TiVo makes subscriber gains, tips more Netflix deployments

Tom Rogers, TiVo CEO

TiVo reported its strongest ever quarter of cable subscription additions in Q3 and predicted more operator-Netflix deals following implementations for Virgin Media in the UK and Com Hem in Sweden.

For the three months ending October 31, TiVo said it had a strong quarter with almost 300,000 MSO additions and total subscription numbers increasing by 32% year-on-year to approximately 3.9 million.

TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers hailed the figures as the firm’s “strongest cable distribution results to date as well as best subscription growth in several years.

“In fact [it was] the best quarter for TiVo subscription growth since TiVo began mass distribution of its technology and services in the cable DVR market,” he said.

Among the highlights of the quarter, TiVo said that Virgin Media’s Netflix deployment marked the first time that an over-the-top offering has been accessible by subscribers through a pay-TV platform, with Rogers commenting that “the market really took note of the potential growth opportunity that broadband TV presents through cable.”

Speaking on the firm’s earnings call, Rogers said: “Our view has been that the merger of linear television and streaming over-the-top TV is where the future of television is, and Netflix has clearly risen to the level of a must-have on the over-the-top side.”

“I think in the US, operators have had a mixed view of Netflix over the last few years. But increasingly, we’re hearing operators wanting to include Netflix in their distribution. And to the extent those restrictions get worked out, we’ll be in a position to help our partners implement on that front.”

This comes in spite of the fact that Netflix has traditionally had studio restrictions in its library agreements that have “prevented it from being distributed through boxes owned by MSOs in the United States.”

Overall in the quarter, Netflix reported net revenues of US$117 million (€86 million), up from US$82 million for the same quarter last year. This included record service and technology revenues of US$81.7 million – up 34% year-on-year.

Net income was US$12.5 million. This was above its guidance, but down compared to TiVo’s net income of US$59.0 million for the same quarter last year, when the firm received one-time litigation proceeds of US$78.4 million relating to an intellectual property settlement with Verizon.