EDGAR 10-K Filing

Company CIK: 908937
Filing Year: 2024
Filename: 908937_10-K_2024_0000908937-24-000008.json

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ITEM 1. BUSINESS
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K presents information for Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (“Holdings”), a Delaware corporation. The terms “Holdings,” “we,” “us,” “our,” and “our company” as used herein and unless otherwise stated or indicated by context, refer to Sirius XM Holdings Inc. and its subsidiaries. “Sirius XM” refers to our wholly owned subsidiary Sirius XM Radio Inc. and its subsidiaries other than Pandora. “Pandora” refers to Sirius XM’s wholly owned subsidiary Pandora Media, LLC and its subsidiaries.
Sirius XM Holdings Inc.
Holdings was incorporated in the State of Delaware on May 21, 2013. Holdings has no operations independent of its wholly owned subsidiaries, Sirius XM and Pandora.
Relationship with Liberty Media
As of December 31, 2023, Liberty Media Corporation (“Liberty Media”) beneficially owned, directly and indirectly, 83.4% of the outstanding shares of Holdings’ common stock. Liberty Media owns interests in a range of media, communications and entertainment businesses.
Liberty Media Split-Off Transaction
On December 11, 2023, Holdings entered into definitive agreements whereby, subject to the terms thereof, Liberty Sirius XM Holdings Inc., a Delaware corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Media (“New Sirius”), would split-off from Liberty Media. The transactions would be effectuated by means of a redemptive split-off of New Sirius (the “Split-Off”), which will own all of the assets and liabilities attributed to Liberty Media’s Series A Liberty SiriusXM common stock (“LSXMA”), Series B Liberty SiriusXM common stock (“LSXMB”) and Series C Liberty SiriusXM common stock (“LSXMK”, together with the LSXMB and LSXMA stock, the “Liberty SiriusXM Group”). Following the Split-Off, New Sirius will combine with Holdings through the merger of Radio Merger Sub, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and a wholly owned subsidiary of New Sirius (“Merger Sub”), with Holdings, with Holdings becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of New Sirius (the “Merger” and, together with the Split-Off, the “Transactions”). As part of the Merger, New Sirius will be renamed “Sirius XM Holdings Inc.”
To effect the Transactions, on December 11, 2023, Liberty Media entered into (i) a Reorganization Agreement (the “Reorganization Agreement”) with Holdings and New Sirius, and (ii) an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) with New Sirius, Holdings and Merger Sub.
In connection with the Merger Agreement and the Reorganization Agreement, on December 11, 2023, certain trusts related to Dr. John C. Malone (collectively, the “Malone Stockholders”) entered into a voting agreement (the “Voting Agreement”) with Liberty Media, Holdings and New Sirius, pursuant to which, among other things, the Malone Stockholders agreed, subject to the terms of the Voting Agreement, to vote their respective shares of Liberty Media’s LSXMA and LSXMB in favor of the Split-Off.
The Transactions have been unanimously approved by Liberty Media’s Board of Directors and a Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Holdings and by Holdings’ Board of Directors. The Transactions are expected to be completed early in the third quarter of 2024, subject to approval by a majority of the aggregate voting power of the shares of Liberty SiriusXM common stock present, whether in-person or by proxy, at a stockholder meeting, the receipt by Liberty Media and New Sirius of tax opinions from their respective tax counsel, as well as the receipt of required regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. A subsidiary of Liberty Media owning a majority of the outstanding shares of Holdings has delivered a written consent approving the Transactions on behalf of a majority of Holdings’ stockholders. Following the Transactions, Liberty Media and New Sirius will operate independently, and neither is expected to have any ownership interest in the other. All of the executive officers of Holdings immediately prior to consummation of the Transactions will be the initial executive officers of New Sirius, and New Sirius will continue to operate under the SiriusXM name and brand.
The Reorganization Agreement, the Merger Agreement and the Voting Agreement are filed as exhibits to this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Our Businesses
We operate two complementary audio entertainment businesses - our Sirius XM business and our Pandora and Off-platform business. We are the leading audio entertainment company in North America with a portfolio of audio businesses including our flagship subscription entertainment service, Sirius XM; the ad-supported and premium music streaming services of Pandora; a podcast network; an advertising sales group, SiriusXM Media; and a suite of advertising technology solutions. We believe we reach a combined monthly audience of approximately 150 million listeners.
Our vision is to shape the future of audio where everyone is effortlessly connected to the voices, stories and music they love. We continue to expand the range of choices for our listeners - both in terms of compelling content and the array of ways in which it can be consumed. There are approximately 160 million vehicles in operation with Sirius XM radios, and the proliferation of smart speakers and other connected devices, including our webplayer and the SiriusXM App, has increased the range of options consumers have for engaging with and consuming our content.
In 2023, we began an extensive project to update our digital infrastructure. That project involves the implementation of new systems and products that extend from our consumer-facing SiriusXM App to the systems underlying our billing, identity, commerce and customer management functions. We expect that these new systems, when fully implemented, will create a variety of opportunities to more efficiently use and better understand data regarding our customers, potential customers, and the manner in which individuals use and interact with our audio entertainment services. We also believe that our investments in this digital infrastructure will create efficiencies in our operations, help us serve our customers better, improve our consumer marketing efforts and allow consumers to discover more of our content and customize their listening experiences. This new digital infrastructure includes systems developed internally as well as platforms licensed from leading third party technology providers.
Our new SiriusXM App became available to consumers beginning on December 14, 2023. The new SiriusXM App includes a sleek new design that is easy to use and includes modernized client applications. The new SiriusXM App contains, among other things, improvements to our search and discovery functions, and improves the talk and sports programming and podcast experience for listeners. In addition, the SiriusXM App is built on our new digital infrastructure, including our new commerce platform, identity system, billing engine and improvements to our marketing technology capabilities.
Sirius XM
Our Sirius XM business features music, sports, entertainment, comedy, talk, news, traffic and weather channels and other content, as well as podcasts and infotainment services, in the United States on a subscription fee basis. Sirius XM’s premier content bundles include live, curated and certain exclusive and on demand programming. The Sirius XM service is distributed through our two proprietary satellite radio systems and streamed via applications for mobile devices, home devices and other consumer electronic equipment. Radios are primarily distributed through automakers, retailers and our website. Our Sirius XM service is also available through our user interface, which we call “360L,” that combines our satellite and streaming services into a single, cohesive in-vehicle entertainment experience.
The primary source of revenue from our Sirius XM business is subscription fees, with most of our customers subscribing to monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual plans. We also derive revenue from advertising on select non-music channels, direct sales of our radios and accessories, and other ancillary services. As of December 31, 2023, our Sirius XM business had approximately 33.9 million subscribers.
In addition to our audio entertainment businesses, we provide connected vehicle services to several automakers. These services are designed to enhance the safety, security and driving experience of consumers. We also offer a suite of data services that includes graphical weather, fuel prices, sports schedules and scores and movie listings, a traffic information service that includes information as to road closings, traffic flow and incident data to consumers with compatible in-vehicle navigation systems, and real-time weather services in vehicles, boats and planes.
Sirius XM also holds a 70% equity interest and 33% voting interest in Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. (“Sirius XM Canada”).
Pandora and Off-platform
Our Pandora service operates a music, comedy and podcast streaming platform, offering a personalized experience for each listener wherever and whenever they want to listen, whether through mobile devices, car speakers or connected devices. Pandora enables listeners to create personalized stations and playlists, discover new content, hear artist- and expert-curated playlists and podcasts as well as search and play songs and albums on-demand. Pandora is available as (1) an ad-supported
radio service, (2) a radio subscription service (Pandora Plus) and (3) an on-demand subscription service (Pandora Premium). As of December 31, 2023, Pandora had approximately 6.0 million subscribers.
The majority of revenue from our Pandora service is generated from advertising on our Pandora ad-supported radio service. We also derive subscription revenue from our Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium subscribers.
Our Pandora and Off-platform business also sells advertising on other audio platforms and in widely distributed podcasts, which we consider to be off-platform services.
Podcasting
In 2023, an estimated 120 million Americans listened to a podcast at least monthly. In 2020, Sirius XM acquired Stitcher, a leader in the distribution of podcasts. We have agreements to serve as the ad sales representative for many podcasts, including the leading podcast networks such as Audiochuck, Crooked Media and NBC News.
Sirius XM subscribers can also listen to their favorite podcasts with streaming access via the SiriusXM App and online. Covering topics such as true crime, news, politics, music, comedy, sports and entertainment, Sirius XM's curated selection of podcasts comes from SiriusXM content edited into podcast format as well as from third parties.
We also offer a portal, “Simplecast Creator Connect,” for podcasters to share their podcasts with new audiences and gather data about their shows. Podcasts submitted through this portal are offered to subscribers of Pandora’s ad-supported service as an additional benefit.
Through our Simplecast business, we also offer a podcast management and analytics platform, allowing us to offer podcasters a solution for management, hosting, analytics and advertising sales.
SiriusXM Media
SiriusXM Media is an advertising sales group spanning our SiriusXM and Pandora audio entertainment services. SiriusXM Media also sells advertising on audio platforms and in podcasts unaffiliated with us and serves as the exclusive advertising representative for other third party platforms and podcasters, including such major entities as SoundCloud and NBCUniversal. SiriusXM Media has a reach of more than 150 million monthly listeners, and gives brands, creators, and publishers access to the largest digital audio advertising platform in North America.
SiriusXM Media offers advertisers the ability to execute campaigns in the United States across various platforms, including Pandora and SoundCloud. In addition, through AdsWizz Inc., we provide a comprehensive digital audio and programmatic advertising technology platform, which connects audio publishers and advertisers with a variety of ad insertion, campaign trafficking, yield optimization, programmatic buying, marketplace and monetization solutions.
Our Sirius XM Business
Programming
We offer a dynamic programming lineup of commercial-free music plus sports, entertainment, comedy, talk, and news, including:
•an extensive selection of music genres, ranging from rock, pop and hip-hop to country, dance, jazz, Latin and classical;
•live play-by-play sports from major leagues and colleges;
•a multitude of talk, entertainment and comedy channels for a variety of audiences;
•a wide range of national, international and financial news; and
•exclusive limited run channels.
We believe that our broad and diverse programming, including our lineup of exclusive content, is a significant differentiator from terrestrial radio and other audio entertainment providers. We make changes to our programming lineup from time to time as we strive to attract new subscribers and offer content which appeals to a broad range of audiences and to our existing subscribers. The channel lineups for our services are available at siriusxm.com.
Our Sirius XM business aims to be a platform for diverse perspectives and to facilitate dialogue on a broad set of issues. This is reflected across the content provided to listeners, which includes channels dedicated to diverse and historically underrepresented groups, as well as broader programming celebrating such events as Black History Month, Latinx and Hispanic
Heritage Month, LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, and Women’s History Month. We continue to expand our offerings, including through programming that represents diverse viewpoints, historically underserved audiences and original content of a type not typically available to consumers.
Sirius XM Streaming Service
Our streaming service includes a variety of music and non-music channels, including channels and content that are not available on our satellite radio service, and podcasts. Consumers can access our streaming service on iOS and Android mobile devices, web browsers, and other internet connected devices.
Our streaming service currently features: the broad range of music, sports, talk, news and entertainment channels available on satellite radio; access to over 200 additional music channels; on-demand new and archive episodes of SiriusXM shows and specials, and video content, including video from The Howard Stern Show, encompassing in-studio performances, interviews and behind-the-scenes moments with artists, personalities and newsmakers.
Our Sirius XM service also includes a library of podcasts, some of which are exclusive to our service, and other on demand content.
Our streaming service is included as part of the vast majority of our satellite radio subscription plans, including the Music Showcase, Music and Entertainment, and Platinum plans. We also offer our streaming service in several standalone packages, which do not include a satellite radio subscription. These packages, which include the Streaming Music Showcase, Streaming Music and Entertainment, Streaming Platinum, and All Access (App only) plans are available to consumers at various prices and include a variety of content. Our Artist Stations feature, which allows subscribers to create their own customized ad-free music stations within the SiriusXM App and on capable 360L in-vehicle radios, is offered to consumers as part of our All Music Plan, All Access (App only), Streaming Platinum and Platinum plans.
We have agreements with makers of electric vehicles, such as Lucid and Rivian, to include the SiriusXM experience as part of their vehicles. We also have entered into agreements with third parties designed to increase the distribution and ease of use of our streaming service, including through connected devices. In addition, we have arrangements with various services and consumer electronics manufacturers to include the Sirius XM streaming functionality with their service and devices.
360L
Our advanced automotive platform, which we call “360L,” combines our satellite and streaming services into a single, cohesive in-vehicle entertainment experience. We have agreements with many automakers to deploy our 360L interface in a variety of vehicles. In 2023, our 360L platform was included in approximately 129 vehicle models manufactured for sale in the United States. We expect that 360L will be included in a majority of vehicles that include Sirius XM functionality in the future.
360L allows us to take advantage of advanced in-dash infotainment systems. 360L is intended to leverage the ubiquitous signal coverage and low delivery costs of our satellite infrastructure with the two-way communication capability of a wireless streaming service to provide consumers seamless access to our content, including our live channels, on demand service, podcasts and personalized music services. The wireless streaming connection included in 360L enables enhanced search and recommendations functions, making discovery of our content in the vehicle easier. 360L also provides us data on how our subscribers use our service.
Distribution of Radios
New Vehicles
We distribute satellite radios through the sale and lease of new vehicles. We have agreements with major automakers to offer satellite radios in their vehicles. Satellite radios are available as a factory-installed feature in substantially all vehicle makes sold in the United States.
Most automakers include a trial subscription to our service in the sale or lease of their new vehicles. In certain cases, we receive subscription payments from automakers in advance of the activation of our service. We share with certain automakers a portion of the revenues we derive from subscribers using vehicles equipped to receive our service. We also reimburse various automakers for certain costs associated with the satellite radios installed in new vehicles, including in certain cases hardware costs, engineering expenses and promotional and advertising expenses.
Previously Owned Vehicles
We acquire subscribers through the sale and lease of previously owned vehicles with factory-installed satellite radios. We have entered into agreements with many automakers to include a subscription to our service in the sale or lease of vehicles which include satellite radios sold through their certified pre-owned programs. We also work directly with franchise and independent dealers on programs for non-certified used vehicles.
We have developed systems and methods to identify purchasers and lessees of previously owned vehicles which include satellite radios and have established marketing plans to promote our services to these potential subscribers.
Retail
We sell satellite radios directly to consumers through our website. Satellite radios are also marketed and distributed through national, regional and online retailers, such as Amazon.com.
Our Satellite Radio Systems
Our satellite radio systems are designed to provide clear reception in most areas of the continental United States despite variations in terrain, buildings and other obstructions. We continually monitor our infrastructure and regularly evaluate improvements in technology.
Our satellite radio systems have three principal components:
•satellites, terrestrial repeaters and other satellite facilities;
•studios; and
•radios.
Satellites, Terrestrial Repeaters and Other Satellite Facilities
Satellites. We provide our service through a fleet of orbiting geostationary satellites. Two of these satellites, FM-5 and FM-6, transmit our service on frequencies originally licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (the “FCC”) to Sirius, and two of these satellites, XM-5 and SXM-8, transmit our service on frequencies originally licensed by the FCC to XM. Our XM-3 satellite serves as a spare for the XM system.
On December 13, 2020, our SXM-7 satellite was successfully launched and in-orbit testing of SXM-7 began on January 4, 2021. During in-orbit testing of SXM-7, events occurred which caused failures of certain SXM-7 payload units. The evaluation of SXM-7 concluded that the satellite would not function as intended. SXM-7 remains in-orbit at its assigned orbital location, but is not being used to provide satellite radio service.
We have entered into agreements for the design, construction and launch of four additional satellites, SXM-9, SXM-10, SXM-11 and SXM-12. Construction of these satellites is underway, and those satellites are expected to be launched into geostationary orbits in 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027, respectively.
Satellite Insurance. We have procured insurance for SXM-9, SXM-10, SXM-11 and SXM-12 to cover the risks associated with each satellite's launch and first year of in-orbit operation. We do not have insurance policies covering our other in-orbit satellites as we consider the premium costs to be uneconomical relative to the risk of satellite failure.
Terrestrial Repeaters. In some areas with high concentrations of tall buildings, such as urban centers, signals from our satellites may be blocked and reception of satellite signals can be adversely affected. In other areas with a high density of next generation wireless systems our service may experience interference. In many of these areas, we have deployed terrestrial repeaters to supplement and enhance our signal coverage and, in other areas, we may deploy additional repeaters to mitigate interference. We operate over 1,000 terrestrial repeaters across the United States as part of our systems.
Other Satellite Facilities. We control and communicate with our satellites from facilities in North America. Our satellites are monitored, tracked and controlled by a third party satellite operator.
Studios
Our programming originates from studios in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville and Washington D.C. and, to a lesser extent, from smaller studios in a variety of venues across the country. Our corporate headquarters is in New York City. We provide equipment to artists and hosts to enable remote creation and transmission of programming.
Radios
We do not manufacture radios. We have authorized manufacturers and distributors to produce and distribute radios, and have licensed our technology to various electronics manufacturers to develop, manufacture and distribute radios under certain brands. We do manage various aspects of the production of satellite radios. To facilitate the sale of radios, we may subsidize a portion of the radio manufacturing costs to reduce the hardware price to consumers.
Connected Vehicle Services
We provide connected vehicle services to several automakers. Our connected vehicle services are designed to enhance the safety, security and driving experience for vehicle operators while providing marketing and operational benefits to automakers and their dealers. We offer a portfolio of location-based services through two-way wireless connectivity, including safety, security, convenience, maintenance and data services, remote vehicle diagnostics, and stolen or parked vehicle locator services. Subscribers to our connected vehicle services are not included in our subscriber count or subscriber-based operating metrics.
Other Services
Commercial Accounts. Our programming is available for commercial establishments. Our wholly owned subsidiary, Cloud Cover Media, Inc. (“Cloud Cover”), offers a music programming service for commercial establishments. Commercial subscription accounts are also available through Pandora for Business and SiriusXM for Business, each of which offers a licensed, commercial-free music service for offices, restaurants and other business establishments.
Satellite Television Service. Certain of our music channels are offered as part of select programming packages on the DISH Network satellite television service.
Travel Link. We offer Travel Link, a suite of data services that includes graphical weather, fuel prices, sports schedules and scores and movie listings.
Real-Time Traffic Services. We offer services that provide graphic information as to road closings, traffic flow and incident data to consumers with compatible in-vehicle navigation systems.
Real-Time Weather Services. We offer real-time weather services in vehicles, boats and planes.
Commercial subscribers to the Sirius XM and Pandora programming services are included in our subscriber counts, respectively. Commercial subscribers to the Cloud Cover music programming service are not included in our subscriber counts. Subscribers to the DISH Network satellite television service are not included in our subscriber counts and subscribers to our Travel Link, real-time traffic services and real-time weather services are not included in our subscriber counts, unless the applicable service is purchased by the subscriber separately and not as part of a radio subscription to our service.
Sirius XM Canada
Sirius XM holds a 70% equity interest and 33% voting interest in Sirius XM Canada, with the remainder of Sirius XM Canada's voting and equity interests held by two shareholders.
Sirius XM and Sirius XM Canada have entered into a services and distribution agreement pursuant to which Sirius XM Canada pays Sirius XM a variable fee evaluated annually based on comparable companies. In accordance with this services and distribution agreement, the fee is payable on a monthly basis. Sirius XM has also extended a loan to Sirius XM Canada. As of December 31, 2023, the principal amount outstanding on that loan was $8 million.
As of December 31, 2023, Sirius XM Canada had approximately 2.6 million subscribers. Sirius XM Canada’s subscribers are not included in our subscriber count or subscriber-based operating metrics.
Our Pandora and Off-platform Business
Pandora Media, LLC, which owns and operates our Pandora and Off-Platform business, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sirius XM.
Streaming Radio and On-Demand Music Services
Pandora offers a personalized audio entertainment platform for each listener. Users are able to create personalized stations and playlists and search and play songs and albums on-demand. The Pandora service utilizes content programming algorithms, data collected from listeners, and attributes of the music to predict user music preferences, play content suited to the tastes of each listener, and introduce each listener to music consistent with the consumer's preferences.
The Pandora service is available on iOS and Android mobile devices, web browsers, and other internet connected devices. The Pandora application is free to download and use. Our Pandora service is also available in vehicles in the United States with smartphone connectivity. Certain automakers now provide embedded streaming connectivity that supports and makes available the Pandora service in vehicles without the need for smartphone connectivity. In addition, our Pandora service is integrated into consumer electronic, voice-based devices and smart speakers.
The Pandora service is available as (1) an ad-supported radio service, (2) a radio subscription service (Pandora Plus) and (3) an on-demand subscription service (Pandora Premium). Local and national advertisers deliver targeted messages to our Pandora listeners on the ad-supported service.
Ad-Supported Radio Service
Pandora offers an ad-supported radio service which allows listeners to access our catalog of music, comedy, live streams and podcasts through personalized stations. This service is free across all platforms and generates stations specific to each listener. Each listener can personalize their experience by adding selected artists and songs to their stations.
Listeners of the ad-supported service are provided with the option to temporarily access on-demand listening, including certain features of the Pandora Premium service. We refer to this temporary access as “Premium Access”.
Subscription Radio Service (Pandora Plus)
Pandora offers Pandora Plus - an ad-free, subscription version of the radio service that includes options for replaying songs, skipping songs, offline listening, and higher quality audio on supported devices. Content provided to each listener of Pandora Plus is more tailored when the listener interacts with the platform. Premium Access is also available to Pandora Plus listeners.
On-Demand Subscription Service (Pandora Premium)
Pandora offers Pandora Premium - an on-demand subscription service that combines the radio features of Pandora Plus with an on-demand experience. The on-demand experience provides listeners with the ability to search, play and collect songs and albums, download content for offline listening, build playlists, listen to curated playlists and share playlists on social networks. Listeners can also create partial playlists that Pandora can complete based on the listener’s activity. Listeners through mobile devices have access to customized profiles which identify information specific to each listener such as recent favorites, playlists and thumbs.
Pandora Premium incorporates social networking features including a centralized stream where listeners can view the music that their social connections are experiencing and provide and receive recommendations for songs, albums and playlists. Pandora Premium also includes a “share” feature where consumers can share their stations, songs, albums, podcasts or playlists through social media, messaging applications and email.
SiriusXM Media
SiriusXM Media is an advertising sales group spanning our Sirius XM and Pandora audio entertainment services. SiriusXM Media also serves as the exclusive advertising representative for other third party platforms and podcasters, including such major entities as SoundCloud and NBCUniversal. SiriusXM Media has a reach of more than 150 million listeners, and gives brands, creators, and publishers access to the largest digital audio advertising platform in North America.
SiriusXM Media is the exclusive advertising sales representative for our Sirius XM and Pandora platforms. In addition to subscription fees, Sirius XM derives revenues from advertising on select non-music channels. Pandora’s primary source of revenue is the sale of audio, display and video advertising for connected device platforms, including computers and mobile devices. Our Pandora and Off-platform business maintains a portfolio of proprietary advertising technologies which include order management, advertising serving and timing, native advertising formats, targeting and reporting. Pandora provides advertisers with the ability to target and connect with listeners based on various criteria including age, gender, geographic location and content preferences.
SiriusXM Podcast Network
We license original podcasts from their creators, and we also provide podcast advertising services that generate revenue from over 450 shows. We create and distribute original podcasts licensed from third parties through platforms such as the iPhone podcast App. We earn revenue by distributing advertising on certain owned and operated podcasts as well as those created by third parties, including placement based on an advertiser’s desired target audience and from the sale of advertising on licensed podcasts.
AdsWizz
Through its AdsWizz subsidiary, our Pandora and Off-platform business is a leader in digital audio advertising technology. AdsWizz operates a digital audio advertising market with an end-to-end technology platform, including a digital audio software suite of solutions that connect audio publishers to the advertising community. AdsWizz offers a range of products - from dynamic ad insertion to advanced programmatic platforms to innovative new audio formats. AdsWizz’s advertising technology also includes ad campaign monitoring tools and other audio advertising products, such as audio formats that enable consumers to trigger an action while listening to an ad as well as other personalization-based technology.
AdsWizz’s technology is employed by Pandora and our Off-platform business in its ad-supported business as well as by third party customers. AdsWizz’s third party customers include well-known music platforms, podcasts and broadcasting groups worldwide.
Simplecast
Pandora, through its Simplecast business, also offers a podcast management and analytics platform. Simplecast complements AdsWizz’s advertising technology platform, allowing the company to offer podcasters a solution for management, hosting, analytics and advertising sales.
We also offer a portal, “Simplecast Creator Connect,” for podcasters to share their podcasts with new audiences and gather data about their shows. Podcasts submitted through this portal are offered to subscribers of Pandora’s ad-supported service as an additional benefit.
Artificial Intelligence
