TiVo Aiming to Double or Triple Penetration of DVR Service with Cable Subscribers
TiVo DVR service is installed for 25 percent of the 10 million U.S. cable subscribers with access to it, putting the DVR service on a path to double or triple penetration if current rollout trends continue, TiVo Chief Financial Officer Naveen Chopra said on an earnings call.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
TiVo has agreements or deployments with 10 of the top 20 U.S. cable operators and a major foothold in the U.K. via Liberty Global’s Virgin Media, which has 1.7 million TiVo DVR-equipped customers. The 10 million U.S. subscriber figure doesn’t include DirecTV customers getting the service or Charter Communications, which has an agreement but hasn’t deployed TiVo, Rogers said. Additional cable rollout could add another 2.5 million-5 million subscribers, Chopra said. TiVo didn’t say when it expects to double or triple penetration, and TiVo officials didn’t comment.
DirecTV also remains a large deployment for TiVo, but it’s a “secondary” offering to the satellite operator’s own DVR service, TiVo officials said. TiVo DVR software also is being deployed in Pace’s XG1 gateway, which is available through Comcast and other cable operators. TiVo had 3.6 million subscribers as of July 31, up from 2.7 million a year earlier, including 2.6 million through satellite and cable operators, an increase from 1.6 million, the company said.
With Virgin’s sale earlier to Liberty Global, which operates cable systems in Europe, including Unitymedia in Germany and UPC Cablecom, TiVo is having “regular and ongoing dialogue” with cable operators about expanding the DVR service in western Europe, Rogers said. TiVo also is having “conversations” with cable operators in Latin America, he said. There also continues to be “substantial additional upside” in attracting additional U.S. cable operators.
"There are a number of players in the Tier 2 world that we have not yet entered into [a] deal with,” Rogers said: “We think we very much [are] part of the lead consideration for them in making that decision” on which advanced technology to deploy.
Among the cable operators, Suddenlink has 135,000 TiVo subscribers and Ono in Spain 210,000, who have installed TiVo’s Premiere DVRs. Sweden’s Con Hem, which has 821,700 subscribers, has started test deployments of TiVo software across its IPTV service. In August, Con Hem selected 20 people to test the TiVo-based service for four weeks and blog about their experience, Con Hem said. Con Hem has 605,700 digital TV subscribers and will begin a more aggressive marketing push for the TiVo service in Q4, TiVo officials said.
"We believe the Con Hem launch marks a significant milestone for TiVo as it represents the company’s first integration with an IPTV provider and will further broaden the appeal of TiVo service to pay-TV operators around the world,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Edward Williams said.
To further expand its presence, TiVo is introducing its TiVo Everywhere this fall through Atlantic Broadband, RCN and Con Hem, company officials said. Con Hem will deliver linear and video-on-demand content via TiVo Everywhere on set-tops, Android-based tablets and smartphones and through a web browser, Rogers said.