TiVo expanded its profit on flat revenue in its first quarter of 2008.
The improving financial trends led TiVo CEO Tom Rogers to predict TiVo’s “first profitable year on an Adjusted EBITDA basis in fiscal 2009.”
TiVo’s prospects also look a bit brighter given a court decision in a patent infringement case against EchoStar that validated the applicability of the company’s intellectual property.
During the quarter, Comcast began to make TiVo’s service available in its New England region. Cox is currently testing the service in market trials; TiVo said Cox is on track for a launch in its New England market later this year.
The company said it had lower-than-expected operating expenses, primarily due to less marketing and research and development spending.
“In addition, we are making progress on our previously announced deal with the National Cable and Television Association to ensure TiVo consumers continue to seamlessly receive programming on systems utilizing switched digital video technology,” Rogers said.
“We have worked very closely with Time Warner, Cox, Comcast, CableLabs and the NCTA on this process, and recently Cisco and Motorola displayed switched digital tuning adapters at the NCTA Cable Show,” Rogers continued. “These adapters, which are currently undergoing verification testing with CableLabs, are near completion and will soon be available in the small number of areas, where limited numbers of lightly watched program channels are provided now on a switched digital basis.”
TiVo-owned subscription gross additions for the first quarter were approximately 48,000, compared with 57,000 gross additions for the year-ago period. This is the lowest year-over-year quarterly decline since the third quarter of fiscal 2007.
Overall, TiVo-owned subscriptions ended the quarter at 1.7 million. As expected, TiVo reported a net decline in MSOs/Broadcaster subscriptions during the period, as DirecTV is no longer deploying new TiVo boxes and other mass distribution deals are still in early phases of deployment, the company said.
More Broadband Direct:
• TiVo on track for a (EBITDA) profit in ’09
• Akamai data shows Internet attack traffic is persistent
• comScore acquires M:Metrics for $44M
• AP: Blockbuster to allow movie downloads via STBs, IPTV
• Access Media 3 acquires inVision Networks’ operating assets
