Partnerships

News cars are sporting some great new features, and Kia is not missing a beat by including Sirius Traffic as an optional feature on the 2011 Kia Sportage. Kia is among the brands offering 100% satellite radio installation across all of their models, and with some vehicles even include additional Sirius services such as traffic.

The 2011 Kia Sportage has been a good seller for Kia. Sister company Hyundai and Kia and have been breaking their respective sales records with each passing month. Much of their success is due to improved consumer perception combined with better quality, and of course, a lot of bang for the buck. The Sportage starts out at just $18,295.

Kia is featuring the Sirius Traffic option in their latest advertising campaign. The exposure helps spread the word that Sirius XM is more than satellite radio. Throughout 2011 there has not been a month that goes by without an OEM advertising Sirius or XM in some manner. Ford, GM, Audi, and several others have all made it a point to feature Sirius XM services in their promotions and sales material.

View the latest Kia Ad on the Kia website.

Position – Long Sirius XM Radio

The OEM channel has shifted to a leaner model. Auto manufacturers are holding far less inventory than they have in the past. The move is making for better cash flow, and the new model is actually helpful to satellite radio. In the past, with large auto inventories, Sirius XM had a lot of cash showing in deferred revenue on their financial statements. This happened because for about 33% of the cars manufactured with satellite radio are counted as subscribers at the point of manufacture, and not the point of sale.

When the auto industry had massive inventory awaiting dealer delivery or sitting on dealer lots, the money paid for these subscriptions was deferred revenue that does not begin to convert to revenue until the car was sold and the contracted satellite radio service was being delivered. Deferred revenue is not a bad thing in this case. Think of it as revenue in the bank that the company will be reporting in the quarters to come. With the auto industry narrowing the time between manufacture and sale, Sirius XM will be able to convert deferred revenue to revenue in a shorter time period.

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This past Tuesday SiriusBuzz Radio interviewed Evan Facemeyer, Sales Director, of BettenHausen Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep. The interview gave many SIRI investors a look into the OEM channel that typically is not offered up in mainstream media. One compelling point in the interview centered around what the penetration of satellite radio was at his dealership. His answer was quite interesting.

“I have over 350 cars in stock and in-bound. Of that I only have two that do not have satellite radio….I really wont order a car without satellite radio because it is that much of a demand…It’s getting to the point where it is simply going to become standard equipment within the next year or so….Like air conditioning is virtually a standard feature on cars sold today.”

What Evan Facemeyer indicated during the show was that consumers are looking for satellite radio more than ever, and that all cars he orders for the dealership all have satellite radio. His reasoning is simple and two fold.

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Sirius XM and Ford are working together to promote satellite radio above and beyond what has typically been done in the past. For all satellite radio equipped 2011 vehicles the consumer can opt in to receive not only Sirius Everything, but the Best Of XM as well. A typical promotional subscription from Ford gives users 6 months of satellite radio. Now, with the Best of XM added to the mix, the value for consumers just got better.

Add The Best of XM for Free
“New for 2011, The Best of XM package can be added to your six-month trial at no additional cost. Add The Best of XM on SIRIUS and get Oprah Radio®, basketball and hockey games, sports talk, Opie & Anthony, XM Public Radio® with Bob Edwards, college sports and more.”

Taking things a step further, Ford is definitely helping Sirius XM gain expose to an all important younger audience by making Sirius Satellite Radio a standard feature on two of the more popular entry level vehicles. Those include the Ford Focus Coupe and the Ford Fusion Hybrid. Sirius is also Standard on the Ford Escape Hybrid and Ford Explorer Sport Track.

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Auto incentives over the last few months have helped boost auto sales figures, and by extension, have helped Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) garner promotional subscribers at a pace that should outperform the Q1 subscriber tally of over 170,000 new subs. The incentive war between automakers has slowed a bit this month, but overall the deals in June 2010 are better for consumers than at this time last year.

SiriusBuzz tracks the OEM channel closely because it is where satellite radio gets their subscriber growth from, and where most people get exposed to the concept of premium content. Understanding what is happening in the auto world throughout the month gives investors additional insight and foresight into what will be likely to happen in the relationship between the auto channel and Sirius XM Radio.

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Chrysler has joined GM and Ford by reporting impressive year-over-year gains. The U.S. maker sold 104,819 units representing a 33% gain over last year and 9,000 more units than sold last month.

With Chrysler’s numbers now in, the market us awaiting Toyota, Honda, and Nissan to gauge where total sales will come in.

Chrysler’s satellite radio equipped cars are counted as subscribers at production. Strong sales for Chrysler increases the chances for a boost in production.

Position – Long Sirius XM Radio

Ford has released their May 2010 auto sales, and the news us good fir SIRI. The U.S. automaker saw sales jump 22% over a year ago and 32,000 more units sold in May than in April.

Ford’s sales were 196,912 units, slightly less than GM. Ford also announced that Q2 production was being increased by 15,000 units, which is good for satellite radio because Ford’s satellite radio’s are counted at production. The even better news is in Q3 where Ford is boosting production by 80,000 units. This demonstrates that Ford believes that the auto channel recovery is real.

With overall May auto sales almost certainly passing the magic 1 million mark, the big question is whether the gains from the domestic brands came at the expense of imports.

Position – Long Sirius XM Radio

GM has kicked off what will be a busy day of auto sales data. The automaker reported May sales of 222,822 units, up 17% from last year and 39,000 units more than last month.

This is positive news because GM represents between 19% and 24% of the market.

GM reported that a big contributor was fleet sales. This should increase GM’s share to above 21% for the month.

Given the numbers reported by GM, overall sales should surpass SiriusBuzzs’ magic number of 1 million. Look for SAAR to be 11.3 to 11.4 based on GM’s numbers.

A small caution should be placed on fleet sales. These will boost the American numbers, but will have little impact on imports. With GM attributing their gain in part to fleet sales, their boost had a tinge of artificial gain.

Position – Long Sirius XM Radio