TiVo has become a generic verb for digital video recording, but that pop culture status hasn’t been much help to its business performance. The company reported lower than expected losses of 17 cents a share for the second quarter, which is good only by comparison to the 20 cent loss analysts had predicted.
The company also reported an increase of 10,000 new cable and satellite customers, although the number of subscribers who pay TiVo directly for service fell by 43,000 to 1.17 million.
It will gain some more customers thanks to an exclusive deal TiVo announced Wednesday with Grande Communications, a technologically impressive television and broadband service provider that has 140,000 customers in Texas. TiVo Premiere DVRs and TiVo’s multi-room solution will become the foundation of Grande’s advanced television. Grande has a hybrid fiber-optic network that can provide speeds of up to 110 Mbps up/5 Mbps down.
Revenue rose 19 percent to $61.2 million in the period ended July 31 from $51.6 million. Analysts had estimated $54.3 million on average. Additionally, its profits were driven by a settlement with Dish Network Corp. in which Dish and its former unit EchoStar Corp. agreed to pay TiVo $500 million as well as ongoing licensing fees. TiVo has two other patent infringement lawsuits pending against AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.
TiVo has begun manufacturing high-definition boxes for satellite provider DirecTV, which could accelerate TiVo’s customer acquisition rate by the end of the year, according to TiVo chief executive Tom Rogers.
During the quarter, TiVo reached a $500 million settlement of its seven-year-old patent infringement lawsuit with Dish Network Corp. and EchoStar Corp.
Related Links:
Bloomberg – http://tinyurl.com/4x29lla
Wall Street Journal – http://tinyurl.com/3ejexc5