We have begun to employ a number of artificial intelligence algorithms and technology that are designed to improve aspects of our operations, including a customer’s experience, and permit us to better understand and use our operating and financial data. We are aware of the potential risks associated with the use of AI technology, including the risks relating to data security and the laws, rules and regulations governing privacy. We believe that we have implemented systems to monitor for and prevent data access, including security incidents that result from the use of AI. However, AI technology is evolving and, due to its inherent complexity, we may be exposed to operational and legal risks associated with the use of AI technologies. See also Item 1A - Risk Factors - “We may use artificial intelligence in our business, and challenges with properly managing its use could result in reputational harm, competitive harm, and legal liability, and adversely affect our results of operations.”
Competition
We face significant competition for listeners and advertisers in our Sirius XM business and our Pandora and Off-platform business, including from providers of radio and other audio services.
Competition for Subscribers and Listeners
Traditional AM/FM Radio
Our Sirius XM services and Pandora services compete with traditional AM/FM radio. Traditional AM/FM radio has a well-established demand for its services and offers free broadcasts paid for by commercial advertising rather than by subscription fees. Many radio stations offer information programming of a local nature, such as local news and sports. The availability of traditional free AM/FM radio may reduce the likelihood that customers would be willing to pay for our subscription services. Several traditional radio companies own large numbers of radio stations and other media properties, such as podcast networks.
Streaming and On-Demand Competitors
Streaming and on-demand services, including Amazon Prime, Apple Music, Spotify, TikTok and YouTube, compete with our Sirius XM and Pandora services. Major online providers make high fidelity digital streams available at no cost or, in some cases, for less than the cost of a satellite radio subscription. Certain of these services include advanced functionality, such as personalization and customization and allow the user to access large libraries of content. These services, in some instances, are also offered through devices sold by the service providers including Apple, Google and Amazon. These services compete with our services, at home, in vehicles, and wherever audio entertainment is consumed.
Advanced In-Dash Infotainment Systems
Nearly all automakers have deployed integrated multimedia systems in dashboards, including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. These systems combine control of audio entertainment from a variety of sources, including AM/FM/HD radio broadcasts, satellite radio, streaming radio, smartphone applications and stored audio, with other advanced applications. Streaming radio and other data are typically connected to the system through an Internet-enabled smartphone or wireless modem installed in the vehicle, and the entire system may be controlled by touchscreen or voice recognition. These systems enhance the attractiveness of internet based competitors by making such applications more prominent, easier to access, and safer to use in vehicles.
Direct Broadcast Satellite and Cable Audio
A number of providers offer specialized audio services through either direct broadcast satellite or cable audio systems. These services are targeted to fixed locations, mostly in-home, but also include mobile entertainment. The radio service offered by direct broadcast satellite and cable audio is often included as part of a package of digital services with video service, and video customers generally do not pay an additional monthly charge for the audio service. In addition, other services offered by these providers, such as cable television, on-demand video streaming, and interactive video games compete with our services to the extent they utilize existing or potential users' and listeners' time that could otherwise be allocated to the use of our Sirius XM or Pandora services.
Other Digital Media Services
The audio entertainment marketplace continues to evolve rapidly, with a steady emergence of new media platforms that compete with both our Sirius XM and Pandora services now or that could compete with those services in the future.
Traffic Services
For our Sirius XM business, a number of providers compete with our traffic services, particularly smartphones offering GPS mapping with sophisticated data-based turn navigation.
Connected Vehicle Services
Our Sirius XM connected vehicle services business operates in a highly competitive environment and competes with several providers as well as with products being developed for vehicles by automakers and other third parties. OnStar, a division of General Motors, also offers connected vehicle services in GM vehicles. Wireless devices, such as mobile phones, are also competitors. We compete against other connected vehicle service providers for automaker arrangements on the basis of innovation, service quality and reliability, marketing and other customer relationship management services, technical capabilities and system customization, scope of service, industry experience, past performance and price.
Competition for Advertisers
Our competition for advertisers includes large scale online advertising platforms such as Amazon, Facebook and Google; traditional media companies such as television broadcasters and national print outlets; broadcast radio providers; podcast distributors and networks; and companies in the broadcast radio market. We compete against these providers for advertisers on the basis of several factors, including advertisers’ overall budgets, perceived return on investment, effectiveness and relevance of our advertising platforms, the amount and scope of our data on listeners, price, delivery of large volumes or precise types of advertisements to targeted demographics, transactional capabilities and reporting capabilities.
The online advertising marketplace continues to evolve rapidly, particularly with the introduction of new digital advertising technologies and expanding capabilities of larger internet companies.
Government Regulation
General
We are subject to a number of foreign and domestic laws and regulations relating to consumer protection, information security and data protection. There are several States that require specific information security controls to protect certain types of information and specific notifications to consumers in the event of a security breach that compromises certain categories of personal information. Certain of our services are also subject to laws in the United States and abroad pertaining to privacy of user data and other information, including the California Consumer Privacy Act and the European General Data Protection Regulation. Our Privacy Policies and customer agreements describe our practices.
We believe we comply with all of our obligations under all applicable laws and regulations.
Our Sirius XM Business
As operators of a privately-owned satellite system, we are regulated by the FCC under the Communications Act of 1934, principally with respect to:
•the licensing of our satellite systems;
•preventing interference with or to other users of radio frequencies; and
•compliance with FCC rules established specifically for U.S. satellites and satellite radio services.
Any assignment or transfer of control of our FCC licenses must be approved by the FCC. The transaction described above under the heading “Liberty Media Split-Off Transaction” involves a transfer of our FCC licenses and must be approved by the FCC. On December 29, 2023 and January 2, 2024, Liberty Media and New Sirius filed applications with the FCC for those approvals. On January 26, 2024, the FCC began the process of releasing the applications for public comment.
The FCC's order approving our merger with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. in July 2008 requires us to comply with certain voluntary commitments we made as part of the FCC merger proceeding. We believe we comply with those commitments.
In 1997, we were the winning bidders for FCC licenses to operate a satellite digital audio radio service and provide other ancillary services. Our FCC licenses for our FM-5 satellite expires in 2025, our FM-6 satellite license expires in 2030, our XM-3 satellite license expires in 2026, our XM-5 satellite license expires in 2026, and our SXM-8 satellite license expires in 2029. We anticipate that, absent significant misconduct on our part, the FCC will renew our licenses to permit operation of our satellites for their useful lives, and grant licenses for any replacement satellites.
In some areas, we have installed terrestrial repeaters to supplement our satellite signal coverage. The FCC has established rules governing terrestrial repeaters and has granted us a license through 2027 to operate our repeater network.
In certain cases, we obtain FCC certifications for satellite radios, including satellite radios that include FM modulators. We believe our radios that are in production comply with all applicable FCC rules.
We are required to obtain export licenses or other approvals from the United States government to export certain equipment, services and technical data related to our satellites and their operations. The transfer of such equipment, services and technical data outside the United States or to foreign persons is subject to strict export control and prior approval
requirements from the United States government (including prohibitions on the sharing of certain satellite-related goods and services with China).
Changes in law or regulations relating to communications policy or to matters affecting our services could adversely affect our ability to retain our FCC licenses or the manner in which we operate.
Copyrights to Programming
In connection with our businesses, we must enter into royalty arrangements with two sets of rights holders: holders of musical compositions copyrights (that is, the music and lyrics) and holders of sound recordings copyrights (that is, the actual recording of a work). Our Sirius XM and Pandora services use both statutory and direct music licenses as part of their businesses. We license varying rights - such as performance and mechanical rights - for use in our Sirius XM and Pandora services based on the various radio and interactive services they offer. Set forth below is a brief overview of the music composition and sound recording licenses employed by our Sirius XM and Pandora services. These music licensing arrangements are complex and the description below is only a summary of these complicated licensing arrangements.
Musical Compositions: Performance Rights and Mechanical Rights
The holders of performance rights in musical compositions, generally songwriters and music publishers, are represented by performing rights organizations such as the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (“ASCAP”), Broadcast Music, Inc. (“BMI”), SESAC, Inc. (“SESAC”) and Global Music Rights LLC (“GMR”). These organizations negotiate fees with copyright users, collect royalties and distribute them to the rights holders.
The holders of the mechanical rights in musical compositions, generally songwriters and music publishers, have traditionally licensed these rights through the statutory license set forth in Section 115 of the United States Copyright Act; however, mechanical rights can also be licensed directly.
The changing market for musical compositions may have an adverse effect on our Sirius XM and Pandora services, including increasing our costs and limiting the musical works available to us.
Sirius XM Service. We have arrangements with ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR to license the musical compositions we perform on our satellite radio and streaming services. Our Sirius XM business does not require a mechanical license.
Pandora Services. We have arrangements with ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, GMR and a variety of other copyright owners to license the musical compositions performance rights we use on our Pandora services. For our Pandora ad-supported radio service, certain copyright holders receive as a performance royalty their usage-based and ownership-based share of a royalty pool equal to 21.5% of the content acquisition costs that we pay for sound recordings on our ad-supported service and others receive a fixed fee.
Pandora must also license reproduction rights, which are also referred to as mechanical rights, to offer the interactive features of the Pandora services. For our Pandora subscription services, copyright holders receive payments for these rights at the rates determined in accordance with the statutory license set forth in Section 115 of the United States Copyright Act. For the five-year period commencing January 1, 2023 and ending December 31, 2027 Pandora agreed to pay the greater of 15.1% of revenues or 26.2% of record label payments in 2023, rising over the five-year period to 15.35% of revenues or 26.2% of record label payments by 2027.
Sound Recordings
Operators of a non-interactive satellite radio or streaming service are entitled to license sound recordings under the statutory license contained in Section 114 of the United States Copyright Act (the “statutory license”). Under the statutory license, we may negotiate royalty arrangements with the owners of sound recordings or, if negotiation is unsuccessful, the royalty rate is established by the Copyright Royalty Board (the “CRB”). Sound recording rights holders, typically large record companies, are primarily represented by SoundExchange, Inc. (“SoundExchange”), an organization which negotiates licenses, and collects and distributes royalties on behalf of record companies and performing artists.
Interactive streaming services, such as Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium, do not qualify for the statutory license and those services must negotiate direct license arrangements with the owners of copyrights in sound recordings.
Sirius XM Business. For the ten-year period commencing January 1, 2018 and ending on December 31, 2027, the CRB set the royalty rate payable by us under the statutory license covering the performance of sound recordings over our Sirius XM satellite radio service, and the making of ephemeral (server) copies in support of such performances, to be 15.5% of gross revenues, subject to exclusions and adjustments. The revenue subject to royalty includes subscription revenue from our U.S. satellite digital audio radio subscribers, and advertising revenue from channels other than those channels that make only incidental performances of sound recordings. The rates and terms permit us to reduce the payment due each month for those sound recordings that are separately licensed and sound recordings that are directly licensed from copyright owners and exclude from our revenue certain other items, such as royalties paid to us for intellectual property, sales and use taxes, bad debt expense and generally revenue attributable to areas of our business that do not involve the use of copyrighted sound recordings.
In 2023, we paid a per performance rate for the streaming of certain sound recordings of $0.0030 on our Sirius XM streaming service which increased from $0.0028 in 2022. In 2024, we expect to pay a per performance rate for the streaming of certain sound recordings of $0.0031 on our Sirius XM streaming service.
Pandora Services. For our Pandora services, we have entered into direct license agreements with major and independent music labels and distributors for a significant majority of the sound recordings that stream on the Pandora ad-supported service, Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium.
For sound recordings that we stream and for which we have not entered into a direct license agreement with the sound recording rights holders, the sound recordings are streamed pursuant to the statutory license, and applicable rates thereunder set by the CRB. Sound recordings subject to the statutory license can only be played through our radio services and not through services that are offered on-demand or offline or through any replay features. The royalty rates under many of those direct licenses, which cover a large majority of the sound recordings that we perform on Pandora, are indexed to the statutory rates established by the CRB.
Trademarks
Sirius XM Business
We have registered, and intend to maintain, the trademarks “Sirius”, “XM”, “SiriusXM” and “SXM” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in connection with the services we offer. We are not aware of any material claims of infringement or other challenges to our right to use the “Sirius”, “XM”, “SiriusXM” or “SXM” trademarks in the United States. We also have registered, and intend to maintain, trademarks for the names of certain of our channels. We have also registered the trademarks “Sirius”, “XM” and “SiriusXM” in Canada. We have granted a license to use certain of our trademarks in Canada to Sirius XM Canada.
Pandora and Off-platform Business
We have registered, and intend to maintain, the trademarks “Pandora,” “Ampcast” and “Music Genome Project,” in addition to a number of other Pandora logos and marks, with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in connection with the services we offer. We also have registered the trademark “Pandora” in Australia, Canada, Chile, the European Union, India, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Switzerland, Taiwan and other countries, and the trademark “Music Genome Project” in Australia, Canada, China and New Zealand.
Human Capital Resources
Overview
As of December 31, 2023, we had 5,680 full-time and part-time employees whose skills span a wide range of highly specialized capabilities. Our core voluntary full-time employee turnover rate in 2023 was approximately 6.2%. We strive to maintain an inclusive culture where our differences are valued, respected and celebrated, and our diverse perspectives are united to drive and grow our businesses.
Who We Are
We employ a diverse workforce, composed of individuals with different identities, experiences, perspectives and priorities. Together, we represent different dimensions of diversity and we are committed to fostering an environment where all of our employees can thrive and reach their full potential.
We encourage our employees to voluntarily self-identify their gender, race, ethnicity, veteran and disability status. Understanding our employee demographics enables us to shape our talent strategy and invest time and resources in various initiatives. As of December 31, 2023, 42% of our employees identified as women and 40.2% identified as people of color (African American, Latinx, Asian, and Native American). At our executive leadership level (which we define as employees at the vice president and above level), 33.4% of our employees identified as women and 17% identified as people of color.
We are focused on increasing the representation of women and people of color at all levels of our organization. We do this by promoting SiriusXM as an employer of choice through a number of different efforts. In 2023, we attended professional conferences such as Grace Hopper and AfroTech, and sponsored events with organizations, including Sistas in Sales, in an effort to facilitate connections with diverse talent. We also engage with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and provide full-time entry-level job opportunities for their graduates through our Pathways program. Our hiring managers and recruiters are trained on inclusive hiring practices and eliminating unconscious biases in the hiring process.
Many of our employees are members of our employee resource groups, known as SiriusXM Communities, which were established for the purpose of supporting, nurturing, and empowering under-represented members of our workforce. We have been named to Worklife 50, NY Crain's Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion, Newsweek's America's Greatest Workplaces for Diversity in 2024, and for many years as a best place to work for LGBTQIA+ equality by the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index.
We prioritize cultural awareness, celebrate diversity, and educate our workforce on our anti-harassment and discrimination policies. Our policies are designed to protect against discrimination based upon sex, gender, race, color, religion and religious creed, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, age, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sex stereotype, transgender, immigration status, military and protected veteran status, medical condition, or any basis prohibited under federal, state or local law. We also host mandatory Conscious Inclusion training and we offer our “Can We Talk?” program, both of which are designed to explore bias and its impact, increase cultural awareness, invite open dialogue, and promote inclusive behaviors in our workplace.
We also comply with the FCC’s Equal Employment Opportunity (“EEO”) rules, including making our EEO reports publicly available. We maintain our Code of Ethics which embodies our commitment to conduct business in accordance with applicable law and the highest ethical standards.
What We Believe
We believe that our employees do their best work when they feel connected, supported and empowered, and we are committed to making that happen with people-focused initiatives. Our core values, which define us as authentic, inclusive, curious and driven, are aligned with our vision. Together, these elements set the foundation for how we collaborate, and operate as individuals.
We believe that our success hinges on our ability to attract, retain, and develop top talent. Recognizing employees for outstanding accomplishments, rewarding them for positive performance, and inspiring them to reach new heights are strongly connected to retention. We are a results-driven organization and we believe that recognition and reward are key to generating a sense of pride and accountability. Through our engagement surveys and other communication channels, we have learned a tremendous amount about our workforce and this knowledge shaped the people-focused initiatives we prioritized in 2023. We believe that our culture is a long-term competitive advantage for us, fuels our ability to execute, and underpins our employee talent strategy.
How We Reward and Develop Our People
Our goal is to establish SiriusXM as a place where employees can build long-term careers and achieve their personal and professional aspirations. We offer a comprehensive total reward program designed to attract, motivate, and retain top talent. This program combines competitive compensation with benefits and well-being resources designed to meet the diverse needs of our workforce. Our compensation programs, which vary by employee level, include salary, incentive compensation opportunities, and equity-based compensation awards. In addition, our benefits programs are competitive for the markets in which we operate and may include healthcare and insurance benefits, paid time off, paid parental leave, fertility resources, advocacy resources, flexible work schedules, and employee assistance programs.
We have robust talent development offerings, including training opportunities, access to LinkedIn Learning which offers an extensive content library, a mentorship program, leadership development programs, and a performance feedback program. Our talent development programs include a comprehensive goal-setting process, a career path framework, skills and core competency assessments, and custom learning paths. Additionally, through mentoring programs, specialized management
training and leadership coaching, we nurture the professional growth of our employees. We also sponsor external leadership training opportunities for employees from underrepresented backgrounds.
Succession planning is a priority for our leaders. The Compensation Committee of our Board of Directors oversees our management continuity planning process, and reviews and evaluates succession plans relating to our Chief Executive Officer and other executive officers.
How We Give Back
SiriusXM Cares is the name of our philanthropic effort to promote charitable giving. SiriusXM Cares has three focus areas for giving: Employee, Social Equity, and Corporate; and through these focus areas, we are able to give directly or bolster employee giving efforts.
Through our focus on the Employee, we invite employees to give to the causes most meaningful to them. We have a charitable matching program which offers employees a dollar for dollar match on their charitable contributions up to a specific threshold. In addition, full-time employees are eligible to receive five days of paid time off to volunteer with charitable organizations of their choice. During 2023, over 500 employees volunteered over 7,800 hours, and over 620 employees utilized our charitable matching program, benefiting more than 800 charitable organizations.
In alignment with our Social Equity and Corporate focus areas, SiriusXM Cares has contributed to a variety of organizations over the past three years. These organizations, which combat racial injustice, promote social equality, provide education, or facilitate hiring of underrepresented individuals, include The Apollo Theater, The Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Save The Music, Huston-Tillotson University, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, South Asian Americans Leading Together, the Alliance for Women in Media, the Human Rights Campaign, TASH (an international advocacy association of people with disabilities, their family members, other advocates, and people who work in the disability field), the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Native American Rights Fund, The Warrior Alliance, the AutoNation Foundation, the St. Thomas Aquinas College Social Justice Center, United Jewish Appeal Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of NY, Inc., City of Hope, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The Last Mile, Girls Who Code, Paley Center for Media, Hunter College, Boys & Girls Club of Metro Queens, Boys & Girls Club of America, Fam Frequency Productions, Reaching Early Creatives, Volunteers of America- Greater New York, and Sounds of Saving.
Our Health, Safety and Well-Being
We are committed to providing a healthy and safe environment that allows employees to thrive professionally and personally. To support the well-being of our employees and their families we also offer resources focused on physical, mental, and emotional health.
Corporate Information and Available Information
Our executive offices are located at 1221 Avenue of the Americas, 35th floor, New York, New York 10020 and our telephone number is (212) 584-5100. Our internet address is www.siriusxm.com. Our annual, quarterly and current reports, and any amendments to those reports, filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), may be accessed free of charge through our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we have electronically filed or furnished such material with the SEC. The SEC maintains an Internet site (http://www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. Siriusxm.com (including any other reference to such address in this Annual Report) is an inactive textual reference only, meaning that the information contained on or accessible from the website is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is not incorporated in this report by reference. We may use our website as a distribution channel of material company information. Financial and other important information regarding us is routinely posted on and accessible through our website at https://www.siriusxm.com. In addition, you may automatically receive email alerts and other information about us when you enroll your email address by visiting the “Email Alerts” section under the “Shareholder Services” heading at http://investor.siriusxm.com/investor-overview.
Information About Our Executive Officers
Certain information regarding our executive officers as of January 30, 2024 is provided below:
Name Age Position
Jennifer C. Witz 55 Chief Executive Officer
Scott A. Greenstein 64 President, Chief Content Officer
Thomas D. Barry
57 Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Patrick L. Donnelly 62 Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
Joseph Inzerillo
51 Chief Product and Technology Officer
Joseph A. Verbrugge 54 Chief Commercial Officer
Jennifer C. Witz has served as our Chief Executive Officer since January 1, 2021. From March 2019 through December 2020, she was our President, Sales, Marketing and Operations. From August 2017 until March 2019 she was our Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer. Ms. Witz joined us in March 2002 and has served in a variety of senior financial and operating roles. Before joining Sirius XM, Ms. Witz was Vice President, Planning and Development, at Viacom Inc., a global media company, and prior to that she was Vice President, Finance and Corporate Development, at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., an entertainment company focused on the production and global distribution of film and television content. Ms. Witz began her career in the Investment Banking Department at Kidder, Peabody & Co Inc.
Scott A. Greenstein has served as our President, Chief Content Officer, since May 2004. Prior to May 2004, Mr. Greenstein was Chief Executive Officer of The Greenstein Group, a media and entertainment consulting firm. From 1999 until 2002, he was Chairman of USA Films, a motion picture production, marketing and distribution company. From 1997 until 1999, Mr. Greenstein was Co-President of October Films, a motion picture production, marketing and distribution company. Prior to joining October Films, Mr. Greenstein was Senior Vice President of Motion Pictures, Music, New Media and Publishing at Miramax Films, and held senior positions at Viacom Inc.
Thomas D. Barry has served as our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since April 2023 and also serves as our Chief Accounting Officer. From 2009 until 2023 he was our Senior Vice President and Controller. Prior to joining Sirius XM, Mr. Barry was the Vice President and Controller for Reader’s Digest Inc., the owner of the American general-interest family magazine, from 2002 until 2009. Prior to Reader’s Digest, he held finance leadership roles at Xerox Engineering Systems, a subsidiary of Xerox Corporation, the workplace technology company, and Avon Products Inc., the multinational cosmetics, skin care, fragrance and personal care company. Mr. Barry started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the international professional services brand of firms, and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Patrick L. Donnelly has served as our Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, since May 1998. From June 1997 to May 1998, he was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of ITT Corporation, a hotel, gaming and entertainment company that was acquired by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. in February 1998. From October 1995 to June 1997, he was assistant general counsel of ITT Corporation. Prior to October 1995, Mr. Donnelly was an attorney at the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.
Joseph Inzerillo has served as our Chief Product and Technology Officer since January 2022. Prior to that, Mr. Inzerillo was the Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer - Disney Streaming since 2017. Prior to that, Mr. Inzerillo held a variety of senior technology positions at Major League Baseball and its subsidiaries. From 2015 to 2017, Mr. Inzerillo served as Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer of BAMTech Media, a distributor of direct-to-consumer video and a provider of video streaming solutions. Mr. Inzerillo was the Chief Technology Officer of Major League Baseball Advanced Media, LP from 2014 through 2015, and the Senior Vice President of Multimedia Distribution of that entity from 2006 to 2014. During his tenure at Major League Baseball Advanced Media, LP, Mr. Inzerillo also served as Chief Technology Officer for Major League Baseball. Mr. Inzerillo started his career with the Chicago White Sox and was the Chief Technology Officer of the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks.
Joseph A. Verbrugge has served as our Chief Commercial Officer since June 2022 and has served in many senior positions during his 20-year career with us. Mr. Verbrugge served as our Executive Vice President, SXM Digital Subscriptions, from January 2022 until June 2022; as our Executive Vice President, Sales and Development, from October 2020 until January 2022; as our Executive Vice President, Division President, Connected Vehicle, from March 2019 until October 2020; as our Executive Vice President and General Manager, Emerging Business, from April 2017 until March 2019; and as our Executive Vice President, Sales and Development, from December 2015 until April 2017. From September 2004 through December 2015, Mr. Verbrugge served in various senior positions for us and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. Mr. Verbrugge was a
consultant with The Dealy Strategy Group LLC, a management consulting firm specializing in international satellite communications and information services companies, from 1999 until 2004. Mr. Verbrugge is a member of the board of directors of Stride, Inc., a provider of tech-enabled education solutions, and serves on its compensation committee.

