SiriusXM named Tubi chief Anjali Sud its next chief executive on Monday, betting that a streaming veteran can grow its digital advertising business while keeping satellite radio subscribers. Sud, 43, takes over on January 1, 2027, from Jennifer Witz, who will step down after nearly six years as CEO and stay on as an adviser through the end of 2027.
Sud, the daughter of Indian immigrants, has served on SiriusXM’s board since March 2025 and will keep her seat. Chairman Greg Maffei cited her experience leading businesses “supported by both advertising and subscription models” as CEO. “Premium audio experiences will be more important than ever to the future of entertainment,” Sud said in the announcement.
From Vimeo’s spin-off to Tubi’s ad business
Sud grew up in Flint, Michigan, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and earned an MBA at Harvard Business School. After working at Time Warner and Amazon, she joined Vimeo in 2014 and became chief executive in 2017. She shifted Vimeo towards selling video tools to creators and businesses and led it through its 2021 spin-off from IAC as a publicly traded company.
At Fox-owned Tubi, which she joined in September 2023, Sud ran a free streaming service funded by advertising. In August, Tubi said it had reached 110 million monthly active users, up 14% from a year earlier, and that quarterly revenue had risen 35%. Her move comes days after Fox completed its acquisition of Roku and brought Roku and Tubi into a new digital division.
An SEC filing put Sud’s annual base salary at $2.6 million, with a target bonus of twice that amount. Her contract runs through 2029 and calls for a $10 million sign-on stock award, subject to approval and vesting in stages.
The challenge of growing ads and keeping subscribers
SiriusXM’s results show the scale of the business Sud inherits. Third-quarter revenue slipped slightly from a year earlier to $2.15 billion, while net income rose 7% to $317 million. Its flagship service ended September with 32.85 million subscribers. It added 5,000 self-paying subscribers in the quarter, reversing a loss of 40,000 in the same period a year earlier.
The advertising business gives Sud a way to reach listeners beyond those subscriptions. Under Witz, SiriusXM struck a deal to become the exclusive US sales representative for YouTube’s audio advertising inventory. SiriusXM says its advertising platform reaches about 255 million distinct monthly listeners with YouTube Audio included, up from 170 million a year earlier.
The picture at Pandora was more mixed. Its ad-supported listening hours fell 10% in the quarter, even as advertising revenue across the Pandora and Off-Platform segment rose 1% to $419 million. SiriusXM credited podcasting, automated ad sales and technology fees with helping offset weaker music streaming advertising.
The company is widening distribution for its biggest names. Howard Stern’s move into video on HBO Max gives his show another outlet while SiriusXM retains the exclusive live broadcast. That arrangement illustrates the balance Sud inherits. SiriusXM can put more of its programming on other platforms while reserving live access that gives listeners a reason to subscribe.