Audio Video News

TiVo may be this year's hot ticket.

On August 21, the San Jose, CA–based maker of digital video recorders (DVRs, also called "personal video recorders," or PVRs), reported that it had added a record 90,000 subscribers in the second quarter. That's twice the number of subscriptions added in the same quarter of last year.

The growth far outpaced TiVo's expectations for the year to date, and is the basis for revised projections for the remainder of 2003—by year's end, the company expects to have as many as one million subscribers. 56,000 new subscriptions came in through DirecTV, which now offers a satellite receiver with TiVo capability. That growth was 2.5 times the level for the same period last year. An additional 34,000 signed up to use the service with a cable feed.

One inevitable result is that TiVo's numbers are looking up: Net revenues for the second quarter reached $26.7 million, including $17.4 million in service and technology revenue, and $8.1 million in hardware sales. Gross profit for the quarter was $11.2 million; with a net loss of $4.4 million, a few cents per share. The long-struggling technology company could reach breakeven and possibly go into the black early next year, some analysts believe.

"TiVo's momentum is accelerating," said CEO Mike Ramsay. "Compared to last year, we just doubled subscriber growth in the first half, we'll triple in the second half, and we expect to roll past 1 million subs during the holiday season . . . . Retailers are excited about current TiVo products, as well as the upcoming integrated DVD models from Toshiba and Pioneer." There are now ten TiVo (or TiVo-based) devices on the market. A combo DVD player/TiVo DVR from Toshiba should arrive at retailers in September.