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
In addition to the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the information under the caption Item 1. Business “Competition,” the following risk factors should be considered carefully in evaluating us and our business. This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including those set forth below and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. See “Special Note About Forward-Looking Statements” following this Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Risks Relating to our Business and Operations
We face substantial competition and that competition is likely to increase over time.
We compete for the time and attention of our listeners with other content providers on the basis of a number of factors, including quality of experience, relevance, acceptance and perception of content quality, ease of use, price, accessibility, brand awareness, reputation and, in the case of our ad-supported Pandora service, perception of ad load, features and functionality. As consumer tastes and preferences change on the internet and with mobile and other connected products, including cars, in-home, and wearable devices, we will need to enhance and improve our existing services, introduce new services and features, and attempt to maintain our competitive position with additional technological advances and adaptable platforms. The Pandora App has not been significantly updated in several years. If we fail to keep pace with technological advances or fail to offer compelling product offerings and state-of-the-art delivery platforms to meet consumer demands, our ability to grow or maintain the reach of our services, attract and retain users, and attract listeners and subscribers across our services will be adversely affected. Our ability to attract and retain subscribers and listeners also depends on our success in creating and providing popular or unique programming. A summary of certain services that compete with us is contained in the section entitled “Item 1. Business - Competition” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Our subscribers and listeners can obtain similar content for free through terrestrial radio stations, Spotify, YouTube and other internet services. We also compete for the time and attention of our listeners with providers of other in-home and mobile entertainment services, and we compete for advertising sales with large scale online advertising platforms, such as Amazon, Facebook and Google, and with traditional media outlets.
Our streaming services also compete for listeners on the basis of the presence and visibility of our apps, which are distributed via app stores operated by Apple and Google. We face significant competition for listeners from these companies, which also promote their own music and content. In addition, our competitors’ streaming products may be pre-loaded or integrated into consumer electronics products or automobiles more broadly than our streaming products, creating a visibility advantage. If we are unable to compete successfully for listeners against other media providers, then our business may suffer. Additionally, the operator of an app store may reject our app or amend the terms of their license in a way that inhibits our ability to distribute our apps, negatively affects our business, or limits our ability to increase subscribers and listeners.
Competition could result in lower subscription, advertising or other revenue and an increase in our expenses and, consequently, lower our earnings and free cash flow. We cannot assure you we will be able to compete successfully with our existing or future competitors or that competition will not have an adverse impact on our operations and financial condition.
If our efforts to attract and retain subscribers and listeners, or convert listeners into subscribers, are not successful, our business will be adversely affected.
Our business will be adversely affected if we are unable to attract new subscribers and listeners and retain our current subscribers and listeners.
Our ability to increase the number of subscribers and listeners to our services, retain our subscribers and listeners or convert listeners into subscribers, is uncertain and subject to many factors, including:
•the price of our services;
•the ease of use of our services;
•the effectiveness of our marketing programs;
•with respect to our Sirius XM service, the sale or lease rate of new vehicles in the United States;
•the rate at which our self-pay subscribers to our Sirius XM service buy and sell new and used vehicles in the United States;
•our ability to convince owners and lessees of new and used vehicles that include satellite radios to purchase subscriptions to our Sirius XM service;
•the perceived value of our programming and the packages and services we offer;
•our ability to introduce features in a manner that is favorably received by consumers;
•our ability to keep up with rapidly evolving technology and features in audio entertainment;
•our ability to respond to evolving consumer tastes; and
•actions by our competitors, such as Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon and other audio entertainment and information providers.
We engage in extensive marketing efforts and the continued effectiveness of those efforts is an important part of our business.
We engage in extensive marketing efforts across a broad range of media to attract and retain subscribers and listeners to our services. We employ a wide variety of communications tools as part of our marketing campaigns, including telemarketing efforts and email solicitations. The effectiveness of our marketing efforts is affected by a broad range of factors, including creative and execution factors. Our ability to reach consumers with radio and television advertising, performance and digital media, direct mail materials, email solicitations and telephone calls is an important part of our efforts and a significant factor in the effectiveness of our marketing. If we are unable to reach consumers through email solicitations or telemarketing, including as a result of “spam” and email filters, call blocking technologies, restriction in digital media on identifying users, such as limits on “cookies,” consumer privacy regulations or “do-not-call” or other marketing regulations, our marketing efforts will be adversely affected. A decline in the effectiveness of our marketing efforts could have an adverse impact on our operations and financial condition.
We rely on third parties for the operation of our business, and the failure of third parties to perform could adversely affect our business.
Our business depends, in part, on various third parties, including:
•creators and licensors of software that support our apps and services;
•programming providers, including agreements with owners of various copyrights in music, and on-air talent;
•manufacturers that build and distribute satellite radios;
•companies that manufacture and sell integrated circuits for satellite radios;
•vendors that operate our call centers;
•vendors that have designed or built, and vendors that support or operate, other important elements of our systems, including our satellites and the cloud-based systems we use;
•Apple, who distributes our apps through its App Store and who we rely on to collect fees and approve the terms of our consumer offers; and
•Google, who distributes our apps through its App Store and who we rely on to collect fees and approve the terms of our consumer offers, and who plays an important role in the fulfillment of the ads we sell on our Pandora platform.
If one or more of these third parties do not perform in a satisfactory or timely manner, including complying with our standards and practices relating to business integrity, personnel and cybersecurity, our business could be adversely affected.
The operation of our apps and service offerings could be impaired if errors occur in the third party software that supports our apps and services. It may be difficult for us to correct any defects in third party software because the development and maintenance of the software is not within our control. Our third party licensors may not continue to make their software available to us on acceptable terms, invest the appropriate levels of resources in their software to maintain and enhance its capabilities, or remain in business. Failure of these third party licensors could harm our streaming services.
In addition, a number of third parties on which we depend have experienced, and may in the future experience, financial difficulties or file for bankruptcy protection. Such third parties may not be able to perform their obligations to us in a timely manner, if at all, as a result of their financial condition or may be relieved of their obligations to us as part of seeking bankruptcy protection.
We are migrating our billing system and payment processing functions to a new service provider.
We are migrating our payment processing and related billing functions from a large multinational bank to a private company that offers online payment processing and commerce solutions for digital and internet businesses. Our new vendor is not a bank, bank holding company or affiliated with a large multinational bank. In addition, financial statements for our new payment processor are not publicly available and nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (such as Standard & Poor’s) have not issued ratings evaluating its creditworthiness and ability to pay.
We are subject to various risks associated with our new payment processor, including the risks of being an unsecured creditor, actions by credit card issuers (such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express) that could adversely affect its operations and payment processing functions, actions by government authorities that regulate financial transactions that may affect our new vendor's business, operations and financial condition, and general data privacy and cybersecurity risks associated with its systems and operations. Our new payment processor commingles our funds arising from credit and debit card transactions with other amounts owing to third parties and those commingled accounts are subject to the claims of third parties, it does not pay us interest on amounts it holds for our benefit, including funds held overnight, and it has broad rights to establish reserves and debit our bank accounts to pay itself fees and reimburse itself and customers in the event of disputes. In addition, we are subject to the general risk that it may not comply with its obligations relating to the settlement of transactions or the investment of our funds held on an intra-day and overnight basis. If our new payment processing and commerce solution does not function as provided in our agreement or access to these new systems are disrupted, our business could be adversely affected.
Failure to successfully monetize and generate revenues from podcasts and other non-music content could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Delivering podcasts and other non-music content involves risks and challenges, including increased competition and the need to develop new relationships with creators. We have entered into multi-year commitments for original podcast content that is produced by third parties. These agreements generally provide us the right to distribute the content and act as the exclusive agent for the sale of advertising in the podcasts. Payment terms for certain podcast content typically requires more upfront cash payments, including minimum guarantees to the owner or creator of the podcast, than other content licenses or arrangements.
Given the multiple-year duration and largely fixed-cost nature of such commitments, if the attractiveness of such podcast content to our listeners and subscribers do not meet our expectations, our margins could be adversely impacted. In addition, the advertising market for podcasts is still developing, including the advertising technology necessary to efficiently sell audio advertising within podcasts at scale. As a result, our ability to profitably monetize the available advertising opportunities in podcasts remains uncertain.
Growing our podcasting business may require additional changes to our business model and cost structure, modifications to our infrastructure, and could expose us to new regulatory, legal and reputational risks, including infringement liability. There is no guarantee that we will be able to generate sufficient revenue from podcasts to offset the costs of creating or acquiring this content. Our failure to successfully monetize and generate revenues from such content, including failure to obtain or retain rights to podcasts or other non-music content on acceptable terms, or at all, or to effectively manage the numerous risks and challenges associated with such expansion, could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
We may not realize the benefits of acquisitions or other strategic investments and initiatives.
Our strategy has included and may include selective acquisitions, other strategic investments and initiatives to expand our business. The success of any acquisition depends upon effective integration, cultural assimilation and management of acquired businesses and assets into our operations, which is subject to risks and uncertainties, including realizing the growth potential, the anticipated synergies and cost savings, the ability to retain and attract personnel, the diversion of management’s attention for other business concerns, and undisclosed or potential legal liabilities of the acquired business or assets.
The integration process could distract our management, disrupt our ongoing business or result in inconsistencies in our services, standards, controls, procedures and policies, any of which could adversely affect our ability to maintain relationships with customers, vendors and employees or to achieve the anticipated benefits of the acquisition.
The impact of economic conditions may adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Our success depends to a significant extent on discretionary consumer spending. Some of the factors that may influence consumer spending on entertainment include general economic conditions, the availability of discretionary income, consumer confidence, interest rates, inflationary pressure, and general uncertainty regarding the overall economic environment.
The demand for entertainment generally is sensitive to downturns in the economy and the corresponding impact on discretionary consumer spending. Any actual or perceived deterioration or weakness in general, regional or local economic conditions, as well as other adverse economic or market conditions, could reduce our subscribers’ or potential subscribers’ discretionary income. To the extent that overall economic conditions reduce spending on discretionary items, our ability to attract and retain subscribers could be hindered, which could reduce our subscription revenue and negatively impact our business.
Additionally, our financial performance is subject to economic conditions and their impact on levels of advertising spending. Expenditures by advertisers generally tend to reflect overall economic conditions, and reductions in spending by advertisers could have an adverse impact on our revenue and business. See “Our Pandora business generates a significant portion of its revenues from advertising, and reduced spending by advertisers could harm our business.”
We may be adversely affected by the war in Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine, and any expansion of the war in Ukraine to surrounding areas, could adversely affect our business and operations. Our AdsWizz subsidiary is headquartered in Romania and we rely on other contractors in Eastern European countries, such as Poland. An expansion of the war in Ukraine to other countries, particularly Romania, could materially affect our ability to deliver advertisements on our Pandora services and for third parties.
Risks Relating to our Sirius XM Business
A substantial number of our Sirius XM service subscribers periodically cancel their subscriptions and we cannot predict how successful we will be at retaining customers.
As part of our business, we experience, and expect to experience in the future, subscriber turnover (i.e., churn). The number of subscribers to our Sirius XM service declined in 2023 and may further contract in the future. If we are unable to retain current subscribers at expected rates, or the costs of retaining subscribers are higher than expected, our financial performance and operating results could be adversely affected.
We cannot predict how successful we will be at retaining customers who purchase or lease vehicles that include a subscription to our Sirius XM service. A substantial percentage of our Sirius XM subscribers are on promotional pricing plans and our ability to retain these subscribers or migrate them to higher priced plans is uncertain. Our promotional pricing strategy is widely known, and this may interfere with our ability to collect our ordinary subscription prices. In addition, a substantial number of those subscribers periodically cancel their subscriptions when offered a subscription at a higher price.
Our ability to profitably attract and retain subscribers to our Sirius XM service is uncertain.
A number of factors may affect our ability to attract and retain subscribers to our Sirius XM service. The changing demographics of trialers to our service, such as the increase in “Millennial generation customers,” may increase the number of subscribers accustomed to consuming entertainment through ad-supported products. These changing demographics may affect our ability to convert trial subscribers into self-paying subscribers. Similarly, our efforts to acquire subscribers purchasing or leasing used vehicles may attract price sensitive consumers. Consumers purchasing or leasing used vehicles may be more price sensitive than consumers purchasing or leasing new vehicles, convert from trial subscribers to self-paying subscribers at a lower rate, and cancel their subscriptions more frequently than consumers purchasing or leasing new vehicles. Some of our marketing efforts may also attract more price sensitive subscribers, and our efforts to increase the penetration of satellite radios in new, lower-priced vehicle lines may result in the growth of more economy-minded subscribers. Each of these factors may harm our revenue or require additional spending on marketing efforts to demonstrate the value of our Sirius XM service.
Our business depends in part upon the auto industry.
A substantial portion of the subscription growth for our satellite radio service has come from purchasers and lessees of new and used automobiles in the United States, and we expect this to be an important source of subscribers for our satellite radio service in the future.
We have agreements with major automakers to include satellite radios in new vehicles, although these agreements do not require automakers to install specific or minimum quantities of radios in any given period. Many of these agreements also require automakers to provide us data on sales of satellite radio enabled vehicles, including in many cases the consumer’s name and address. Our business could be adversely affected if automakers do not continue to include our Sirius XM service in their products or provide us with such data.
Automotive production and sales are dependent on many factors, including labor relations matters, the availability of vehicle components, consumer credit, general economic conditions, consumer confidence and fuel costs. To the extent vehicle sales by automakers decline, or the penetration of factory-installed satellite radios in those vehicles is reduced, our satellite radio service may be adversely impacted.
Sales of used vehicles represent a significant source of new subscribers for our satellite radio service. We have agreements with auto dealers and companies operating in the used vehicle market to provide us with data on sales of used satellite radio enabled vehicles, including in many cases the consumer’s name and address. The continuing availability of this data is important, and the loss of such data may harm our revenue and business.
Failure of our satellites would significantly damage our business.
The lives of the satellites required to operate our Sirius XM service vary depending on a number of factors, including:
•degradation and durability of solar panels;
•quality of construction;
•random failure of satellite components, which could result in significant damage to or loss of a satellite;
•amount of fuel the satellite consumes;
•the performance of third parties that manage the operation of our satellites; and
•damage or destruction as a result of electrostatic storms, terrorist attacks, collisions with other objects in space or other events, such as nuclear detonations, occurring in space.
In the ordinary course of operation, satellites experience failures of component parts and operational and performance anomalies. Components on several of our in-orbit satellites have failed, and from time to time we have experienced anomalies in the operation and performance of these satellites. These failures and anomalies are expected to continue in the ordinary course, and we cannot predict if any of these possible future events will have a material adverse effect on our operations or the life of our existing in-orbit satellites. In addition, we have entered into agreements for the construction and launch of four new satellites that are expected to be launched over the next four years, and material delays in the deployment of these satellites could be harmful to our business.
Our Sirius network of terrestrial repeaters communicates with a single third party satellite. Our XM network of terrestrial repeaters communicates with a single XM satellite. If the satellites communicating with the applicable repeater network fail unexpectedly, the services would be disrupted for several hours or longer.
Any material failure of our operating satellites could cause us to lose customers for our Sirius XM service and could materially harm our reputation and our operating results. We do not have insurance for our in-orbit satellites. Additional information regarding our fleet of satellites is contained in the section entitled “Item 1. Business - Satellites, Terrestrial Repeaters and Other Satellite Facilities” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Our Sirius XM service may experience harmful interference from wireless operations.
The development of applications and services in spectrum adjacent to the frequencies licensed to us, as well as the combination of signals in other frequencies, may cause harmful interference to our satellite radio service in certain areas of the United States. Elimination of this interference may not be possible in all cases. In other cases, our efforts to reduce this interference may require extensive engineering efforts and additions to our terrestrial infrastructure. These mitigation efforts may be costly and take several years to implement and may not be entirely effective. In certain cases, we are dependent on the FCC to assist us in preventing harmful interference to our service.
Risks Relating to our Pandora and Off-platform Business
Our Pandora ad-supported service has suffered a substantial and consistent loss of monthly active users, which may adversely affect our Pandora and Off-platform business.
The number of monthly active users to our ad-supported Pandora service has declined consistently for several years, including in 2023, and is likely to further contract in the future.
The size of our ad-supported listener base is an important element of our Pandora service. The decline in our listener base has resulted in fewer listener hours and available advertising spots on our Pandora service, which ultimately may result in declines in our advertising revenue, and adversely affect our Pandora and Off-platform business. The contraction of our ad-supported listener base also decreases the size of demographic groups targeted by advertisers, which may hurt our ability to deliver advertising in a manner that maximizes advertisers’ return on investment and compete with other streaming advertising platforms.
Our Pandora and Off-platform business generates a significant portion of its revenues from advertising, and reduced spending by advertisers could harm our business.
Our Pandora and Off-platform business currently generates a majority of its revenues from third parties advertising on the Pandora ad-supported service and other platforms. As is common in the audio entertainment industry, these advertisers do not have long-term advertising commitments with us and can terminate their contracts at any time.
Expenditures by advertisers tend to be cyclical, reflecting overall economic conditions and budgeting and buying patterns. Adverse macroeconomic conditions have affected, and may continue to affect, the demand for audio advertising, resulting in fluctuations in the amounts advertisers spend on advertising, which could harm our financial condition and operating results.
Our failure to convince advertisers of the benefits of our Pandora ad-supported service could harm our business.
Our ability to attract and retain advertisers, and ultimately to sell our advertising inventory, depends on a number of factors, including:
•the number of listener hours on the Pandora ad-supported service, particularly the number of listener hours attributable to high-value demographics;
•keeping pace with changes in technology and our competitors, some of which have significant influence over the distribution of our Pandora app;
•competing effectively for advertising with other dominant online services, such as Spotify, Google, Facebook and YouTube, as well as other marketing and media outlets;
•successfully competing for local radio advertising;
•demonstrating the ability of advertisements to reach targeted audiences, including the value of mobile digital advertising;
•ensuring that new ad formats and ad product offerings are attractive to advertisers and that inventory management decisions (such as changes to ad load, frequency, prominence and quality of ads that we serve listeners) do not have a negative impact on listener hours; and
•adapting to technologies designed to block the display of our ads.
Advertisers may leave us for competing alternatives at any time. Failure to demonstrate to advertisers the value of our Pandora service would result in reduced spending by, or loss of, advertisers, which would harm our revenue and business.
If we are unable to maintain revenue growth from our advertising products our results of operations will be adversely affected.
In order to effectively monetize listener hours, we must, among other things, penetrate local advertising markets and develop compelling ad product solutions.
The substantial majority of the total listening to our Pandora service occurs on mobile devices. We are engaged in efforts to continue to convince advertisers of the capabilities and value of mobile digital advertising and to direct an increasing portion of their advertising spend to our ad-supported Pandora service.
We are continuing to build our sales capability to penetrate local advertising markets, which places us in competition with terrestrial radio. We may not be able to capture an increasing share of local and audio advertising revenue, which may have an adverse impact on our future revenue.
Changes to mobile operating systems and browsers may hinder our ability to sell advertising and market our services.
We use shared common device identifiers that are universal in the advertising technology ecosystem, such as Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers, a random device identifier assigned by Apple to a user's device. We use these common device identifiers for targeting, advertising effectiveness and measurement for the Pandora’s advertising business and for Pandora’s consumer marketing purposes. These common device identifiers enable us to match audiences, including with second- and third-party data providers and measurement vendors, and enhance Pandora’s advertising targeting segments with additional data. In our programmatic advertising business, we use common identifiers for several important functions, such as targeting and bidding. We also use common device identifiers to evaluate the success of our Pandora brand consumer marketing campaigns.
Apple, as well as mobile operating system and browser providers, have implemented product features and plans that may adversely impact our ability to use these common identifiers and data collected in connection with these common identifiers in our Pandora business.
If we fail to accurately predict and play music, comedy or other content that our Pandora listeners enjoy, we may fail to retain existing and attract new listeners.
A key differentiating factor between our Pandora service and other music content providers is our ability to predict music that our listeners will enjoy. The effectiveness of our personalized playlist generating system depends, in part, on our ability to gather and effectively analyze large amounts of listener data and feedback. We may not continue to be successful in enticing listeners to our Pandora service to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to enough songs to effectively predict and select new and existing songs. In addition, our ability to offer listeners songs that they have not previously heard and impart a sense of discovery depends on our ability to acquire and appropriately categorize additional tracks that will appeal to our listeners’ diverse and changing tastes. Many of our competitors currently have larger music and content catalogs than we offer and they may be more effective in providing their listeners with an appealing listener experience.
We also provide comedy and podcast content on our Pandora service, and we try to predict what our listeners will enjoy using technology similar to the technology that we use to generate personalized playlists for music. The risks that apply to our ability to satisfy our listeners’ musical tastes apply to comedy, podcasts and other content to an even greater extent, particularly since we do not yet have as large a data set on listener preferences for comedy, podcasts and other content, and have a smaller catalog of such content as compared to music.
Our ability to predict and select music, comedy, podcasts and other content that our listeners enjoy is important to the perceived value of our Pandora service to consumers and the failure to make accurate predictions would adversely affect our ability to attract and retain subscribers and listeners, increase listener hours and sell advertising.
Risks Relating to Laws and Governmental Regulations
Privacy and data security laws and regulations may hinder our ability to market our services, sell advertising and impose legal liabilities.
We receive a substantial amount of personal data on purchasers and lessees of new and used vehicles from third parties. We use this personal data to market our services. We collect and use demographic, service usage, purchase history and other information, including location information, from and about our listeners through the internet. Further, we and third parties use tracking technologies, including “cookies” and related technologies, to help us manage and track our listeners’ interactions with our services and deliver relevant advertising.
Various federal and state laws and regulations, as well as the laws of foreign jurisdictions, govern the collection, use, retention, sharing and security of the personal data we receive. Privacy groups and government authorities have increasingly scrutinized the ways in which companies collect and share personal data, including linking personal identities and data associated with particular users or devices with data collected through the internet, and we expect such scrutiny to increase. Alleged violations of laws and regulations relating to privacy and personal data may expose us to potential liability, may require us to expend significant resources in responding to and defending such allegations and claims and could in the future result in negative publicity and a loss of confidence in us by our subscribers, listeners, advertisers and other third parties with whom we do business.
Privacy-related laws and regulations, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act and the European General Data Protection Regulation, are evolving and subject to potentially differing interpretations. Various federal and state legislative and regulatory bodies as well as foreign legislative and regulatory bodies may expand current or enact new laws regarding privacy and data security-related matters. New laws, amendments to or re-interpretations of existing laws and contractual obligations, as well as changes in our listeners’ expectations and demands regarding privacy and data security, may limit our ability to collect and use consumer data. Restrictions on our ability to receive, collect and use consumer data could limit our ability to attract and retain subscribers and listeners to our services. In addition, restrictions on our ability to collect, access and process listener data, or to use or disclose listener data or profiles that we develop using such data, could limit our ability to market our content and services to our potential listeners and offer targeted advertising opportunities to our advertisers, each of which are important to our business. Increased regulation of personal data utilization practices and compliance administration could increase our costs of operation or otherwise adversely affect our business.
Consumer protection laws and our failure to comply with them could damage our business.
Federal and state consumer protection laws, rules and regulations cover nearly all aspects of our marketing efforts, including the content of our advertising, the terms of consumer offers and the manner in which we communicate with consumers. The State of New York has filed a suit against us relating to our subscription cancellation practices, and other governmental authorities have commenced investigations into our consumer practices, including the manner in which we allow consumers to cancel subscriptions to our services. The nature of our business requires us to expend significant resources to try to ensure that our marketing activities comply with consumer protection laws, including laws relating to telemarketing activities and privacy. These efforts may not be successful, and we may have to expend even greater resources in our compliance efforts.
Modifications to consumer protection laws, including laws regarding the pricing of our services and the manner in which consumers can cancel our services as well as decisions by courts and administrative agencies interpreting these laws, could have an adverse impact on our ability to attract and retain subscribers and listeners to our services. There can be no assurance that new laws or regulations will not be enacted or adopted, preexisting laws or regulations will not be more strictly enforced or that our operations will comply with all applicable laws, which could have an adverse impact on our operations and financial condition.
Failure to comply with FCC requirements could damage our business.
We hold FCC licenses and authorizations to operate commercial satellite radio services in the United States, including satellites, terrestrial repeaters and related authorizations. The FCC generally grants licenses and authorizations for a fixed term. Although we expect our licenses and authorizations to be renewed in the ordinary course upon their expiration, there can be no assurance that this will be the case. Any assignment or transfer of control of any of our FCC licenses or authorizations must be approved in advance by the FCC. The transactions described under the heading “Business - Liberty Media Split-Off Transaction” involve a transfer of our FCC licenses and must be approved by the FCC.
The operation of our satellite radio systems is subject to significant regulation by the FCC under authority granted through the Communications Act of 1934 and related federal law. We are required, among other things, to operate only within specified frequencies; to coordinate our satellite radio services with radio systems operating in the same range of frequencies in neighboring countries; and to coordinate our communications links to our satellites with other systems that operate in the same frequency band.
Noncompliance by us with these requirements or other conditions or with other applicable FCC rules and regulations could result in fines, additional license conditions, license revocation or other detrimental FCC actions. There is no guarantee that Congress will not modify the statutory framework governing our services, or that the FCC will not modify its rules and regulations in a manner that would have an adverse impact on our operations.
Environmental, social and governance expectations and related reporting obligations may expose us to potential liabilities, increased costs, reputational harm, and other adverse effects.
Many governments, regulators, investors, employees, customers and other stakeholders are focused on environmental, social and governance (or “ESG”) considerations, including climate change and greenhouse gas emissions; human capital management, including diversity, equity and inclusion; cybersecurity; content moderation; and human and civil rights. Our reporting and disclosures in response to these expectations may require additional investments and reporting processes, introduce additional compliance risk, and depend in part on third-party performance or data that is outside our control. Related initiatives, and implementation of these initiatives, also involve risks and uncertainties, and we cannot guarantee that we will achieve any announced environmental, social and governance objectives. In addition, some stakeholders may disagree with our initiatives and objectives. Any failure, or perceived failure, to further our initiatives, adhere to public statements, comply with
federal or state ESG laws and regulations, or meet evolving and varied stakeholder expectations and standards could result in legal and regulatory proceedings against us and adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition, and operations results.
We may face lawsuits, incur liability or suffer reputational harm as a result of content published or made available through our services.
The nature of our business could expose us to claims or public criticism related to defamation, illegal content, misinformation, and content regulation. We could incur costs investigating and defending any such claims. In addition, some stakeholders may disagree with third-party content provided through our services, and negative public criticism of this content could damage our reputation and brands. If we incur material costs, liability, or negative consumer reaction as a result of these occurrences, our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely impacted.
Risks Associated with Data and Cybersecurity and the Protection of Consumer Information
If we fail to protect the security of personal information about our customers, we could be subject to costly government enforcement actions and private litigation and our reputation could suffer.
The nature of our business involves the receipt and storage of personal information about our subscribers and listeners including credit and debit card information. We have a program in place to detect and respond to data security incidents. However, the techniques used to gain unauthorized access to data systems are constantly evolving and may not be detected for long periods of time. We may be unable to anticipate or prevent unauthorized access to data pertaining to our customers, including credit card and debit card information and other personally identifiable information. Our services, which are supported by our own systems and those of third-party vendors, could be subject to computer malware and attacks as well as to catastrophic events (such as fires, floods, hurricanes, or tornadoes), any of which could lead to system interruptions, delays, or shutdowns, causing loss of critical data or the unauthorized access to personally identifiable information.
If we fail to protect the security of personal information about our customers or if an actual or perceived breach of security occurs on our systems or a vendor’s systems, we could be exposed to costly government enforcement actions and private litigation and our reputation could suffer. We may also be required to expend significant resources to address these problems, including notification under various data privacy regulations, and our reputation and operating results could suffer. In addition, our subscribers and listeners, as well as potential customers, could lose confidence in our ability to protect their personal information, which could cause them to discontinue the use of our services. This loss of confidence would also harm our efforts to attract and retain advertisers and to obtain personal information from third parties, and unauthorized access to our programming would potentially create additional royalty expense with no corresponding revenue. Such events could adversely affect our results of operations. The costs of maintaining adequate protection, including insurance protection, against such threats as they develop in the future (or as legal requirements related to data security increase) could be material.
In addition, hardware, software, or applications we develop or procure from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture or other problems that could unexpectedly compromise information security. Unauthorized parties may also attempt to gain access to our systems or facilities, or those of third parties with whom we do business, through fraud, trickery, or other forms of deceiving our employees, contractors or other agents. We may not be able to effectively control the unauthorized actions of third parties who may have access to the data we collect.
To date, we are not aware that we have had a significant cyber-attack or breach that has had a material impact on our business or results of operations. We have implemented systems and processes intended to secure our information technology systems and prevent unauthorized access to or loss of sensitive, confidential and personal data, including through the use of encryption and authentication technologies. Additionally, we have increased our monitoring capabilities to enhance early detection and timely response to potential security anomalies.
The cyber security measures we have implemented, however, may not be sufficient to prevent all possible attacks and may be vulnerable to hacking, employee error, ransom attacks, malfeasance, system error, faulty password management or other irregularities. Further, the development and maintenance of these measures are costly and require ongoing monitoring and updating as technologies change and efforts to overcome security measures become increasingly sophisticated.
We use artificial intelligence in our business, and challenges with properly managing its use could result in reputational harm, competitive harm, and legal liability, and adversely affect our results of operations.
We incorporate artificial intelligence (“AI”) solutions into our digital infrastructure, services, offerings and features, and these applications may become important in our operations over time. Our competitors or other third parties may incorporate
AI into their products more quickly or more successfully than us, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our results of operations. Additionally, if the content, analyses, search results or recommendations that AI applications assist in producing are, or are alleged to be, deficient, inaccurate, or biased, our business, reputation, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
The use of AI applications may result in cybersecurity incidents that implicate the personal data of consumers. Any such cybersecurity incidents related to our use of AI applications could adversely affect our reputation and results of operations. AI also presents emerging ethical issues, such as the proper use of copyrighted material with AI applications, and if our use of AI becomes controversial, we may experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, or legal liability. The rapid evolution of AI, including potential government regulation of AI, will require significant resources to develop, test and maintain our platform, offerings, services, and features to help us implement AI ethically in order to minimize unintended, harmful impact.
Interruption or failure of our information technology and communications systems could impair the delivery of our service and harm our business.
We rely on our own systems and systems of third party vendors to enable subscribers and listeners to access our Pandora and Sirius XM services in a dependable and efficient manner. Any degradation in the quality, or any failure, of our systems could reduce our revenues, cause us to lose customers and damage our brands. Although we have implemented practices designed to maintain the availability of the information technology and service delivery systems we rely on and mitigate the harm of any unplanned interruptions, we cannot anticipate all eventualities. We occasionally experience unplanned outages or technical difficulties. We could also experience loss of data or processing capabilities, which could cause us to lose customers and could harm our reputation and operating results.
We rely on internal systems and external systems maintained by manufacturers, distributors and service providers to take, fulfill and handle customer service requests and host certain online activities. Any interruption or failure of our internal or external systems could prevent us from servicing customers or cause data to be unintentionally disclosed. Our services have experienced, and we expect them to continue to experience, periodic service interruptions and delays involving our own systems and those of our vendors.
Our data centers and our information technology and communications systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters, malicious attacks, fire, power loss, telecommunications failures, computer viruses or other attempts to harm our systems. The occurrence of any of these events could result in interruptions in our services and unauthorized access to, or alteration of, the content and data contained on our systems and that these third party vendors store and deliver on our behalf.
Damage or interruption to data centers and information technology and communications centers could expose us to data loss or manipulation, disruption of service, monetary and reputational damages, competitive disadvantage and significant increases in compliance costs and costs to improve the security and resiliency of our computer systems. The compromise of personal, confidential or proprietary information could also subject us to legal liability or regulatory action under evolving cybersecurity, data protection and privacy laws and regulations enacted by the U.S. federal and state governments or other foreign jurisdictions or by various regulatory organizations. As a result, our ability to conduct our business and our results of operations might be adversely affected.
Risks Associated with Certain Intellectual Property Rights
The market for music rights is changing and is subject to significant uncertainties.
We must maintain music programming royalty arrangements with, and pay license fees to, owners of rights in musical works in order to operate our services. Traditionally, BMI, ASCAP, SESAC and GMR have negotiated for these copyright users, collected royalties and distributed them to songwriters and music publishers. These traditional arrangements are changing. The fracturing of the traditional system for licensing rights in musical works may have significant consequences to our business, including increasing licensing costs and reducing the availability of certain pieces for use on our services.
Under the United States Copyright Act, we also must pay royalties to copyright owners of sound recordings for the performance of such sound recordings on our Sirius XM service. Those royalty rates may be established through negotiation or, if negotiation is unsuccessful, by the Copyright Royalty Board. Owners of copyrights in sound recordings have created SoundExchange, an organization which negotiates licenses and collects and distributes royalties on behalf of record companies and performing artists. SoundExchange is exempt by statute from certain U.S. antitrust laws and exercises significant market power in the licensing of sound recordings. Under the terms of the Copyright Royalty Board’s existing decision governing
sound recording royalties for satellite radio, we are required to pay a royalty based on our gross revenues associated with our satellite radio service, subject to certain exclusions, of 15.5% per year through December 31, 2027.
Our Pandora services depend upon maintaining complex licenses with copyright owners, and these licenses contain onerous terms.
Pandora has direct license agreements with many sound recording copyright and musical work copyright owners. These agreements grant us the right to operate Pandora Premium, and add interactive features, such as replays, additional skips and offline play, to Pandora’s ad-supported service and to Pandora Plus.
The economic terms of these direct licenses are onerous and, as a result, we may not be able to profitably operate the Pandora services. However, the economic terms of these direct licenses may be “market,” given the rates paid by Pandora’s competitors. Competition for Pandora’s services are primarily offered by entities that provide music and entertainment services as a small part of a larger business, such as Apple, Google and Amazon. These competitors have the ability to bear these onerous economic provisions to a much greater extent than our Pandora business. We may not be able to negotiate or obtain lower royalty rates under these direct licenses.
These direct licenses are complex. We may not be in compliance with the terms of these licenses, which could result in the loss of some or all of these licenses and some or all of the rights they convey. Similarly, many of these licenses provide that if the licensor loses rights in a portion of the content licensed under the agreement, that content may be removed from the license going-forward.
If Pandora fails to maintain these direct licenses, or if rights to certain music were no longer available under these licenses, then we may have to remove the affected music from Pandora’s services, or discontinue certain interactive features for such music, and it might become commercially impractical for us to operate Pandora Premium, Pandora Plus or certain features of our advertising supported service. Any of these occurrences could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Several of these direct licenses also include provisions related to the terms of those agreements relative to other content licensing arrangements, which are commonly referred to as “most favored nation” clauses. These provisions have caused, and may in the future cause, our payments under those agreements to escalate substantially. In addition, SoundExchange, many record labels, music publishers and performing rights organizations have the right to audit our royalty payments, and these audits often result in disputes over whether we have paid the proper amounts. As a result of such audits, we could be required to pay additional amounts, audit fees and interest or penalties, and the amounts involved could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
There is no guarantee that these direct licenses will be renewed in the future or that such licenses will be available on the economic terms associated with the current licenses. If we are unable to secure and maintain direct licenses for the rights to provide music on our Pandora services on terms similar to those under our current direct licenses, our content costs could rise and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Failure to protect our intellectual property or actions by third parties to enforce their intellectual property rights could substantially harm our business and operating results.
Development of our systems has depended upon the intellectual property that we have developed, as well as intellectual property licensed from third parties. If the intellectual property that we have developed or use is not adequately protected, others will be permitted to and may duplicate portions of our systems or services without liability. In addition, others may challenge, invalidate, render unenforceable or circumvent our intellectual property rights, patents or existing licenses or we may face significant legal costs in connection with defending and enforcing those intellectual property rights. Some of the know-how and technology we have developed, and plan to develop, is not now, nor will it be, covered by U.S. patents or trade secret protections. Trade secret protection and contractual agreements may not provide adequate protection if there is any unauthorized use or disclosure. The loss of necessary technologies could require us to substitute technologies of lower quality performance standards, at greater cost or on a delayed basis, which could harm us.
Other parties may have patents or pending patent applications, which will later mature into patents or inventions that may block or put limits on our ability to operate our system or license our technologies. We may have to resort to litigation to enforce our rights under license agreements or to determine the scope and validity of other parties’ proprietary rights in the subject matter of those licenses. This may be expensive and we may not succeed in any such litigation.
Third parties may assert claims or bring suit against us for patent, trademark or copyright infringement, or for other infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property rights. Any such litigation could be costly, divert our efforts from our business, subject us to significant liabilities to third parties, require us to seek licenses from third parties, block our ability to
operate our services or license our technology, or otherwise adversely affect our ability to successfully develop and market our services.
Some of our services and technologies may use “open source” software, which may restrict how we use or distribute our services or require that we release the source code subject to those licenses.
We may incorporate in some products software licensed under “open source” licenses. Open source licenses often require that the source code be made available to the public and that any modifications or derivative works to the open source software continue to be licensed under open source licenses. Few courts have interpreted open source licenses, and the manner in which these licenses may be interpreted and enforced is therefore subject to uncertainty. In the event that portions of our proprietary technology are determined to be subject to an open source license, we may be required to publicly release portions of our source code, be forced to re-engineer all or a portion of our technologies, or otherwise be limited in the licensing of our technologies, each of which could adversely affect our ability to sustain and grow our business.
Rapid technological and industry changes and new entrants could adversely impact our services.
The audio entertainment industry is characterized by rapid technological change, frequent product and feature innovations, changes in customer requirements and expectations, evolving standards and new entrants offering products and services. If we are unable to keep pace with these changes, our business may not succeed. Products using new technologies could make our services less competitive in the marketplace.
Risks Related to our Capital and Ownership Structure
We have a significant amount of indebtedness, and our debt contains certain covenants that restrict our operations.
As of December 31, 2023, we had an aggregate principal amount of approximately $9.3 billion of indebtedness outstanding.
Our indebtedness increases our vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions; requires us to dedicate a portion of our cash flow from operations to payments on indebtedness, reducing the availability of cash flow to fund capital expenditures, marketing and other general corporate activities; limits our ability to borrow additional funds; and may limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the audio entertainment industry.
In addition, our borrowings under our Senior Secured Revolving Credit Facility carry a variable interest rate based on the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”). We may, in the future, hedge against interest rate fluctuations by using hedging instruments such as swaps, caps, options, forwards, futures or other similar products. These instruments may be used to selectively manage risks, but there can be no assurance that we will be fully protected against material interest rate fluctuations.
We are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the NASDAQ listing rules and, as a result, qualify for, and rely on, exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements.
We are a “controlled company” for the purposes of the NASDAQ Stock Market listing rules. As such, we have elected not to comply with certain NASDAQ corporate governance requirements. Although a majority of our board of directors consists of independent directors, we do not have a compensation committee and nominating and corporate governance committee that consist entirely of independent directors. Accordingly, you may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of NASDAQ. Following the consummation of the Transactions, we will no longer be a “controlled company” for the purposes of the NASDAQ corporate governance requirements and will be unable to qualify for, and rely on, exemptions from certain NASDAQ corporate governance requirements. See “Business - Liberty Media Split-Off Transaction.”
Our principal stockholder has significant influence, including over actions requiring stockholder approval, and its interests may differ from the interests of other holders of our common stock.
As of December 31, 2023, Liberty Media beneficially owned 83.4% of Holdings’ common stock and has the ability to influence our affairs, policies and operations. Three Liberty Media executives and one other member of the board of directors of Liberty Media are members of our board of directors. Our board of directors currently has thirteen members. Gregory B. Maffei, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Media, is the Chairman of Holdings’ board of directors. Our board of directors is responsible for, among other things, the appointment of executive management, future issuances of
common stock or other securities, the payment of dividends, if any, the incurrence of debt, and the approval of various transactions.
Liberty Media can also determine the outcome of all matters requiring general stockholder approval, including the election of the board of directors and changes to our certificate of incorporation or by-laws. Liberty Media can also cause or prevent a change of control of Holdings and could preclude any unsolicited acquisition of our company. The concentration of ownership could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their common stock as part of a sale of our company and might ultimately affect the market price of our common stock. In certain cases, the interests of Liberty Media may not be aligned with the interests of other stockholders of Holdings. Following the consummation of the Transactions, Liberty Media will no longer beneficially own Holdings’ common stock. See “Business - Liberty Media Split-Off Transaction.”
The Transactions may adversely affect our business and financial condition.
The Transactions and our efforts to consummate the Transactions have required, and may continue to require, our management to divert a disproportionate amount of attention away from their respective day-to-day activities and operations in order to devote time and effort to consummating the Transactions. The risks, and adverse effects, of such disruptions and diversions could be exacerbated by a delay in the completion of the Transactions. Any such disruptions or diversions could adversely affect our financial position or results of operations, regardless of whether the Transactions are completed. Moreover, the Transactions impose certain restrictive interim covenants on us during the pendency of the Transactions. These restrictions may prevent us from taking certain actions during the relevant period, including repurchasing our stock, making certain acquisitions or otherwise pursuing certain business opportunities that our board of directors may deem beneficial. Further, we have incurred, and expect to further incur, certain nonrecurring costs in connections with the Transactions, which may adversely affect our short-term operating results and cash flows. Although we expect that the realization of benefits related to the Transactions will offset such costs and expenses over time, we cannot assure that the net benefits will be achieved in the near term, or at all. Additionally, while we anticipate the realization of strategic and financial benefits to our stockholders as a result of the consummation of the Transactions, including the creation of stockholder value because, among other things, there will be a single class of “one share, one vote” common stock following the consummation of the Transactions, Holdings will no longer have a controlling stockholder, and the Transactions will result in more trading liquidity for our common stock and the potential for future eligibility for inclusion in stock market indexes, there can be no assurance that these benefits will be realized and to what exact impact will they have on stockholder value. See “Business - Liberty Media Split-Off Transaction.”
While we currently pay a quarterly cash dividend to holders of our common stock, we may change our dividend policy at any time.
We currently pay a quarterly cash dividend to holders of our common stock, although we have no obligation to do so, and our dividend policy may change at any time without notice to our stockholders. The declaration and payment of dividends is at the discretion of our board of directors in accordance with applicable law after considering various factors, including our financial condition, operating results, current and anticipated cash needs, limitations imposed by our indebtedness, legal requirements and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant.
Other Operational Risks
If we are unable to attract and retain qualified personnel, our business could be harmed.
We believe that our success depends on our continued ability to attract and retain qualified management, sales, technical and other personnel. All of our employees, including our executive officers, are free to terminate their employment with us at any time, and their knowledge of our business may be difficult to replace.
Qualified individuals are in high demand, particularly in the media and technology industries and we may incur significant costs to attract and retain employees. If we are unable to attract and retain our key employees, we may not be able to achieve our objectives, and our business could be harmed.
Our facilities could be damaged by natural catastrophes or terrorist activities.
An earthquake, hurricane, tornado, flood, cyber-attack, terrorist attack, civil unrest or other catastrophic event could damage our data centers, studios, terrestrial repeater networks or satellite uplink facilities, interrupt our services and harm our
business. We also have significant operations in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity. Natural disasters and extreme weather conditions can be caused or exacerbated by climate change.
Any damage to the satellites that transmit to our terrestrial repeater networks would likely result in degradation of the affected service for some Sirius XM subscribers and could result in complete loss of Sirius XM satellite service in certain or all areas. Damage to our satellite uplink facilities could result in a complete loss of our Sirius XM satellite service until we could transfer operations to suitable back-up facilities.
The unfavorable outcome of pending or future litigation could have an adverse impact on our operations and financial condition.
We are parties to several legal proceedings arising out of various aspects of our business, including possible class actions arising out of our marketing practices and governmental actions and possible class actions and mass arbitrations arising from our pricing and cancellation practices. The outcome of these proceedings may not be favorable, and one or more unfavorable outcomes could have an adverse impact on our financial condition. See "Item 3. Legal Proceedings" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for information on our material legal proceedings.
We may be exposed to liabilities that other entertainment service providers would not customarily be subject to.
We design, establish specifications, source or specify parts and components, and manage various aspects of the logistics of the production of satellite radios and our apps. As a result of these activities, we may be exposed to liabilities associated with the design, manufacture and distribution of radios and apps that the providers of an entertainment service would not customarily be subject to, such as liabilities for design defects, patent infringement and compliance with applicable laws, as well as the costs of returned product.
Our business and prospects depend on the strength of our brands.
Maintaining and enhancing our brands is an important part of our strategy to expand our base of subscribers, listeners and advertisers. Our brands may be impaired by a number of factors, including service outages, data privacy and security issues and exploitation of our trademarks by others without permission. Our ability to maintain and enhance our brands also depends in part on our ability to continue to develop and provide an innovative and high-quality entertainment experience, which we may not do successfully.
Special Note About Forward-Looking Statements
We have made various statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K that may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may also be made in our other reports filed with or furnished to the SEC, in our press releases and in other documents. In addition, from time to time, we, through our management, may make oral forward-looking statements. For example, these forward-looking statements may include, among other things, our statements about our outlook and our future results of operations and financial condition; share repurchase plans; the impact of economic and market conditions; and the impact of recent acquisitions. The words “will likely result,” “are expected to,” “will continue,” “is anticipated,” “estimated,” “believe,” “intend,” “plan,” “may,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “likely,” “projection,” “outlook” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those identified above, which could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. We caution you that the risk factors described above are not exclusive. There may also be other risks that we are unable to predict at this time that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict which will arise or to assess with any precision the impact of each factor on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. We undertake no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.

