Sirius XM's 2Q Subscriber Base at Record High

Sirius is showing signs of recovery. As car sales grow, so too do Sirius customers. They had one of their best quarters in a long while. "The satellite radio company ended the second quarter with a record 19,527,448 subscribers, marking an increase of more than 1.1 million subscribers since June 30, 2009." That is more than a half a million customer adds in the last quarter. Sirius is revising third quarter growth estimates higher as a result.

While I am not a Sirius customer, I am a Sirius stockholder. I remain cautious given the growth in wireless and the ease of bringing mobile devices like blackberries, ipods, ipads, and others into the car. Since these devices receive internet radio, why buy a Sirius subscription. As sports, music, and news are just as easily received through these devices, will the customer prefer to buy content for a mobile device that can go into the car. That remains the bigger challenge for Sirius to overcome.

Tivo Adds Another Cable Partnership

While Tivo patiently waits for Comcast and Cox to make Tivo its primary DVR partner, it has found another friend with Suddenlink. "Suddenlink, the eighth-largest MSO in the U.S. with 1.2 million basic video subs, will offer TiVo Premiere DVRs as well as non-DVR set-tops from TiVo." Great news for Suddenlink customers to get more functionality and easier controls from their settop box and for Tivo to get further into the cable model. Add Suddenlink to the DVR list that includes Direct TV, RCN, as well as other international operators.

At the same time, Tivo continues to fight the patent issues with Dish along with recent suits against Verizon and AT&T. I'm excited to see Tivo grow and only wish that my own cable provider would bring the Tivo technology into their settop box.