Sirius shoots past 3m users

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., the number two US pay-radio provider, surpassed 3 million subscribers as users signed up for talk-show host Howard Stern's debut with the company Jan. 9.

Stern, who is being paid $500 million over five years, helped Sirius win customers over larger rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. in the northeastern United States, Citigroup Inc. analyst Eileen Furukawa said.

''The 'Stern effect' is real," Furukawa, who is based in New York, wrote to clients yesterday.

Sirius said when it signed Stern in October 2004 that his show needs to generate 1 million customers to pay for his programming costs.

Stern, whose show was top-rated among young men in New York and Los Angeles, ended his 30-year career on free radio Dec. 16.

Helped by Stern, Sirius is growing more quickly than XM. Sirius added 359,294 users to 2.17 million in the third quarter, a 20 percent gain from the second period. Washington-based XM had 5.03 million listeners, up 14 percent from the prior quarter. Still, higher programming costs and spending to add listeners caused Sirius's third-quarter loss to widen to $180.5 million, or 14 cents a share, from $169.4 million, or 14 cents, a year ago. The company has never been profitable.