Sirius Cuts Year-End Subscriber Forecast: Auto Units To Blame?

Sirius lowered expectations on the number of folks out there it plans on having as subscribers at the end of the year — from an initial estimate of 6.3 million subscribers to somewhere between 5.9 and 6.1 million. Simultaneously, the big Stern-friendly satellite radio company's released new and cheaper models of it's portable satellite units in an effort to expand sales in the iPod market. So far, reports are the new units, including the new Stiletto 10, are receiving some fairly decent sales action from the lovers of music and talk radio beamed in from space. Despite its recent release, the $249.99 portable player with the ability to store up to ten hours of Sirius programming's already sold out on the Sirius web site. So then where's the lack of love coming from that caused a drop in Sirius shares of around 7.3% today? Well, one can only guess... means they're not selling as many of the car-based units in the retail environment, because with deals of one-year-free subscriptions, it's more than likely not deals from the OEM's that are to blame. So, I'd expect there to be some serious deals on Sirius (yeah, that joke was obligatory) for-the-car retail units, right? Sure enough, they've gone and cut the prices on the in-car hook-ups on a S50 radio with a rebate on the price of $100. So you know, get 'em while they're hot cheap.

Sirius cuts year-end subscriber forecast [Marketwatch]

Ad Watch: Chrysler, Dodge And Jeep Look To Stem Sales Losses With Crappy Satellite Radio Deal [internal]