TiVo loses subscribers but adds small profit

TiVo's midyear report card is in, and the numbers are better than most analysts expected.

The results aren't fabulous, but anything's better than the $17.7 million loss a year ago. In the second quarter of this year, the maker of digital video recorders earned revenues of $65.2 million, eking out a profit of $2.9 million, good for 3 cents per share for investors. Analysts had been anticipating revenues between $54 million and 59.3 million, a loss of 2 cents per share.

TiVo recorded lower services revenues this quarter than a year ago, but it did make more money on hardware, to bring up its revenue 4 percent to $65.2 million. The company continued to lose subscribers this quarter, as a result of DirecTV's earlier decision to stop offering TiVo and sell its own DVR system instead.

Other distribution deals, including the partnership with Comcast, are still in the early stages, according to TiVo. The company added just 36,000 new customers in the second quarter, while losing 78,000 subscribers, bringing the current total to 3.6 million.

TiVo stock was down 37 cents to $7.59 in after-hours trading.

[Herbal Ed]

Unfortunately, after many years as a happy TIVO customer, I am being forced to drop TIVO in order to go HD on DirecTV. I live in a rural area where I have little and poor OTA TV reception and no cable. My only choice is satellite TV and if I want to view HD I will have no choice but to convert to a DirecTV DVR. However, I keep reading horror stories about the inefficiency of these DVRs and yet in 10 years with the same TIVO unit the only problem I've ever had is two freeze-ups which were easily remedied with a restart.

[azwriter]

I am in the same position. Cable is not an option due to my location. Dish Network's offering pales in comparison to what TiVo can do. I love the looks of HD but have no ability to use it with Dish. I keep hoping that their negotiations will yield a solution for me.

[cyadmark]

I once feared the DirecTV current receiver as well, but my fears turned out to be misguided. It's different, but really fine once you get used to the different flow. The software is continually improved from the earlier revisions.

[IndyJeff]

How many more years will the TiVO-Comcast be in the "early stages"?

[kaleiamcmillan]

TiVo now knows what its comparative advantage is and they should produce products that they specialize in. In addition, this company's CFO is on top of things by talking shop with Comcast trade possibilities are very likely. If the talks yeild trade than TiVa will move out beyond their productive possibilities and their profits should sky rocket. In conclusion, I would for sure invest in this company if I was not penniless.

[Migraine]

I own a Tivo with life time subscription but its just a SD tivo I use HD now and there HD model cost way to much.. my old SD Tivo is still working But I had to switch to my cable providers HD DVR even though TIVO is better.. TIVO How about you make a Deal with Knology? being a smaller company they might be quicker to strike a deal with you, then after they do comcast might listen.....might?

[ddanckaert]

I have two SD Tivos with Lifetime that I've given away. I replaced them with Tivo HDs (each with a Multistream Cable Card). I also upgraded the hard drives to 750GB each through Weaknees ( http://www.weaknees.com ) which is a great company for this. I added new lifetime service to both of my Tivo HDs and I run them on wired Ethernet with backup power--smooth as silk.

Although Comcast will ultimately offer Tivos, I'd much rather roll my own--so to speak.