SiriusXM Holdings Inc.

Greetings. Welcome to SiriusXM's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. If anyone today should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero from your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I'll now turn the conference over to Hooper Stephens, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Finance. Mr. Stephens, you may now begin your presentation.

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to SiriusXM's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Today, we will have prepared remarks from Jennifer Witts, our Chief Executive Officer, and Tom Berry, our Chief Financial Officer. Scott Greenstein, our President and Chief Content Officer, will join Jennifer and Tom to take your questions during the Q&A portion of the call. I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made during the call might be forward-looking statements as the term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These and all forward-looking statements are based upon management's current beliefs and expectations and necessarily depend upon assumptions, data, or methods that may be incorrect or imprecise. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For more information about those risks and uncertainties, please view SiriusXM's SEC filings and today's earnings release. We advise listeners to not rely unduly on forward-looking statements and disclaim any intent or obligation to update them. As we begin, I'd like to remind our listeners that today's call will include discussions about both actual results and adjusted results. All discussions of adjusted operating results exclude the effects of stock-based compensation. With that, I'll hand the call over to Jennifer.

Thank you, Hooper, and good morning, all. Thank you for joining us today. SiriusXM's financial position remains robust as we steadily enhance our business and establish a sustainable foundation for growth. We grew adjusted EBITDA 8% sequentially in the second quarter of 2024 and saw our margin improve by a point year-over-year. With these solid margins and declining capital expenditures, we anticipate converting more of this strong EBITDA into growing free cash flow in the coming years. In our subscription business, self-pay net additions saw sequential and year-over-year improvement, largely due to strong retention. and we still expect to see slightly better self-pay net ads this year compared to last. Our advertising business remains a key focus, and we see an opportunity for growth as the year progresses. Assuming all closing conditions are met, we expect to complete our transaction with Liberty Media after the market close on Monday, September 9th, and we are reiterating all of our full-year 2024 financial guidance. Our leading content portfolio and differentiated position in the audio industry remain core to our business. And we are leveraging these strengths by focusing on three strategic priorities. Enhancing our subscription business, driving advertising growth, and maintaining our financial success through continued optimization across every aspect of our business. We are confident these areas of focus will lead to improvements over the medium to long term. Let's delve into each of these key pillars, starting with our ongoing efforts to enhance our subscription business. To drive demand and retention, we are updating our subscription packages with options for every listener. Our new package structure will feature clear all-in pricing, tiered plans based on interest, a unified offer strategy, and simplified transaction experiences. While these adjustments may cause some short-term impact, we are confident they will be net positive to our customers and our business as we build greater trust, confidence, and interest in our brand and services. Additionally, we recently announced two new subscription bundles. Starting next week, a SiriusXM Podcast Plus subscription will be available on Apple Podcasts, offering super fans access to benefits such as new episodes ad-free, early releases, and exclusive content from select podcasts and shows, including SmartList. Many of these features will also be available within our core SiriusXM subscription as we look to further support podcast listening on-platform, which has increased since the launch of our Revamp app. We are also introducing a new way for automakers to present SiriusXM to their customers, which enables General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and more to include a three-year SiriusXM subscription with the purchase of select new vehicles. These packages highlight SiriusXM's unique position from our expansive podcast network to our strong relationships with automakers and dealers, showcasing the value of SiriusXM to a wide range of listeners. We continue to enhance the overall customer experience in-car and in-app, making it easier to discover and engage with our extensive content offering. We are launching new features and updates to our streaming app each month, and we are seeing positive momentum with overall user satisfaction on the rise and strong results from the initial rollout of our improved customer journeys. In-car, where we will have even more opportunity following the start of our broader migration to the new backend tech platform beginning in 2025, we are leveraging the flexibility of 360L, which shows improved conversion and retention rates in vehicle to launch new features and cars already on the road. This quarter, we introduced SiriusXM Free Access, our first ever free ad-supported version of SiriusXM, now available in select vehicles. Free Access allows us to engage potential customers who do not immediately convert post-trial with an offering of a limited number of music and talk channels with ads. Although small in scale at the outset, Free Access is expected to grow in future years, providing us an opportunity to increase trials, win back listeners, and explore the potential for a broader ad-supported tier of SiriusXM. Continuing on the topic of advertising, we saw growth in a variety of categories, including political and pharma, offsetting ongoing headwinds in other industries. Programmatic remains a strong growth channel for us, up 10% overall from the second quarter of 2023 and up nearly 60% in podcasting. With the adoption of industry identity solution Unified ID 2.0 with the trade desk this quarter, we are unlocking even more programmatic capabilities. This reflects the broader trend towards greater automation and data-driven advertising, where we have established a leading position. In podcasting, we continue to sign exclusive monetization agreements with major players, expanding our offerings. Recent deals with Dale Earnhardt Jr.' 's Dirty Mo announced this quarter and SmartList launching this month are garnering a great deal of excitement from the ad buying community. Our depth of content paired with our technology and expertise has attracted new spend into the space with a slew of brands spending over $1 million on our podcast offerings year to date. Regarding business optimization, we are focused on driving efficiencies to help us maintain our strong financial position long-term, which Tom will discuss in more detail. Moving forward, we see additional opportunities, especially in the strategic use of AI, which continues to deliver strong results in our early rollouts in customer support and self-serve audio advertising creative development. Across each of these initiatives, we are bolstering our business and doubling down on our strengths, which are rooted in our exclusive content offering. In May, we opened a state-of-the-art broadcast studio in Las Vegas, providing a premier venue for live broadcasts and exclusive shows. This quarter, we also launched a full-time Chris Stapleton channel, delivering more to our dedicated country fans and capitalizing on the massive growth within this genre. Additionally, we announced new channels, podcasts, and shows from Ted Danson with Woody Harrelson, Andy Richter, actress and activist Yara Shahidi, EDM artist Avicii, comedian Yamanika Saunders, Mediaite, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and more. This wide range of content and perspectives aims to both super serve our core audience and provide engaging programming for our target growth segments. Additionally, our 24-7 live programming offers a platform for subscribers to get up-to-the-minute news and analysis on a variety of topics in ways podcasts cannot match. Our political channels are seeing increased engagement following key moments such as the presidential debate from listeners who trust and lean into our coverage from both sides of the aisle. And there's much more to come, as later this month, we'll officially welcome SmartList into SiriusXM with an exclusive subscriber event featuring special guest Howard Stern. To conclude, I want to reiterate my confidence in our business, both today and long-term. From our industry-leading profitability, strong retention, and customer satisfaction rates to the vast potential ahead, our business remains uniquely positioned to capture demand and is on a path to future growth. We look forward to sharing more updates with you in the coming months. With that, I will pass it over to Tom to walk you through the financials.