• March 11, 2003

Although the company won’t release any count of subscribers until next month, Sirius president/CEO Joseph Clayton says he is “comfortable” with the company’s estimates that the fledging satellite radio service will have 300,000 subscribers by the end of the year. Clayton says that growth will be helped along by the release of a several new portable receiver models, to be released later this year. “Soon we will close the hardware gap that we have had with our competitor [XM Radio],” he said on a company conference call Tuesday. Sirius has launched a multi-million dollar TV and print advertising campaign, which EVP/marketing Mary Pat Ryan says is already having an impact. “Sirius has seen significant share increases due to our stepped up promotional activity at the retailer level.” On the programming front, Sirius recently launched live coverage of the NBA, and the debut of an all-gay and lesbian themed channel is expected next month. The company has also just completed a $1.2 billion re-capitalization that will give it enough money to operate until mid-2004.