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ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
Below is a list of the principal properties that we own or lease:
Sirius XM
Location Purpose Own/Lease
New York, NY Corporate headquarters, office facilities and studio/production facilities Lease
Washington, DC Office and studio/production facilities Own
Miami Beach, FL Office and studio/production facilities Lease
Los Angeles, CA Office and studio/production facilities Lease
Nashville, TN Studio/production facilities Lease
Lawrenceville, NJ Office and technical/engineering facilities Lease
Deerfield Beach, FL Office and technical/engineering facilities Lease
Farmington Hills, MI Office and technical/engineering facilities Lease
Irving, TX Office and engineering facilities/call center Lease
Vernon, NJ Technical/engineering facilities Own
Ellenwood, GA Technical/engineering facilities Lease
Fredericksburg, VA Warehouse and technical/engineering facilities Lease
Ashburn, VA Data center Lease
We also lease other small facilities that we use as offices for our advertising sales personnel, studios and warehouse and maintenance space. These facilities are not material to our business or operations.
In addition, we lease or license space at approximately 530 locations for use in connection with the terrestrial repeater networks that support our satellite radio services. In general, these leases and licenses are for space on building rooftops and communications towers. None of these individual locations are material to our business or operations.
Pandora and Off-platform
Location Purpose Own/Lease
Oakland, CA Office and technical/engineering facilities Lease
New York, NY Office, sales and studio/production facilities Lease
Atlanta, GA Office, sales and technical/engineering facilities Lease
Santa Monica, CA Office and sales facilities Lease
We also lease other small facilities that we use as offices for our sales and office personnel. These facilities are not material to our business or operations.

