Photo Credit: SiriusXM

SiriusXM has revealed a mixed-bag performance for Q2 2026, when its revenue grew modestly but net income spiked and self-pay churn hit a record low.  

The satellite radio giant and Pandora parent revealed its second-quarter financials – and, incidentally, the departure of COO Wayne Thorsen – today. At the top level, SiriusXM pointed to across-the-board revenue of $2.16 billion (up 1% year over year).

Therein, subscriptions contributed $1.64 billion (up about 0.6% YoY), compared to $454 million (up 5.1% YoY) from advertising. And the company identified 22,000 self-pay net additions on the satellite side – plus the aforementioned self-pay monthly churn rate of “approximately 1.4%, the lowest level in SiriusXM history.”

All told, then, the business boasted 32.9 million satellite subs as of June 30th, including an essentially flat self-pay subscriber base of 31.26 million.

“We expect SiriusXM subscriber revenues to remain relatively flat with higher average revenue per user (‘ARPU’) offset by declines in the number of average subscribers,” the company elaborated in an SEC filing.

Shifting to Pandora, which recently reupped with Universal Music, the platform achieved Q2 2026 revenue of $543 million – for a roughly 4% YoY improvement thanks to an advert revenue boost to $413 million.

(Technically, SoundCloud-partnered SiriusXM groups “off-platform” revenue into the same category. This includes podcast advertising, revenue from which is said to have jumped 30% YoY during the second quarter.)

The bumps arrived despite Pandora’s experiencing slips in both self-pay subscribers (5.6 million, down 1.9% YoY) and MAUs (39.8 million, down 6.8% YoY), the financials show.

Additionally, Pandora ad-supported listener hours dipped to 2.35 billion on the quarter – as advert revenue per thousand listener hours nevertheless climbed 2% to $87.67.

Thanks to these figures and reduced operating expenses, net income jumped 17% YoY to $239 million. However, earnings per share fell short of analysts’ $0.78 target, and SiriusXM’s stock price (NASDAQ: SIRI) decreased by 5% today to $30.97.

Regarding other noteworthy takeaways, execs didn’t divulge any groundbreaking information during the corresponding earnings call.

But they did reiterate SiriusXM’s events reach, including, as of this afternoon, an exclusive Two Friends show on September 3rd. During 2026, the company will “produce more than 400 live events, generating over 2,000 hours of original programming and more than three million sweepstakes entries for free access,” CEO Jennifer Witz said.

Additionally, higher-ups stressed their tall expectations for the audio-advertising pact SiriusXM inked with YouTube in April – and acknowledged that results will take some time to materialize.

“I think it’s important, though, to note while we don’t expect meaningful financial contribution [from the YouTube deal] for the rest of 2026 or the first half of 2027, we do believe this becomes much more significant in revenue and earnings opportunity in the second half of 2027 as advertiser adoption scales,” CFO Zac Coughlin said.