Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSatellite radio giant SiriusXM saw a 6% revenue gain and added 279,000 subscribers in its satellite radio business, although it faced “headwinds” with its Pandora unit, which lost 63,000 subscribers and recorded a $976 million impairment charge, due primarily to royalty payment costs.The company had warned investors of the charge last month in its guidance.
Pandora has faced challenges as streaming listeners embrace Spotify and Apple Music over more lean-back services.The charge contributed to the company’s swooning from a $243 million profit in Q4 2019 to a loss of $677 million, despite a 6 percent revenue gain to $2.19 billion.“We have a taken pragmatic view of royalty costs in our assumptions,” CFO Sean.
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