TiVo is banking on the pay-TV renewal business and “significant incremental opportunity” with over-the-top video providers to drive growth, said CEO Tom Carson on the company’s Q1 earnings call, citing increasing video consumption and distribution channel growth. TiVo’s core pay-TV business is “healthy” due to long-term licensing and product deals with most operators, positioning the company to work with new entrants launching similar services, Carson said. Some 23 million households worldwide use TiVo's platform solutions including the graphical user interface, personalization, natural language voice recognition, network DVR and unified content discovery across pay TV and OTT, said Chief Operating Officer Pete Thompson. TiVo metadata is used in 70 countries globally, serving more than 500 customers, including TiVo guide customers, Thompson said. In search and recommendations, TiVo is deployed with six of the top eight U.S. pay-TV operators, reaching more than 30 million households, he said. Q1 revenue was $206 million vs. $118 million in the year-ago quarter, benefiting from the acquisition of TiVo Solutions Inc. in Q3, the company reported after regular U.S. markets closed Wednesday. Net loss was $35 million vs. an $18 million net loss. Shares closed down Thursday 7.5 percent to $17.95.

Comcast continues to look into offering its Xfinity Mobile service outside its footprint, but the mobile service won't go beyond the footprint anytime soon, CEO Brian Roberts said. The company hasn't found a business model that works beyond the footprint, since its competitive advantage is in bundling mobile with other services, he told analysts during an earnings call Thursday. The company didn't take questions about spectrum or the broadcast incentive auction, in which it spent $1.7 billion for 73 licenses (see 1704130056). In a note to investors, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said despite speculation Comcast's relatively slim spectrum buy was a sign it plans to buy a wireless operator, it very likely points to Comcast knowing it needs to get heavily into mobile wireless but not seeing an attractive takeover target in the near future. He also said a Comcast-Charter Communications deal is unlikely given the antitrust hurdles it would face and the risk it raises of prompting further regulation of the broadband marketplace. Asked during the call about the competitive threat of 5G, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said, "It's early," especially given the time it will take 5G to scale, so it doesn't yet pose a significant threat. He also said Comcast is doing fixed and mobile 5G testing. Pointing to NBC being the top-rated prime-time network by a wider margin than it has enjoyed in more than a decade, plus next year's Super Bowl and Winter Olympics, NBCUniversal CEO Stephen Burke said he expects that to translate into notable leverage going into the ad sales upfronts. He said the company already is in discussions with big ad-buying groups. Roberts also said May will bring the launch of Comcast's cloud-based home networking Wi-Fi gateway, xFi.

Logitech continued its rebound in Q4 and for FY 2017 ended March 31, with retail sales growth for the fourth straight year on revenue of $2.2 billion, said the company’s earnings report Wednesday. Quarterly retail sales grew 15 percent year on year to $496 million, led by keyboards and combos ($118 million, up 12 percent), pointing devices ($116 million, up 4 percent), gaming ($69 million, up 23 percent) and audio-PC/wearables ($59 million, up 27 percent), said the company. Video collaboration had the biggest gain in Q4 year on year (70 percent to $37 million), followed by mobile speakers, sales of which grew 61 percent to $38 million, and home control, up 45 percent to $15.2 million, Logitech said. The company had Q4 sales declines in tablets and other accessories (45 percent to $17 million) and in the “other” category (82 percent to $108,000) for products transitioning out that are no longer strategic to the business, it said. Net income was $191 million for FY 2017 vs. $119 million the prior year, Logitech said, and operating income grew 53 percent to $197 million, a nine-year high. Logitech shares closed 3.2 percent higher Wednesday at $32.80.

The “expected improvement” in all Sony business sectors except for components prompted the company to upgrade its profit forecasts for the year ending March 31 from the forecasts it released Feb. 2, Sony said in a Friday announcement. Sony now expects its operating profit will be 19 percent higher than it forecast in February, and pretax income and net profit will be 28 percent and 181 percent higher, respectively, it said. Sony’s revenue target is unchanged from the February forecast, it said.

