• Ad Age, Wednesday, August 2, 2006 12:45 PM

Losses at satellite radio companies XM and Sirius widened during the second quarter, reports Ad Age--although the latter posted an increase in ad revenue. Sirius, under former Viacom chief Mel Karmazin, lost $237.8 million on the period, compared with a loss of $177.6 million during second quarter of 2005. XM's losses came in at $231.7 million--up from $148.8 million. However, there is growth in the overall market, and Sirius' net subscriber additions outpaced XM's during the quarter, 600,460 to 398,012. One big factor keeping the companies in the red is subscriber acquisition costs: Sirius' acquisition costs dropped to $131 in second quarter from $160 in the year-ago period, while XM's rose to $64 from $50 in the same period. But Karmazin is bullish on advertising as an additional source of revenue: "We have approximately $22 million on the books," he says. "That compares to finishing all of last year at slightly over $6 million."

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