• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, July 9, 2013

Satellite radio broadcaster Sirius XM continued to grow at a healthy pace in the second quarter, adding a total of 715,000 new subscribers and boosting its subscriber base to over 25 million, the company announced Tuesday. That’s a 15% increase over the number of new net subscriber additions in the second quarter of 2012, when roughly 620,000 new subscribers were added.

The latest figure is a record number of quarterly additions for the satcaster since Sirius and XM merged.
 
Sirius XM also said it is raising its projections for net subscriber additions for the full year 2013 to 1.5 million, up from a previous forecast of 1.4 million. That follows 2 million net new subscribers added in 2012, 1.7 million in 2011 and 1.4 million in 2010.  
 
CEO Jim Meyer credited strong automotive sales as a key factor driving growth in new subscriptions; in recent years, most of Sirius XM’s new subscriptions have come from car buyers who elect to continue the satellite radio service after a free introductory period.
 
Meyer, previously the satcaster’s president of sales and operations, was named to the position of interim CEO in December of last year, replacing longtime CEO Mel Karmazin, who was forced out after Liberty Media acquired the company. 

Karmazin’s departure followed several years of public sparring with Liberty Media boss John Malone over the fate of the satcaster. Liberty’s takeover of Sirius XM was approved by the FCC in January of this year .