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ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
For a discussion of our “Legal Proceedings,” refer to Note 16 in the notes to our audited consolidated financial statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURE
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not applicable.
PART II

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ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Our common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “SIRI.” On January 30, 2024, there were approximately 6,100 record holders of our common stock.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
As of December 31, 2023, our board of directors had authorized us to repurchase an aggregate of $18.0 billion of our common stock and have not establish an end date for this stock repurchase program. Shares of common stock may be purchased from time to time on the open market, pursuant to pre-set trading plans meeting the requirements of Rule 10b5-1 under the Exchange Act, in privately negotiated transactions, including transactions with Liberty Media and its affiliates, or otherwise. As of December 31, 2023, our cumulative repurchases since December 2012 under our stock repurchase program totaled 3.7 billion shares for approximately $16.8 billion, and approximately $1.2 billion remained available under our existing $18.0 billion stock repurchase program. The size and timing of our repurchases will be based on a number of factors, including price and business and market conditions.
There were no purchases of equity securities registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Exchange Act during the quarter ended December 31, 2023.
COMPARISON OF CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURNS
Set forth below is a graph comparing the cumulative performance of our common stock with the Standard & Poor's Composite-500 Stock Index, or the S&P 500, and the S&P 500 Media & Entertainment Index, the published industry index we use, from December 31, 2018 to December 31, 2023. The graph assumes that $100 was invested on December 31, 2018 in each of our common stock, the S&P 500 and the S&P 500 Media & Entertainment Index.
In November 2016, we paid our first quarterly dividend. Our board of directors expects to declare regular quarterly dividends.
Stockholder Return Performance Table
S&P 500 Index S&P 500 Media & Entertainment Index Sirius XM Holdings Inc.
December 31, 2018 $ 100.00 $ 100.00 $ 100.00
December 31, 2019 $ 128.88 $ 133.63 $ 126.36
December 31, 2020 $ 149.83 $ 175.28 $ 113.57
December 31, 2021 $ 190.13 $ 222.03 $ 114.34
December 31, 2022 $ 153.16 $ 124.20 $ 110.66
December 31, 2023 $ 190.27 $ 205.63 $ 106.01
Equity Compensation Plan Information
The following table provides information about our common stock that may be issued upon exercise of options, warrants and rights under our equity compensation plans. Information is as of December 31, 2023.
Plan Category (shares in millions)
Number of Securities to be Issued upon Exercise of Outstanding Options, Warrants and Rights(1)
Weighted-Average Exercise Price of Outstanding Options, Warrants and Rights(2)
Number of Securities Remaining Available for Future Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans
Equity compensation plans approved by security holders 211 $ 5.60 106
Equity compensation plans not approved by security holders - - -
Total 211 $ 5.60 106
__________
(1)In addition to shares issuable upon exercise of stock options, amount also includes approximately 89 shares underlying restricted stock units, including performance-based restricted stock units (“PRSUs”) and dividend equivalents thereon. The number of shares to be issued in respect of PRSUs and dividend equivalents thereon have been calculated based on the assumption that the maximum levels of performance applicable to the PRSUs will be achieved.
(2)The weighted-average exercise price of outstanding options, warrants and rights relates solely to stock options, which are the only currently outstanding exercisable security.

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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
ITEM 6. [RESERVED]

