Goodwill (Details)  | 
3 Months Ended | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 
 Mar. 31, 2020  
USD ($)  
reporting_unit 
 | 
 Mar. 31, 2019  
USD ($) 
 | 
 Dec. 31, 2019  
USD ($) 
 | 
|
| Business Acquisition [Line Items] | |||
| Number of reporting units | reporting_unit | 2 | ||
| Goodwill | $ 3,843,000,000 | $ 3,843,000,000 | |
| Impairment losses for goodwill | 0 | $ 0 | |
| Accumulated impairment of goodwill since the merger | 4,766,000,000 | ||
| Sirius XM | |||
| Business Acquisition [Line Items] | |||
| Goodwill | 2,290,000,000 | 2,290,000,000 | |
| Pandora | |||
| Business Acquisition [Line Items] | |||
| Goodwill | $ 1,553,000,000 | $ 1,553,000,000 | |
| X | ||||||||||
- Definition Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table. No definition available. 
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| X | ||||||||||
- Definition Amount after accumulated impairment loss of an asset representing future economic benefits arising from other assets acquired in a business combination that are not individually identified and separately recognized. Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef 
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| X | ||||||||||
- Definition Amount of accumulated impairment loss for an asset representing future economic benefits arising from other assets acquired in a business combination that are not individually identified and separately recognized. Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef 
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| X | ||||||||||
- Definition Amount of loss from the write-down of an asset representing the future economic benefits arising from other assets acquired in a business combination that are not individually identified and separately recognized. Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef 
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| X | ||||||||||
- Definition Number of reporting units tested for impairment of goodwill. A reporting unit is an operating segment or one level below an operating segment. No definition available. 
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| X | ||||||||||
- Details 
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- Details 
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