A small gain in paying listeners and fatter margins give satellite radio’s last giant a rare growth story to sell.

Five thousand. That is how many self-pay subscribers SiriusXM added in the third quarter, and for this company it counts as a win.

A year earlier, the satellite radio and Pandora owner lost 40,000 of them, according to its third-quarter earnings release. Revenue was essentially flat at $2.15 billion, but net income rose 7% to $317 million, adjusted EBITDA climbed 3% to $694 million at a 32% margin, and free cash flow grew 14% to $293 million.

Management raised its full-year outlook anyway. SiriusXM now expects about $8.55 billion in revenue, $2.65 billion in adjusted EBITDA and $1.40 billion in free cash flow, figures posted on its investor relations site alongside the results.

The subscriber math is modest. Self-pay churn improved to 1.5% from 1.6%, average revenue per user held near $15.18, and lower-priced companion plans contributed 107,000 net additions. Chief executive Jennifer Witz said SiriusXM is “stabilizing our subscriber base, deepening engagement through differentiated content and experiences.”

Costs did the rest. CFO Zac Coughlin credited “disciplined cost management and structural operating improvements” for the margin gain. Over nine months, free cash flow reached $1.06 billion, up from $715 million, giving the company room to return $124 million to shareholders in the quarter through dividends and buybacks while holding leverage at 3.3 times adjusted EBITDA. Not everything moved up. Diluted earnings per share fell 7% to 78 cents, and Pandora’s ad revenue grew only 1% to $419 million, even as a GuruFocus summary of the earnings call on Yahoo Finance led with the raised guidance.

For the music business, SiriusXM matters as one of the largest paying audio audiences outside the streaming giants, with roughly 33 million total subscribers, per its quarterly filing. Watch the fourth quarter. One positive quarter is a data point. Two would be a trend.

Sources

• SiriusXM – Sirius XM Holdings Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results and Raises Full-Year Financial Guidance
• SiriusXM Investor Relations – Investor home
• SiriusXM / SEC – Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026
• Yahoo Finance (GuruFocus) – Sirius XM Holdings Inc (SIRI) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Highlights

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