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including those described under “Item 1A - Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. See “Special Note About Forward-Looking Statements.”
All amounts referenced in this Item 7 are in millions, except subscriber amounts are in thousands and per subscriber and per installation amounts are in ones, unless otherwise stated.
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Executive Summary
We operate two complementary audio entertainment businesses - one of which we refer to as “SiriusXM” and the second of which we refer to as “Pandora and Off-platform”.
Sirius XM
Our Sirius XM business features music, sports, entertainment, comedy, talk, news, traffic and weather channels and other content, as well as podcasts and infotainment services, in the United States on a subscription fee basis. Sirius XM's packages include live, curated and certain exclusive and on demand programming. The Sirius XM service is distributed through our two proprietary satellite radio systems and streamed via applications for mobile devices, home devices and other consumer electronic equipment. Satellite radios are primarily distributed through automakers, retailers and our website. Our Sirius XM service is also available through our in-car user interface, which we call “360L,” that combines our satellite and streaming services into a single, cohesive in-vehicle entertainment experience.
The primary source of revenue from our Sirius XM business is subscription fees, with most of our customers subscribing to monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual plans. We also derive revenue from advertising on select non-music channels, which is sold under the SiriusXM Media brand, direct sales of our satellite radios and accessories, and other ancillary services. As of December 31, 2023, our Sirius XM business had approximately 33.9 million subscribers.
In addition to our audio entertainment businesses, we provide connected vehicle services to several automakers. These services are designed to enhance the safety, security and driving experience of consumers. We also offer a suite of data services that includes graphical weather and fuel prices, a traffic information service, and real-time weather services in boats and airplanes.
Sirius XM also holds a 70% equity interest and 33% voting interest in Sirius XM Canada. Sirius XM Canada's subscribers are not included in our subscriber count or subscriber-based operating metrics.
Pandora and Off-platform
Our Pandora and Off-platform business operates a music, comedy and podcast streaming discovery platform, offering a personalized experience for each listener wherever and whenever they want to listen, whether through mobile devices, vehicle speakers or connected devices. Pandora enables listeners to create personalized stations and playlists, discover new content, hear artist- and expert-curated playlists, podcasts as well as search and play songs and albums on-demand. Pandora is available as (1) an ad-supported radio service, (2) a radio subscription service (Pandora Plus) and (3) an on-demand subscription service (Pandora Premium). As of December 31, 2023, Pandora had approximately 46.0 million monthly active users and 6.0 million subscribers.
The majority of revenue from Pandora is generated from advertising on our Pandora ad-supported radio service which is sold under the SiriusXM Media brand. We also derive subscription revenue from our Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium subscribers.
We also sell advertising on other audio platforms and in widely distributed podcasts, which we consider to be off-platform services. We have an arrangement with SoundCloud Holdings, LLC ("SoundCloud") to be its exclusive ad sales representative in the US and certain European countries and offer advertisers the ability to execute campaigns across the Pandora and SoundCloud platforms. We also have arrangements to serve as the ad sales representative for certain podcasts. In addition, through AdsWizz Inc., we provide a comprehensive digital audio and programmatic advertising technology platform, which connects audio publishers and advertisers with a variety of ad insertion, campaign trafficking, yield optimization, programmatic buying, marketplace and podcast monetization solutions.
Liberty Media
As of December 31, 2023, Liberty Media beneficially owned, directly and indirectly, 83.4% of the outstanding shares of our common stock. As a result, we are a “controlled company” for the purposes of the NASDAQ corporate governance requirements.
On December 11, 2023, Holdings entered into definitive agreements whereby, subject to the terms thereof, Liberty Sirius XM Holdings Inc., a Delaware corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Media (“New Sirius”), would split-off from Liberty Media. The transactions would be effectuated by means of a redemptive split-off of New Sirius (the “Split-Off”), which will own all of the assets and liabilities attributed to Liberty Media’s Series A Liberty SiriusXM common stock (“LSXMA”), Series B Liberty SiriusXM common stock (“LSXMB”) and Series C Liberty SiriusXM common stock (“LSXMK”, together with the LSXMB and LSXMA stock, the “Liberty SiriusXM Group”). Following the Split-Off, New Sirius will combine with Holdings through the merger of Radio Merger Sub, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and a wholly owned subsidiary of New Sirius (“Merger Sub”), with Holdings, with Holdings becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of New Sirius (the “Merger” and, together with the Split-Off, the “Transactions”). As part of the Merger, New Sirius will be renamed “Sirius XM Holdings Inc.”
To effect the Transactions, on December 11, 2023, Liberty Media entered into (i) a Reorganization Agreement (the “Reorganization Agreement”) with Holdings and New Sirius, and (ii) an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) with New Sirius, Holdings and Merger Sub.
In connection with the Merger Agreement and the Reorganization Agreement, on December 11, 2023, certain trusts related to Dr. John C. Malone (collectively, the “Malone Stockholders”) entered into a voting agreement (the “Voting Agreement”) with Liberty Media, Holdings and New Sirius, pursuant to which, among other things, the Malone Stockholders agreed, subject to the terms of the Voting Agreement, to vote their respective shares of Liberty Media’s LSXMA and LSXMB in favor of the Split-Off.
The Transactions have been unanimously approved by Liberty Media’s Board of Directors and a Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Holdings and by Holdings’ Board of Directors. The Transactions are expected to be completed early in the third quarter of 2024, subject to approval by a majority of the aggregate voting power of the shares of Liberty SiriusXM common stock present, whether in-person or by proxy, at a stockholder meeting, the receipt by Liberty Media and New Sirius of tax opinions from their respective tax counsel, as well as the receipt of required regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. A subsidiary of Liberty Media owning a majority of the outstanding shares of Holdings has delivered a written consent approving the Transactions on behalf of a majority of Holdings’ stockholders. Following the Transactions, Liberty Media and New Sirius will operate independently, and neither is expected to have any ownership interest in the other. All of the executive officers of Holdings immediately prior to consummation of the Transactions will be the initial executive officers of New Sirius, and New Sirius will continue to operate under the SiriusXM name and brand.
The Reorganization Agreement, the Merger Agreement and the Voting Agreement are filed as exhibits to this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Results of Operations
Set forth below are our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared with the year ended December 31, 2022. Refer to our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 filed with the SEC on February 2, 2023 for our results of operation for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared with the year ended December 31, 2021. The results of operations are presented for each of our reporting segments for revenue and cost of services and on a consolidated basis for all other items.
For the Years Ended December 31, 2023 vs 2022 Change
2023 2022 Amount %
Revenue
Sirius XM:
Subscriber revenue $ 6,342 $ 6,370 $ (28) - %
Advertising revenue 169 196 (27) (14) %
Equipment revenue 193 189 4 2 %
Other revenue 136 150 (14) (9) %
Total Sirius XM revenue 6,840 6,905 (65) (1) %
Pandora and Off-platform:
Subscriber revenue 524 522 2 - %
Advertising revenue 1,589 1,576 13 1 %
Total Pandora and Off-platform revenue 2,113 2,098 15 1 %
Total consolidated revenue 8,953 9,003 (50) (1) %
Cost of services
Sirius XM:
Revenue share and royalties 1,603 1,552 51 3 %
Programming and content 549 546 3 1 %
Customer service and billing 393 415 (22) (5) %
Transmission 171 158 13 8 %
Cost of equipment 14 13 1 8 %
Total Sirius XM cost of services 2,730 2,684 46 2 %
Pandora and Off-platform:
Revenue share and royalties 1,292 1,250 42 3 %
Programming and content 69 58 11 19 %
Customer service and billing 83 82 1 1 %
Transmission 35 56 (21) (38) %
Total Pandora and Off-platform cost of services 1,479 1,446 33 2 %
Total consolidated cost of services 4,209 4,130 79 2 %
Subscriber acquisition costs 359 352 7 2 %
Sales and marketing 931 1,075 (144) (13) %
Engineering, design and development 322 285 37 13 %
General and administrative 550 525 25 5 %
Depreciation and amortization 554 536 18 3 %
Impairment, restructuring and acquisition costs 82 64 18 28 %
Total operating expenses 7,007 6,967 40 1 %
Income from operations 1,946 2,036 (90) (4) %
Other (expense) income:
Interest expense (423) (422) 1 - %
Other (expense) income (5) (9) (4) (44) %
Total other expense (428) (431) (3) (1) %
Income before income taxes 1,518 1,605 (87) (5) %
Income tax expense (260) (392) (132) (34) %
Net income $ 1,258 $ 1,213 $ 45 4 %
Sirius XM Revenue
Sirius XM Subscriber Revenue includes fees charged for self-pay and paid promotional subscriptions, U.S. Music Royalty Fees and other ancillary fees.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, subscriber revenue was $6,342 and $6,370, respectively, a decrease of less than 1%, or $28. The decrease was primarily driven by a reduction in paid promotional revenue resulting from lower overall rates from automakers offering paid promotional subscriptions and lower revenue generated from our connected vehicle services, partially offset by an increase in self-pay revenue.
We expect subscriber revenues to decrease based on the mix of our subscriber base and a decline in the average price of our subscriptions.
Sirius XM Advertising Revenue includes the sale of advertising on Sirius XM’s non-music channels.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, advertising revenue was $169 and $196, respectively, a decrease of 14%, or $27. The decrease was due to a decline in the number of spots sold and aired, primarily on news and entertainment channels.
We expect our Sirius XM advertising revenue to grow as we improve monetization opportunities through SiriusXM Media, our advertising sales group.
Sirius XM Equipment Revenue includes revenue and royalties from the sale of satellite radios, components and accessories.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, equipment revenue was $193 and $189, respectively, an increase of 2%, or $4. The increase was driven by higher chipset production driven by an increase in OEM demand, partially offset by lower royalty rates.
We expect equipment revenue to decrease due to the transition to our next generation chipset at higher costs.
Sirius XM Other Revenue includes service and advisory revenue from Sirius XM Canada, revenue from our connected vehicle services, and ancillary revenues.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, other revenue was $136 and $150, respectively, a decrease of 9%, or $14. The decrease was primarily driven by lower royalty revenue generated by Sirius XM Canada and our connected vehicle services.
We expect other revenue to decline as revenue generated by Sirius XM Canada and from our connected vehicle services decrease.
Pandora and Off-platform Revenue
Pandora and Off-platform Subscriber Revenue includes fees charged for Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, Pandora and Off-platform subscriber revenue was $524 and $522, respectively, an increase of less than 1%, or $2. The increase was primarily driven by a rate increase on Pandora Plus, partially offset by a decline in the subscriber base.
We expect Pandora and Off-platform subscriber revenues to remain flat.
Pandora and Off-platform Advertising Revenue is generated primarily from audio, display and video advertising from on-platform and off-platform advertising.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, Pandora and Off-platform advertising revenue was $1,589 and $1,576, respectively, an increase of 1%, or $13. The increase was primarily driven by higher podcasting revenue, partially offset by lower sell-through on the Pandora ad-supported service.
We expect Pandora and Off-platform advertising revenue to increase driven by growth in our Off-platform and podcast businesses.
Total Consolidated Revenue
Total Consolidated Revenue for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, was $8,953 and $9,003, respectively, a decrease of 1%, or $50.
Sirius XM Cost of Services
Sirius XM Cost of Services includes revenue share and royalties, programming and content, customer service and billing and transmission expenses.
Sirius XM Revenue Share and Royalties include royalties for transmitting content, including streaming royalties, as well as automaker, content provider and advertising revenue share.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, revenue share and royalties were $1,603 and $1,552, respectively, an increase of 3%, or $51, and increased as a percentage of total Sirius XM revenue. The increase was driven by higher web streaming royalty rates as well as the expiration of certain licenses covering pre-1972 sound recordings.
We expect our Sirius XM revenue share and royalty costs to remain relatively flat as higher royalty rates under the statutory webcasting license resulting from increases in the Consumer Price Index are anticipated to be offset by lower eligible subscription revenue.
Sirius XM Programming and Content includes costs to acquire, create, promote and produce content. We have entered into various agreements with third parties for music and non-music programming that require us to pay license fees and other amounts.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, programming and content expenses were $549 and $546, respectively, an increase of 1%, or $3, and increased as a percentage of total Sirius XM revenue. The increase was driven by higher content licensing costs.
We expect our Sirius XM programming and content expenses to remain flat as additional programming offerings are offset by expiring agreements.
Sirius XM Customer Service and Billing includes costs associated with the operation and management of internal and third party customer service centers, and our subscriber management systems as well as billing and collection costs, bad debt expense, and transaction fees.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, customer service and billing expenses were $393 and $415, respectively, a decrease of 5%, or $22, and decreased as a percentage of total Sirius XM revenue. The decrease was primarily driven by lower call center and personnel-related costs, partially offset by higher transaction costs.
We expect our Sirius XM customer service and billing expenses to decrease driven by lower call center costs as a result of efficiencies from our investment in our digital platform.
Sirius XM Transmission consists of costs associated with the operation and maintenance of our terrestrial repeater networks; satellites; satellite telemetry, tracking and control systems; satellite uplink facilities; studios; and delivery of our Internet and 360L streaming and connected vehicle services.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, transmission expenses were $171 and $158, respectively, an increase of 8%, or $13, and increased as a percentage of total Sirius XM revenue. The increase was primarily driven by higher costs associated with our 360L platform and streaming.
We expect our Sirius XM transmission expenses to increase as costs associated with consumers using our 360L platform rise and investments in streaming grow.
Sirius XM Cost of Equipment includes costs from the sale of satellite radios, components and accessories and provisions for inventory allowance attributable to products purchased for resale in our direct to consumer distribution channels.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, cost of equipment was $14 and $13, respectively, an increase of 8%, or $1, and increased as a percentage of equipment revenue. The increase was driven by higher inventory write downs.
We expect our Sirius XM cost of equipment to decrease as aftermarket sales decline.
Pandora and Off-platform Cost of Services
Pandora and Off-platform Cost of Services includes revenue share and royalties, programming and content, customer service and billing, and transmission expenses.
Pandora and Off-platform Revenue Share and Royalties includes licensing fees paid for streaming music or other content related to podcasts as well as revenue share paid to third party ad servers. We make payments to third party ad servers for the period the advertising impressions are delivered or click-through actions occur, and accordingly, we record this as a cost of service in the related period.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, revenue share and royalties were $1,292 and $1,250, respectively, an increase of 3%, or $42, and increased as a percentage of total Pandora and Off-platform revenue. The increase was primarily due to higher podcast revenue share driven by growth in podcast advertising revenue as well as higher royalty expense due to costs related to an increase in certain web streaming royalty rates.
We expect our Pandora and Off-platform revenue share and royalties to increase based on a variety of music-related factors, including higher royalty rates under the statutory webcasting license, and additional costs associated with our podcast distribution agreements.
Pandora and Off-platform Programming and Content includes costs to produce, license and promote podcast content and live listener events.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, programming and content expenses were $69 and $58, respectively, an increase of 19%, or $11, and increased as a percentage of total Pandora revenue. The increase was primarily attributable to higher podcast license fees and live event costs, partially offset by lower personnel-related costs.
We expect our Pandora and Off-platform programming and content costs to remain flat as lower personnel-related costs are offset by additional programming and live listener events and promotions.
Pandora and Off-platform Customer Service and Billing includes transaction fees on subscription purchases through mobile app stores and bad debt expense.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, customer service and billing expenses were $83 and $82, respectively, an increase of 1%, or $1, and increased as a percentage of total Pandora revenue. The increase was primarily driven by higher bad debt expense, partially offset by lower transaction fees.
We expect our Pandora and Off-platform customer service and billing costs to decrease with declines in the Pandora subscriber base.
Pandora and Off-platform Transmission includes costs associated with content streaming, maintaining our streaming radio and on-demand subscription services and creating and serving advertisements through third-party ad servers.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, transmission expenses were $35 and $56, respectively, a decrease of 38%, or $21, and decreased as a percentage of total Pandora revenue. The decrease was primarily driven by lower colocation and personnel-related costs as well as lower streaming costs resulting from a decline in listener hours.
We expect our Pandora and Off-platform transmission costs to increase as a result of an increase in Off-platform advertising driving higher data costs.
Operating Costs
Subscriber Acquisition Costs are costs associated with our satellite radio service and include hardware subsidies paid to radio manufacturers, distributors and automakers; subsidies paid for chipsets and certain other components used in manufacturing radios; device royalties for certain radios and chipsets; product warranty obligations; and freight. The majority of subscriber acquisition costs are incurred and expensed in advance of acquiring a subscriber. Subscriber acquisition costs do not include advertising costs, marketing, loyalty payments to distributors and dealers of satellite radios or revenue share payments to automakers and retailers of satellite radios.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, subscriber acquisition costs were $359 and $352, respectively, an increase of 2%, or $7, and increased as a percentage of total revenue. The increase was driven by higher hardware
subsidies driven by installations, which grew due to increased production by automakers, partially offset by lower commission and hardware subsidy rates.
We expect subscriber acquisition costs to fluctuate with OEM installations. We intend to continue to offer subsidies and other incentives to induce OEMs to include our technology in their vehicles.
Sales and Marketing includes costs for marketing, advertising, media and production, including promotional events and sponsorships; cooperative and artist marketing; and personnel related costs including salaries, commissions, and sales support. Marketing costs include expenses related to direct mail, outbound telemarketing, email communications, social media, television and performance media.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, sales and marketing expenses were $931 and $1,075, respectively, a decrease of 13%, or $144, and decreased as a percentage of total revenue. The decrease was primarily due to a decrease in streaming marketing and marketing to support our brands as well as lower personnel-related costs.
We anticipate that sales and marketing expenses will remain flat based on current levels of direct marketing, performance media, and brand marketing spend associated with acquiring and retaining listeners and subscribers.
Engineering, Design and Development consists primarily of compensation and related costs to develop chipsets and new products and services, including streaming and connected vehicle services, research and development for broadcast information systems and the design and development costs to incorporate Sirius XM radios into new vehicles manufactured by automakers.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, engineering, design and development expenses were $322 and $285, respectively, an increase of 13%, or $37, and increased as a percentage of total revenue. The increase was driven primarily by higher cloud hosting and personnel-related costs.
We expect engineering, design and development expenses to decrease in future periods as we capitalize more investments as we continue to develop our infrastructure, products and services.
General and Administrative primarily consists of compensation and related costs for personnel and facilities, and include costs related to our finance, legal, human resources and information technologies departments.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, general and administrative expenses were $550 and $525, respectively, an increase of 5%, or $25, and increased as a percentage of total revenue. The increase was primarily driven by increased legal costs, including amounts associated with the settlement of certain litigation matters of $24 during the three months ended June 30, 2023, as well as higher personnel-related benefits attributed to our Deferred Compensation Plan.
We expect our general and administrative expenses to decrease driven by a decline in personnel-related and legal costs.
Depreciation and Amortization represents the recognition in earnings of the cost of assets used in operations, including our satellite constellations, property, equipment and intangible assets, over their estimated service lives.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, depreciation and amortization expense was $554 and $536, respectively, an increase of 3%, or $18, and increased as a percentage of total revenue. The increase was driven by the accelerated end of life of certain software as well as increases in capitalized software and hardware, partially offset by lower amortization expense related to our intangible assets.
Impairment, Restructuring and Acquisition Costs represents impairment charges, associated with the carrying amount of an asset exceeding the asset's fair value, restructuring expenses associated with the abandonment of certain leased office spaces, acquisition costs and costs associated with the Transactions.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, impairment, restructuring, and acquisition costs were $82 and $64, respectively. During 2023, we recorded a charge of $34 primarily related to severance and other related costs, costs associated with the Transactions of $16, impairments primarily related to terminated software projects of $15, vacated office space impairments of $12, accrued expenses of $3 for which we will not recognize any future economic benefit, and a cost-method investment impairment of $2. During 2022, we recorded an impairment of $43 associated with terminated software projects, $16 related to certain vacated office spaces, $5 in connection with furniture and equipment located at the impaired office spaces, and $6 related to personnel severance as well as acquisition related costs of $2; partially offset by $8 from the gain on the sale of real estate.
Other Income (Expense)
Interest Expense includes interest on outstanding debt.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, interest expense was $423 and $422, respectively, an increase of less than 1%, or $1. The increase was primarily driven by higher rates driven by the Credit Facility and Incremental Term Loan, partially offset by a lower average outstanding debt balance.
Other (Expense) Income primarily includes realized and unrealized gains and losses from our Deferred Compensation Plan and other investments, interest and dividend income, our share of the income or loss from equity investments in Sirius XM Canada and SoundCloud, and transaction costs related to non-operating investments.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, other (expense) income was $(5) and $(9), respectively. Other expense for the year ended December 31, 2023, was primarily driven by losses associated with certain investments, partially offset by trading gains associated with the investments held for our Deferred Compensation Plan. Other expense for the year ended December 31, 2022, was primarily driven by losses associated with the investments held for our Deferred Compensation Plan.
Income Taxes
Income Tax Expense includes the change in our deferred tax assets, current federal and state tax expenses, and foreign withholding taxes.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, income tax expense was $260 and $392, respectively, and our effective tax rate was 17.1% and 24.4%, respectively.
Our effective tax rate of 17.1% for the year ended December 31, 2023 was primarily driven by federal and state income tax expense, partially offset by the benefits related to research and development and certain other credits, as well as a release in state valuation allowance. Our effective tax rate of 24.4% for the year ended December 31, 2022 was primarily impacted by federal and state income tax expense as well as changes in state valuation allowance, partially offset by a benefit related to research and development and certain other credits.
Key Financial and Operating Performance Metrics
In this section, we present certain financial performance measures, some of which are presented as Non-GAAP items, which include free cash flow and adjusted EBITDA. We also present certain operating performance measures. Our adjusted EBITDA excludes the impact of share-based payment expense. Additionally, when applicable, our adjusted EBITDA metric excludes the effect of significant items that do not relate to the on-going performance of our business. We use these Non-GAAP financial and operating performance measures to manage our business, to set operational goals and as a basis for determining performance-based compensation for our employees. See the accompanying Glossary for more details and for the reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measure (where applicable).
We believe these Non-GAAP financial and operating performance measures provide useful information to investors regarding our financial condition and results of operations. We believe these Non-GAAP financial and operating performance measures may be useful to investors in evaluating our core trends because they provide a more direct view of our underlying costs. We believe investors may use our adjusted EBITDA to estimate our current enterprise value and to make investment decisions. We believe free cash flow provides useful supplemental information to investors regarding our cash available for future subscriber acquisitions and capital expenditures, to repurchase or retire debt, to acquire other companies and our ability to return capital to stockholders. By providing these Non-GAAP financial and operating performance measures, together with the reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measure (where applicable), we believe we are enhancing investors' understanding of our business and our results of operations.
Our Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to, and not as an alternative for or superior to, our reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP. In addition, our Non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similarly-titled measures by other companies. Please refer to the Glossary for a further discussion of such Non-GAAP financial and operating performance measures and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measure (where applicable). Subscribers and subscription related revenues and expenses associated with our connected vehicle services and Sirius XM Canada are not included in Sirius XM's subscriber count or subscriber-based operating metrics. Subscribers to Cloud Cover are not included in Pandora's subscriber count.
Set forth below are our subscriber balances as of December 31, 2023 compared to December 31, 2022.
As of December 31, 2023 vs 2022 Change
(subscribers in thousands) 2023 2022 Amount %
Sirius XM
Self-pay subscribers 31,942 32,387 (445) (1) %
Paid promotional subscribers 1,933 1,918 15 1 %
Ending subscribers 33,875 34,305 (430) (1) %
Sirius XM Canada subscribers 2,629 2,567 62 2 %
Pandora and Off-platform
Monthly active users - all services 46,026 47,638 (1,612) (3) %
Self-pay subscribers 6,008 6,215 (207) (3) %
Paid promotional subscribers - - - nm
Ending subscribers 6,008 6,215 (207) (3) %
nm - not meaningful
The following table contains our Non-GAAP financial and operating performance measures which are based on our adjusted results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022. Refer to our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 filed with the SEC on February 2, 2023 for our Non GAAP financial and operating performance measures for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared with the year ended December 31, 2021.
For the Years Ended December 31, 2023 vs 2022 Change
(subscribers in thousands) 2023 2022 Amount %
Sirius XM
Self-pay subscribers (445) 348 (793) nm
Paid promotional subscribers 15 (76) 91 nm
Net additions (430) 272 (702) nm
Weighted average number of subscribers 33,993 34,039 (46) - %
Average self-pay monthly churn 1.6 % 1.5 % 0.1 % 7 %
ARPU (1)
$ 15.56 $ 15.63 $ (0.07) - %
SAC, per installation $ 13.18 $ 14.32 $ (1.14) (8) %
Pandora and Off-platform
Self-pay subscribers (207) (109) (98) (90) %
Paid promotional subscribers - (69) 69 nm
Net additions (207) (178) (29) (16) %
Weighted average number of subscribers 6,169 6,308 (139) (2) %
Ad supported listener hours (in billions) 10.48 10.88 (0.40) (4) %
Advertising revenue per thousand listener hours (RPM) $ 99.39 $ 101.19 $ (1.80) (2) %
Total Company
Adjusted EBITDA $ 2,790 $ 2,833 $ (43) (2) %