Days after scrapping its $2 billion deal to buy Vizio (see 1704100045), LeEco launched an initiative to expand its “already large foothold” in Chinese-speaking U.S. homes “by providing tailor-made products and content for this community,” the company said in a Friday announcement. LeEco has an enormous base of Chinese-language content in its arsenal, including 100,000 hours of videos and 500 episodes of original TV shows, it said. LeEco “customized” its LeEco Box U4 for the U.S. market to give users “a fast-loading, smooth” HD content service, it said. The company also launched a specialized e-commerce store that lets Chinese consumers buy LeEco products in their “native language,” it said.

Fitbit shareholders will vote on a stock exchange program May 25 to address employee stock option grants with exercise prices higher than the stock's share price, said a Friday SEC filing. It included a Thursday letter from CEO James Park to employees saying the company has been "exploring ways to address employee stock option grants that are ‘underwater,’ meaning the exercise price is currently higher than our share price. We recognize stock option grants are important incentives and we want to ensure you have the opportunity to realize these benefits in the way they were intended.” The voluntary stock option exchange program would allow eligible employees to exchange, at a two-for-one ratio, underwater stock options for restricted stock units, Park said. Fitbit shares closed down 2 percent Thursday before the Good Friday holiday at $5.37, down about 2/3 from 52 weeks ago.

Days after disclosing the dissolution of its $2 billion agreement to buy Vizio (see 1704100045), LeEco announced Thursday it signed new retail partnerships with HSN and Walmart.com. HSN.com will carry all three models of LeEco’s Super4 TVs, plus both its Le Pro3 and Le S3 smartphones, said the supplier. Several of the products will be featured Saturday on HSN’s Electronics Connection segment, it said. Walmart.com also will carry the Le Pro3 and Le S3 smartphones, LeEco said. But Walmart’s online store won’t sell LeEco TVs, nor will Walmart’s brick-and-mortar stores carry any LeEco products.

A new parental control feature from Amazon is designed to help parents manage the amount of time kids spend on their devices and ensure that the content they’re viewing is age-appropriate. The Parent Dashboard in Amazon’s FreeTime web browser offers access to 40,000 YouTube videos and websites that have been curated by an Amazon team, said a company announcement. In the dashboard, parents get a daily activity report of their children’s device usage while in their Amazon FreeTime profile, including videos watched, books read, apps or games played, and websites visited, along with how many minutes were spent on a particular title, it said.

LeEco spotlighted its quartet of 2017 LED-backlit LCD TVs at Pepcom in New York Thursday, but David Naranjo, senior director-product management, was mum about the status of the company’s buy of Vizio and how the two brands would coexist if and when the sale goes through. When LeEco in July announced plans to buy Vizio for $2 billion (see 1607260066), the companies expected the deal to close within six months. In February, LeEco spokesman Greg Belloni told us the deal review was still in the works but he didn’t have a completion date (see 1702070056). On Friday, Belloni emailed us there was no news to report on the deal. LeEco did raise $2.2 billion in capital late last month and planned to use part of that to buy film production company Le Young Pictures, according to published reports. On the TV side, LeEco’s topline uMax85 TV has jumped back up to its minimum advertised price of $5,499 after launching with an instant rebate that started it out of the gate at $3,999. The $4,000 price tag was a combination “promotional price + flash sale instant rebate” at launch, Belloni said. The 85-incher is LeEco’s sole Dolby Vision TV, Naranjo said, and offers HDR10 as well. LeEco's 43-inch ($549), 55-inch ($799) and 65-inch ($1,199) TVs have HDR10, Naranjo said. He couldn’t comment on the company’s plans for OLED. LeEco also showed its unlocked S3 ($199) and Pro3 ($349) Android smartphones at Pepcom.

The Asuspro B9440 14-inch notebook PC is available at $999, said the company in a Wednesday announcement. Features include Windows 10 Pro, an Intel Core i5 processor, Harman Kardon sound, USB 3.1 and Type-C ports and an SD card reader.