AfterDawn: News

TiVo lost 145,000 subscribers

These are not easy days for TiVo Inc. The company is still struggling to add subscribers and has been hurt by miscalculations of its HDTV products' popularity in the quarter ending July 31st. It's cable partners are also still lacking in fulfilling their promises to the company. Comcast announced it would put TiVo on some of its set top boxes two years ago, but to this day there still has not been a single commercial rollout.

In a conference call, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers tried to calm concerns about those delays, saying that Comcast was ready to rollout commercially in the next four weeks in portions of Massachusetts and New Hampshire including Boston. However, the worst news for the company has been the loss of 145,000 customers in the quarter.



To make it worse, it is losing customers from those with the standalone box, its most profitable segment. It was the first decline the company suffered in its history. The company also underestimated the popularity of its new HDTV DVRs, causing it to take a $11.2 million writedown for leftover models of its standard DVR still in its inventories.

Rogers said that the growth "progressed at a pace that surprised many in the industry, including us." All the problems rolled up a $17.7 million loss, much worse than both TiVo's and financial analyst's predictions.

Source:
Betanews

Written by: James Delahunty @ 3 Sep 2007 18:05

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• 7 comments

• BludRayne

  I'll be canceling my service tonight, I hear it's a pain to cancel!

  4.9.2007 09:12 #1

• c1c

  I heard Tivo was tracking what people were watching. So you like to watch home and garden tv? You would get mail about landscaping etc.

  4.9.2007 11:36 #2

• sssharp

  When I had dish network, paying 5 bucks for the dvr was a ripoff to me. There fees of $7-20 a month is just plain obnoxious, along with the cost of purchasing a box. I still use my vcr and one day I may make the unused pc a good recorder.

  4.9.2007 15:53 #3

• ripxrush

  too little too late? I love my 2 tivos but the big issues i see are HDTV! I have a nice new LCD HDTV but an old TIVO that isn't really old! I got it right b4 my TV! (they both died independently) So i have an HD TV & standard old Tivo & did not want to spend $*)) on a new tivo that i had to pay a fee for + another $10 from my cable company for 2 cable cards that wont work correctly i hear!
  & the fact is i still just spend like 300 on the standard b4 that too! so i just think it is becoming easier for people to get a cable company box & just pay 1 fee not 1 for the box & 1 for the cards! (that don't work)

  4.9.2007 18:30 #4

• lilfree22

  wow thats crazy and an invation of privacy thats why i would rather just buy a basic dvr and call it a day plus dish is crap i would much rather stick to cable i dont know about you but i like watchin tv when it rains
  

  
  
  
  lilfree ey!!! if you got that on yo shout out box you coo with me if not then your not or i 4got lol
  

  5.9.2007 19:19 #5

• borhan9

  They may need to re evaluate their product and improve it for subscribers to stay with them.

  10.9.2007 15:16 #6

• Askar

  Until they make a hi def tivo that will allow component video or hdmi input instead of cable, I have no use for tivo at all. I just want a recorder that will record from whatever source I choose. Plus, why pay a monthly fee to record stuff. It should just work like a vcr.

  27.9.2007 07:58 #7