Free cash flow $ 1,203 $ 1,551 $ (348) (22) %
nm - not meaningful
(1) ARPU for Sirius XM excludes subscriber revenue from our connected vehicle services of $161 and $182 for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
Sirius XM
Subscribers. At December 31, 2023, we had approximately 33,875 subscribers, a decrease of approximately 430 subscribers, or 1%, from the approximately 34,305 subscribers as of December 31, 2022. The decrease was due to a decrease in our self-pay subscriber base resulting from lower vehicle conversion rates and higher vehicle related churn.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, net subscriber additions were (430) and 272, respectively, a decrease of 702. Self-pay net additions decreased as a result of lower new and used vehicle conversion rates, unfavorable vehicle related churn and lower streaming net additions, partially offset by lower non-pay churn and higher OEM volumes. Paid promotional net additions increased as a result of higher vehicle sales.
Sirius XM Canada Subscribers. At December 31, 2023, Sirius XM Canada had approximately 2,629 subscribers, an increase of 62, or 2%, from the approximately 2,567 Sirius XM Canada subscribers as of December 31, 2022.
Average Self-pay Monthly Churn is derived by dividing the monthly average of self-pay deactivations for the period by the average number of self-pay subscribers for the period. (See accompanying Glossary for more details.)
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, our average self-pay monthly churn rate was 1.6% and 1.5%, respectively. The increase was driven by higher vehicle related churn, partially offset by lower non-pay churn.
ARPU is derived from total earned subscriber revenue (excluding revenue derived from our connected vehicle services) and net advertising revenue, divided by the number of months in the period, divided by the daily weighted average number of subscribers for the period. (See the accompanying Glossary for more details.)
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, ARPU was $15.56 and $15.63, respectively. The decrease was driven by an increase in subscribers on promotional and streaming-only self-pay subscription plans, a reduction in rates associated with paid promotional plans from automakers as well as lower advertising revenue; partially offset by increases in certain subscription rates.
SAC, Per Installation, is derived from subscriber acquisition costs less margins from the sale of radios, components and accessories (excluding connected vehicle services), divided by the number of satellite radio installations in new vehicles and shipments of aftermarket radios for the period. (See the accompanying Glossary for more details.)
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, SAC, per installation, was $13.18 and $14.32, respectively. The decrease was driven by a change in the mix of OEMs.
Pandora and Off-platform
Monthly Active Users. At December 31, 2023, Pandora had approximately 46,026 monthly active users, a decrease of 1,612 monthly active users, or 3%, from the 47,638 monthly active users as of December 31, 2022. The decrease in monthly active users was driven by an increase in ad-supported listener churn and a decline in the number of new users.
Subscribers. At December 31, 2023, Pandora had approximately 6,008 subscribers, a decrease of 207, or 3%, from the approximately 6,215 subscribers as of December 31, 2022.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, net subscriber additions were (207) and (178), respectively, a decrease of 16%, or 29. Net additions decreased as a result of decreases in trial starts and lower retention due to certain price increases.
Ad supported listener hours are a key indicator of our Pandora business and the engagement of our Pandora listeners. We include ad supported listener hours related to Pandora's non-radio content offerings in the definition of listener hours.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, ad supported listener hours were 10.48 billion and 10.88 billion, respectively. The decrease in ad supported listener hours was primarily driven by the decline in monthly active users, partially offset by higher hours per active user.
RPM is a key indicator of our ability to monetize advertising inventory created by our listener hours on the Pandora services. RPM is calculated by dividing advertising revenue by the number of thousands of listener hours to our Pandora advertising-based service.
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, RPM was $99.39 and $101.19, respectively. The decrease was a result of a decline in sell-through of advertising spots.
Total Company
Adjusted EBITDA. EBITDA is defined as net income before interest expense, income tax expense and depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA excludes or adjusts for the impact of other expense (income), loss on extinguishment of debt, impairment, restructuring and acquisition costs, costs associated with the Transactions, other non-cash charges such as share-based payment expense, and legal settlements and reserves (if applicable). (See the accompanying Glossary for a reconciliation to GAAP and for more details.)
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, adjusted EBITDA was $2,790 and $2,833, respectively, a decrease of 2%, or $43. The decrease was due to higher web royalty and podcast revenue share costs as well as lower overall revenue, partially offset by lower sales and marketing costs.
Free Cash Flow includes cash provided by operations, net of additions to property and equipment, and restricted and other investment activity. (See the accompanying Glossary for a reconciliation to GAAP and for more details.)
For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, free cash flow was $1,203 and $1,551, respectively, a decrease of $348, or 22%. The decrease was driven by higher capital expenditures driven by satellite construction and investments in our products and technology platform as well as higher cash taxes paid.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
The following table presents a summary of our cash flow activity for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared with the year ended December 31, 2022. Refer to our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 filed with the SEC on February 2, 2023 for our cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared with the year ended December 31, 2021.
For the Years Ended December 31,
2023 2022 2023 vs 2022
Net cash provided by operating activities $ 1,850 $ 1,976 $ (126)
Net cash used in investing activities (686) (548) (138)
Net cash used in financing activities (1,005) (1,562) 557
Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 159 (134) 293
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of period 65 199 (134)
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of period $ 224 $ 65 $ 159
Cash Flows Provided by Operating Activities
Cash flows provided by operating activities decreased by $126 to $1,850 for the year ended December 31, 2023 from $1,976 for the year ended December 31, 2022.
Our largest source of cash provided by operating activities is cash generated by subscription and subscription-related revenues. We also generate cash from the sale of advertising through our Pandora and Off-platform business, advertising on certain non-music channels on Sirius XM and the sale of satellite radios, components and accessories. Our primary uses of cash from operating activities include revenue share and royalty payments to distributors, programming and content providers, and payments to radio manufacturers, distributors and automakers. In addition, uses of cash from operating activities include payments to vendors to service, maintain and acquire listeners and subscribers, general corporate expenditures, and compensation and related costs.
Cash Flows Used in Investing Activities
Cash flows used in investing activities in the year ended December 31, 2023 were primarily due to spending for capitalized software and hardware, the construction of satellites and acquisitions of tax-effective investments for total cash consideration of $39. Cash flows used in investing activities in the year ended December 31, 2022 were primarily due to spending for capitalized software and hardware, to construct satellites, and acquisitions for total cash consideration of $136. We spent $297 and $247 on capitalized software and hardware as well as $285 and $122 to construct satellites during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
Cash Flows Used in Financing Activities
Cash flows used in financing activities consists of the issuance and repayment of long-term debt, the purchase of common stock under our share repurchase program, the payment of cash dividends and taxes paid in lieu of shares issued for stock-based compensation. Proceeds from long-term debt have been used to fund our operations, construct and launch new satellites, fund acquisitions, invest in other infrastructure improvements and purchase shares of our common stock.
Cash flows used in financing activities in the year ended December 31, 2023 were primarily due to repayments under our Credit Facility of $1,750, the payment of cash dividends of $383, the repurchase of $193 in principal amount of Pandora's 1.75% Convertible Senior Notes due 2023, the purchase and retirement of shares of our common stock under our repurchase program for $274 and payment of $63 for taxes in lieu of shares issued for share-based compensation, partially offset by borrowings under our Credit Facility of $1,670. Cash flows used in financing activities in the year ended December 31, 2022 were primarily due to repayments under our Credit Facility of $2,220, the payment of cash dividends of $1,339, the purchase and retirement of shares of our common stock under our repurchase program for $647, and payment of $114 for taxes in lieu of shares issued for share-based compensation, partially offset by borrowings under our Credit Facility of $2,300 and an amendment to our Credit Facility to incorporate an Incremental Term Loan borrowing of $500 ($499 net of costs) which matures on April 11, 2024.
Future Liquidity and Capital Resource Requirements
Based upon our current business plans, we expect to fund operating expenses, capital expenditures, including the construction of replacement satellites, working capital requirements, interest payments, taxes and scheduled maturities of our debt with existing cash, cash flow from operations and borrowings under our Credit Facility. As of December 31, 2023, no amount was outstanding under our Credit Facility and $1,750 was available for future borrowing under our Credit Facility. We believe that we have sufficient cash and cash equivalents, as well as debt capacity, to cover our estimated short-term and long-term funding needs, including amounts to construct, launch and insure replacement satellites, as well as fund future stock repurchases, future dividend payments and to pursue strategic opportunities.
Our ability to meet our debt and other obligations depends on our future operating performance and on economic, financial, competitive and other factors.
We regularly evaluate our business plans and strategy. These evaluations often result in changes to our business plans and strategy, some of which may be material and significantly change our cash requirements. These changes in our business plans or strategy may include: the acquisition of unique or compelling programming; the development and introduction of new features or services; significant new or enhanced distribution arrangements; investments in infrastructure, such as satellites, equipment or radio spectrum; and acquisitions and investments, including acquisitions and investments that are not directly related to our existing business.
We may from time to time purchase our outstanding debt through open market purchases, privately negotiated transactions or otherwise. Purchases or retirement of debt, if any, will depend on prevailing market conditions, liquidity requirements, contractual restrictions and other factors. The amounts involved may be material.
As part of our ESG strategies, we have made, and expect to make, certain tax-efficient investments in clean energy technologies, including industrial carbon capture and storage. These investments will produce tax credits and related tax losses. Over the next seven years, we currently expect to generate more than $250 million in net-after tax cash benefit. The payments on these equity investments will be classified as investing activities from a cash flow perspective, while the tax credits and losses will benefit our federal cash taxes in operating activities.
Capital Return Program
As of December 31, 2023, our board of directors had authorized for repurchase an aggregate of $18,000 of our common stock. As of December 31, 2023, our cumulative repurchases since December 2012 under our stock repurchase program totaled 3,731 shares for $16,834, and $1,166 remained available for additional repurchases under our existing stock repurchase program authorization.
Shares of common stock may be purchased from time to time on the open market and in privately negotiated transactions, including in accelerated stock repurchase transactions and transactions with Liberty Media and its affiliates. We intend to fund the additional repurchases through a combination of cash on hand, cash generated by operations and future
borrowings. The size and timing of any purchases will be based on a number of factors, including price and business and market conditions.
On January 24, 2024, our board of directors declared a quarterly dividend on our common stock in the amount of $0.0266 per share of common stock payable on February 23, 2024 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 9, 2024.
Debt Covenants
The indentures governing Sirius XM's senior notes and the agreement governing the Sirius XM Credit Facility include restrictive covenants. As of December 31, 2023, we were in compliance with such covenants. For a discussion of our “Debt Covenants,” refer to Note 13 to our consolidated financial statements in Part II, Item 8, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We do not have any significant off-balance sheet arrangements other than those disclosed in Note 16 to our consolidated financial statements in Part II, Item 8, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K that are reasonably likely to have a material effect on our financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures or capital resources.
Contractual Cash Commitments
For a discussion of our “Contractual Cash Commitments,” refer to Note 16 to our consolidated financial statements in Part II, Item 8, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Related Party Transactions
For a discussion of “Related Party Transactions,” refer to Note 12 to our consolidated financial statements in Part II, Item 8, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP, which requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the periods. Accounting estimates require the use of significant management assumptions and judgments as to future events, and the effect of those events cannot be predicted with certainty. The accounting estimates will change as new events occur, more experience is acquired and more information is obtained. We evaluate and update our assumptions and estimates on an ongoing basis and use outside experts to assist in that evaluation when we deem necessary. We have identified all significant accounting policies in Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements in Part II, Item 8, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Non-Financial Instrument Valuations. Our non-financial instrument valuations are primarily comprised of our determination of the estimated fair value allocation of net tangible and identifiable intangible assets acquired in business combinations, our annual assessment of the recoverability of our goodwill and other nonamortizable intangibles, such as trademarks, and our evaluation of the recoverability of our other long-lived assets upon certain triggering events. If the carrying value of our long-lived assets exceeds their estimated fair value, we are required to write the carrying value down to fair value. Any such writedown is included in Impairment, restructuring and acquisition costs in our consolidated statement of operations. Judgment is required to estimate the fair value of our long-lived assets. We may use quoted market prices, prices for similar assets, present value techniques and other valuation techniques to prepare these estimates. We may need to make estimates of future cash flows and discount rates as well as other assumptions in order to implement these valuation techniques. Due to the degree of judgment involved in our estimation techniques, any value ultimately derived from our long-lived assets may differ from our estimate of fair value. As each of our operating segments has long-lived assets, this critical accounting policy affects the financial position and results of operations of each segment.
As of December 31, 2023, the intangible assets not subject to amortization for each of our consolidated reportable segments were as follows (amounts in millions):
Goodwill FCC Licenses Trademarks Total
Sirius XM $ 2,290 $ 2,084 $ 250 $ 4,624
Pandora and Off-platform 959 - 312 1,271
Consolidated $ 3,249 $ 2,084 $ 562 $ 5,895
We perform our annual assessment of the recoverability of our goodwill and other nonamortizable intangible assets in the fourth quarter each year, or more frequently if events and circumstances indicate impairment may have occurred. The accounting guidance permits entities to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount as a basis for determining whether it is necessary to perform the quantitative goodwill impairment test. The accounting guidance also allows entities the option to bypass the qualitative assessment for any reporting unit in any period and proceed directly to the quantitative impairment test. The entity may resume performing the qualitative assessment in any subsequent period. In evaluating goodwill on a qualitative basis, we review the business performance of each reporting unit and evaluate other relevant factors as identified in the relevant accounting guidance to determine whether it is more likely than not that an indicated impairment exists for any of our reporting units. We consider whether there are any negative macroeconomic conditions, industry specific conditions, market changes, increased competition, increased costs in doing business, management challenges, the legal environments and how these factors might impact company specific performance in future periods. As part of the analysis, we also consider fair value determinations for our reporting units that have been made at various points throughout the current and prior year for other purposes. If based on the qualitative analysis it is more likely than not that an impairment exists, we perform the quantitative impairment test.
Useful Life of Broadcast/Transmission System. Our satellite system includes the costs of our satellite construction, launch vehicles, launch insurance, capitalized interest, spare satellites, terrestrial repeater network and satellite uplink facilities. We monitor our satellites for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the asset is not recoverable.
We operate two in-orbit Sirius satellites, FM-5 and FM-6, which launched in 2009 and 2013, respectively, and estimate they will operate effectively through the end of their depreciable lives in 2024 and 2028, respectively.
We currently operate three in-orbit XM satellites, XM-3, XM-5 and SXM-8. Our XM-3 satellite was launched in 2005 and is used as an in-orbit spare and reached the end of its depreciable life in 2020. Our XM-5 satellite was launched in 2010 and is expected to reach the end of its depreciable life in 2025. Our SXM-8 satellite was launched in 2021 and is expected to reach the end of its depreciable life in 2036. Our SXM-8 satellite replaced our XM-3 satellite. We have entered into agreements for the design, construction and launch of four additional satellites, SXM-9, SXM-10, SXM-11 and SXM-12.
Our satellites have been designed to last fifteen-years. Our in-orbit satellites may experience component failures which could adversely affect their useful lives. We monitor the operating condition of our in-orbit satellites and if events or circumstances indicate that the depreciable lives of our in-orbit satellites have changed, we will modify the depreciable life accordingly. If we were to revise our estimates, our depreciation expense would change.
Income Taxes. Deferred income taxes are recognized for the tax consequences related to temporary differences between the carrying amount of assets and liabilities for financial reporting purposes and the amounts used for tax purposes, based on enacted tax laws and statutory tax rates applicable to the periods in which the differences are expected to affect taxable income.
We assess the recoverability of deferred tax assets at each reporting date and, where applicable, a valuation allowance is recognized when, based on the weight of all available evidence, it is considered more likely than not that all, or some portion, of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. Our assessment includes an analysis of whether deferred tax assets will be realized in the ordinary course of operations based on the available positive and negative evidence, including the scheduling of deferred tax liabilities and forecasted income from operations. The underlying assumptions we use in forecasting future taxable income require significant judgment. In the event that actual income from operations differs from forecasted amounts, or if we change our estimates of forecasted income from operations, we could record additional charges or reduce allowances in order to adjust the carrying value of deferred tax assets to their realizable amount. Such adjustments could be material to our consolidated financial statements.
As of December 31, 2023, we had a valuation allowance of $88 relating to deferred tax assets that are not more likely than not to be realized due to the timing of certain state net operating loss limitations and acquired net operating losses that were not likely to be utilized.
ASC 740, Income Taxes, requires a company to first determine whether it is more likely than not that a tax position will be sustained based on its technical merits as of the reporting date, assuming that taxing authorities will examine the position and have full knowledge of all relevant information. A tax position that meets this more likely than not threshold is then measured and recognized at the largest amount of benefit that is greater than fifty percent likely to be realized upon effective settlement with a taxing authority. If the tax position is not more likely than not to be sustained, the gross amount of the unrecognized tax
position will not be recorded in the financial statements but will be shown in tabular format within the uncertain income tax positions. Changes in recognition or measurement are reflected in the period in which the change in judgment occurs due to the following conditions: (1) the tax position is “more likely than not” to be sustained, (2) the tax position, amount, and/or timing is ultimately settled through negotiation or litigation, or (3) the statute of limitations for the tax position has expired. A number of years may elapse before an uncertain tax position is effectively settled or until there is a lapse in the applicable statute of limitations. We record interest and penalties related to uncertain tax positions in Income tax expense in our consolidated statements of comprehensive income. As of December 31, 2023, the gross liability for income taxes associated with uncertain tax positions was $171.
Glossary
Monthly active users - the number of distinct registered users on the Pandora services, including subscribers, which have consumed content within the trailing 30 days to the end of the final calendar month of the period. The number of monthly active users on the Pandora services may overstate the number of unique individuals who actively use our Pandora service, as one individual may use multiple accounts. To become a registered user on the Pandora services, a person must sign-up using an email address or access our service using a device with a unique identifier, which we use to create an account for our service.
Average self-pay monthly churn - for satellite-enabled subscriptions, the Sirius XM monthly average of self-pay deactivations for the period divided by the average number of self-pay subscribers for the period.
Adjusted EBITDA - EBITDA is defined as net income before interest expense, income tax expense and depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA is a Non-GAAP financial measure that excludes or adjusts for the impact of other expense (income), loss on extinguishment of debt, impairment, restructuring and acquisition costs, costs associated with the Transactions, other non-cash charges such as share-based payment expense, and legal settlements and reserves (if applicable). We believe adjusted EBITDA is a useful measure of the underlying trend of our operating performance, which provides useful information about our business apart from the costs associated with our capital structure and purchase price accounting. We believe investors find this Non-GAAP financial measure useful when analyzing our past operating performance with our current performance and comparing our operating performance to the performance of other communications, entertainment and media companies. We believe investors use adjusted EBITDA to estimate our current enterprise value and to make investment decisions. As a result of large capital investments in our satellite radio system, our results of operations reflect significant charges for depreciation expense. We believe the exclusion of share-based payment expense is useful as it is not directly related to the operational conditions of our business. We also believe the exclusion of the legal settlements and reserves, impairment, restructuring and acquisition related costs, to the extent they occur during the period, is useful as they are significant expenses not incurred as part of our normal operations for the period.
Adjusted EBITDA has certain limitations in that it does not take into account the impact to our consolidated statements of comprehensive income of certain expenses, including share-based payment expense. We endeavor to compensate for the limitations of the Non-GAAP measure presented by also providing the comparable GAAP measure with equal or greater prominence and descriptions of the reconciling items, including quantifying such items, to derive the Non-GAAP measure. Investors that wish to compare and evaluate our operating results after giving effect for these costs should refer to net income as disclosed in our consolidated statements of comprehensive income. Since adjusted EBITDA is a Non-GAAP financial performance measure, our calculation of adjusted EBITDA may be susceptible to varying calculations; may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies; and should not be considered in isolation, as a substitute for, or superior to measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. The reconciliation of net income to the adjusted EBITDA is calculated as follows:
For the Years Ended December 31,
2023 2022
Net income: $ 1,258 $ 1,213
Add back items excluded from Adjusted EBITDA:
Legal settlements and reserves 24 -
Impairment, restructuring and acquisition costs 82 64
Share-based payment expense (1)
184 197
Depreciation and amortization 554 536
Interest expense 423 422
Other expense
5 9
Income tax expense 260 392
Adjusted EBITDA $ 2,790 $ 2,833
(1)Allocation of share-based payment expense:
For the Years Ended December 31,
2023 2022
Programming and content $ 34 $ 34
Customer service and billing 5 6
Transmission 6 6
Sales and marketing 45 52
Engineering, design and development 46 39
General and administrative 48 60
Total share-based payment expense $ 184 $ 197
Free cash flow - is derived from cash flow provided by operating activities, net of additions to property and equipment and purchases of other investments. Free cash flow is a metric that our management and board of directors use to evaluate the cash generated by our operations, net of capital expenditures and other investment activity. In a capital intensive business, with significant investments in satellites, we look at our operating cash flow, net of these investing cash outflows, to determine cash available for future subscriber acquisition and capital expenditures, to repurchase or retire debt, to acquire other companies and to evaluate our ability to return capital to stockholders. We exclude from free cash flow certain items that do not relate to the on-going performance of our business, such as cash flows related to acquisitions, strategic and short-term investments, including tax efficient investments in clean energy as well as net loan activity with related parties and other equity investees. We believe free cash flow is an indicator of the long-term financial stability of our business. Free cash flow, which is reconciled to “Net cash provided by operating activities,” is a Non-GAAP financial measure. This measure can be calculated by deducting amounts under the captions “Additions to property and equipment” and deducting or adding Restricted and other investment activity from “Net cash provided by operating activities” from the consolidated statements of cash flows. Free cash flow should be used in conjunction with other GAAP financial performance measures and may not be comparable to free cash flow measures presented by other companies. Free cash flow should be viewed as a supplemental measure rather than an alternative measure of cash flows from operating activities, as determined in accordance with GAAP. Free cash flow is limited and does not represent remaining cash flows available for discretionary expenditures due to the fact that the measure does not deduct the payments required for debt maturities. We believe free cash flow provides useful supplemental information to investors regarding our current cash flow, along with other GAAP measures (such as cash flows from operating and investing activities), to determine our financial condition, and to compare our operating performance to other communications, entertainment and media companies. Free cash flow is calculated as follows:
For the Years Ended December 31,
2023 2022
Cash Flow information
Net cash provided by operating activities $ 1,850 $ 1,976
Net cash used in investing activities (686) (548)
Net cash used in financing activities (1,005) (1,562)
Free Cash Flow
Net cash provided by operating activities 1,850 1,976
Additions to property and equipment (650) (426)
Sales of other investments
3 1
Free cash flow $ 1,203 $ 1,551
ARPU - Sirius XM ARPU is derived from total earned subscriber revenue (excluding revenue associated with our connected vehicle services) and advertising revenue, divided by the number of months in the period, divided by the daily weighted average number of subscribers for the period.
Subscriber acquisition cost, per installation - or SAC, per installation, is derived from subscriber acquisition costs less margins from the sale of radios and accessories (excluding connected vehicle services), divided by the number of satellite radio installations in new vehicles and shipments of aftermarket radios for the period. SAC, per installation, is calculated as follows:
For the Years Ended December 31,
2023 2022
Subscriber acquisition costs, excluding connected vehicle services $ 359 $ 352
Less: margin from sales of radios and accessories, excluding connected vehicle services (179) (176)
$ 180 $ 176
Installations (in thousands) 13,640 12,270
SAC, per installation (a)
$ 13.18 $ 14.32
(a)Amounts may not recalculate due to rounding.
Ad supported listener hours - is based on the total bytes served over our Pandora advertising supported platforms for each track that is requested and served from our Pandora servers, as measured by our internal analytics systems, whether or not a listener listens to the entire track. For non-music content such as podcasts, episodes are divided into approximately track-length parts, which are treated as tracks. To the extent that third-party measurements of advertising hours are not calculated using a similar server-based approach, the third-party measurements may differ from our measurements.
RPM - is calculated by dividing advertising revenue, excluding AdsWizz and other off-platform revenue, by the number of thousands of listener hours on our Pandora advertising-based service.

