Sirius XM Looking to Stream to iPhones?

After narrowly avoiding a bankruptcy filing, reports have Sirius XM satellite radio looking to boost its customer base by streaming to Apple's iPhone and iPod touch.

The newly-merged Sirius XM may have successfully put off needing to file for bankruptcy protection, but that doesn’t mean the satellite radio operator is out of trouble. Much of the company’s revenue depends on satellite radio installations in new vehicles, and the economic downturn means sales of new vehicles are down—way down. Just ask GM and Chrysler. So SiriusXM is looking to open new revenue streams for its programming—and is apparently planning to roll out a streaming subscription radio service for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.

The news came in a call with investors and analysts Thursday to discuss the company’s fourth quarter and end-of-fiscal-year results for 2008.

Sirius XM also indicated it plans to increase efforts to get satellite radio service to buyers of used cars that already have pre-installed satellite radios.

For the fourth quarter, SiriusXM reported a pro forma income of $32 million, compared to a loss of $224 million from the same quarter a year ago. The company says revenue for the fourth quarter was 16 percent higher than the last quarter of 2007, and claims to have over 19 million active satellite radio subscribers.