirius lost 33 cents a share compared to a year earlier when it lost 15 cents. The company’s bright spot was that sales tripled to $126.7 million during the period, thanks largely to Stern’s January hiring, the company said.
During the three-month period, Sirius attracted 761,200 new subscribers, well ahead of its larger, fellow satellite company, XM Satellite Radio.
Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin said that the company will begin streaming Stern’s show over the Internet in order to attract more subscribers.
Sirius said it plans to end the year with more than 6.2 million subscribers, or slightly up from the 6 million it had forecast earlier this year. It currently has 4.08 million subscribers.
The stock opened Tuesday at $4.89 per share, dropped to $4.75 then closed at $4.88. Its 52-week high is $7.89, reached on Dec. 12, and its 52-week low was $4.36, reached on March 14.
Since 2002, the company has lost $2.7 billion on $322.8 million in revenue.