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ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURE ABOUT MARKET RISK
As of December 31, 2023, we did not hold or issue any derivatives. We hold investments in money market funds and certificates of deposit. These securities are consistent with the objectives contained within our investment policy. The basic objectives of our investment policy are the preservation of capital, maintaining sufficient liquidity to meet operating requirements and maximizing yield.
As of December 31, 2023, we also held the following investment:
In connection with the recapitalization of Sirius XM Canada on May 25, 2017, we loaned Sirius XM Canada $130.8 million. The carrying value of the loan as of December 31, 2023 was $8.0 million and approximated its fair value. The loan is denominated in Canadian dollars and it is subject to changes in foreign currency. The loan is considered a long-term investment with any unrealized gains or losses reported within Accumulated other comprehensive (loss) income. The loan has a term of fifteen years, bears interest at a rate of 7.62% per annum and includes customary covenants and events of default, including an event of default relating to Sirius XM Canada’s failure to maintain specified leverage ratios. Had the Canadian to U.S. dollar exchange rate been 10% lower as of December 31, 2023, the value of this loan would have been approximately $0.8 million lower.
Our debt includes fixed rate instruments and the fair market value of our debt is sensitive to changes in interest rates. Sirius XM's borrowings under the Credit Facility carry a variable interest rate, which is currently based on SOFR, plus an applicable rate based on its debt to operating cash flow ratio. We currently do not use interest rate derivative instruments to manage our exposure to interest rate fluctuations.

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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
See the Index to Consolidated Financial Statements and financial statements and financial statement schedule contained in Part IV, Item 15, herein, which are incorporated herein by reference.

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ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS
ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE
None.

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ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Controls and Procedures
We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission's rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosures. Any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. An evaluation was performed under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including Jennifer C. Witz, our Chief Executive Officer, and Thomas D. Barry, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures (as that term is defined in Rule 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of December 31, 2023. Based on that evaluation, our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of December 31, 2023 at the reasonable assurance level.
There has been no change in our internal control over financial reporting (as that term is defined in Rule 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) during the year ended December 31, 2023 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Management's Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act. We have performed an evaluation under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Our management used the Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission to perform this evaluation. Based on that evaluation, our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2023.
KPMG LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, which has audited and reported on the consolidated financial statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, has issued its report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.
Audit Report of the Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023 has been audited by KPMG LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their audit report appearing on page of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
None.

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ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Information about our executive officers is contained in the discussion entitled “Information About Our Executive Officers” in Part I of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
The additional information required by this Item 10 is incorporated in this report by reference to the applicable information in our definitive proxy statement for the 2024 annual meeting of stockholders set forth under the captions Stock Ownership, Governance of the Company, Item 1. Election of Directors and Item 2. Ratification of Independent Registered Public Accountants, which we expect to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission prior to May 1, 2024.
Code of Ethics
We have adopted a code of ethics that applies to all employees, including executive officers, and to directors. The Code of Ethics is available on the Corporate Governance page of our website at www.siriusxm.com. If we ever were to amend or waive any provision of our Code of Ethics that applies to our principal executive officer, principal financial officer, principal accounting officer or any person performing similar functions, we intend to satisfy our disclosure obligations with respect to any such waiver or amendment by posting such information on our internet website set forth above rather than filing a Form 8-K.

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ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
The information required by this Item 11 is incorporated in this report by reference to the applicable information in our definitive proxy statement for the 2024 annual meeting of stockholders set forth under the captions Item 1. Election of Directors and Executive Compensation, which we expect to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission prior to May 1, 2024.

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ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS
ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS
Certain information required by this Item 12 is set forth under the heading “Equity Compensation Plan Information” in Part II, Item 5, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
The additional information required by this Item 12 is incorporated in this report by reference to the applicable information in our definitive proxy statement for the 2024 annual meeting of stockholders set forth under the caption Stock Ownership, which we expect to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission prior to May 1, 2024.

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ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS
ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE
The information required by this Item 13 is incorporated in this report by reference to the applicable information in our definitive proxy statement for the 2024 annual meeting of stockholders set forth under the captions Governance of the Company and Item 1. Election of Directors, which we expect to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission prior to May 1, 2024.

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ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES
ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES
Our independent registered public accounting firm is KPMG LLP, New York, NY, Auditor ID: 185.
The information required by this Item 14 is incorporated in this report by reference to the applicable information in our definitive proxy statement for the 2024 annual meeting of stockholders set forth under the caption Item 2. Ratification of Independent Registered Public Accountants - Principal Accountant Fees and Services, which we expect to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission prior to May 1, 2024.
PART IV

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ITEM 15. EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
ITEM 15. EXHIBIT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
Documents filed as part of this report:
(1) Financial Statements. See Index to Consolidated Financial Statements appearing on page.
(2) Financial Statement Schedules. See Index to Consolidated Financial Statements appearing on page.
(3) Exhibits. See Exhibit Index, which is incorporated herein by reference.